Thread: Anyone forging straight razor?

I just read a short treatise on passivating stainless steels and now my head hurts as if it were that between the hammer and anvil.

Well, I do have smaller-than-industrial-tooling... I have just about every tool needed for shaping sheet metal, welding, etc. Though I don't have a red and green wrench on hand, I do I have access to one. Besides hammers, an anvil, and a heating device, what would I need as far as tools? I'm anxious to know what to tell my wife I'm about to buy next My neighbors have been tolerant of my sheet metal hammering thus far, I think I should be able to form something... hopefully!

Tongs to hold the hot steel. Then patience and a strong hammer arm. It is stiff even at the right color you think you should be at for heat. It won't take much heat beyond the correct forging range or it will come apart when you forge it. Chromium will cause rapid grain growth when overheated. It won't forge very well below an orange color where you could still get a lot of work done on a carbon steel.

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Tongs to hold the hot steel. Then patience and a strong hammer arm. It is stiff even at the right color you think you should be at for heat. It won't take much heat beyond the correct forging range or it will come apart when you forge it. Chromium will cause rapid grain growth when overheated. It won't forge very well below an orange color where you could still get a lot of work done on a carbon steel.

What do you use to heat the steel? I saw ovens you put steel into, but I'm not sure I have room. Would an Oxy-Acetelene torch do the trick, or do I need more? Do I need an anvil, or would a 5/16 plate steel surface do the trick?
I appreciate all the info... this is something I've wanted to get into for a while now... I just always thought there was more to it. I think it is great that people can do this in there garage or small shop area!

To heat the steel you have 3 choices

1. coal/charcoal forge ( make your own)
2. propane forge ( make your own)
3. Electric kiln, $800+

You need to anneal the steel to drill/file/grind it and then heat treat and temper. A torch can be used but you better know what your doing.
Forget the torch idea if your serious.

To grind the steel a lot of us use a 2 x 72 belt grinder. Look up Bader grinder, KMG grinder, No weld grinder.

Hope this helps,

Originally Posted by Tbucket

What do you use to heat the steel? I saw ovens you put steel into, but I'm not sure I have room. Would an Oxy-Acetelene torch do the trick, or do I need more? Do I need an anvil, or would a 5/16 plate steel surface do the trick?
I appreciate all the info... this is something I've wanted to get into for a while now... I just always thought there was more to it. I think it is great that people can do this in there garage or small shop area!

What Randy said. And, there is more to it. A lot more. And, it depends. You'll like hear this again.

Charcoal is one of the simplest fuels and has been around the longest. It's also a renewable fuel where the rest require an industry to support. But coal and charcoal can get hot enough to burn steel (as well as help make steel) so you have to learn how to run the fire properly.

An LP fire is more controllable (although a solid fuel fire is too, they both depend on experience), cleaner and leaves a space for you to see the steel warming up. But you can overcome this by burying a pipe in the solid fuel fire.

Compared to LP, acetylene is expensive fuel and requires considerable fiddling as a forging source. Start the torch, shut it off (wasting $$$), beat around a little before it cools down too much (which happens just as soon as you remove it from the heat) and repeat. A small LP forge can run for days off a barbecue 20 lb bottle and only requires ambient air to run, not oxygen, or an account with a welding gas shop. But, you could set up a small firebrick forge and the acetylene will work as a heat source.

If all I had was 5/16 plate, it would work, but bigger stouter heavier will be better. If you bench mount it, you will likely beat the bench to pieces, eventually. But it could work in the meantime. At least until you decide how bad this addiction to steel is going to get...

A simple metal hammer is all that is needed, but even a cheap cast machinist's hammer is better than a carpenter's claw hammer, and you get a peen to do something to the steel a claw hammer cannot. A short chunk of old railroad rail makes a fine (better than plate anyway) anvil if that's all you had.

I've made numerous simple anvils for cutlery out of blocks of square scrap steel. I really nice size is 4 inches by 4 inches square surface and enough length to bury in a wooden base to bring things up to a decent height to work on. Some old landscape timbers rabbeted to hold the steel, some equalizing white wood glue and eight landscaping screws to pull it all into a tight relationship and you're off and running with a dedicated anvil for way less money per pound than what you'd pay for an antique anvil from a vendor who knows what a collector will pay in the end. You're not going to need a horn for making razors, so why pay for that hanging around to catch your jewels on (), but the round surface will help with making tangs. You could still do that with tooling/dies made from more scrap though.

There have been millions of blades made worldwide and throughout time, without all the most ideal shop equipment, and long before all the ideal processes were developed, that any group of smiths or makers could name. All the fancy modern stuff is not needed to make a decent blade. Start simple and get good at making with simple equipment and you'll be much better off in the end.

See, it depends...

I've hinted at the addictive potential. Blacksmithing is a dangerous avocation. You're going to get burned in more ways than I remember. Buying all the tools in the world and making the finest razors on the planet will not survive some kinds of getting hurt. No to mention the look you'll get from your wife and her mother. Oh, yeah, about SWMBO, Do Not raid the milk/rent money for this. All sorts of problems follow that.

Well if holding up the computer from my wife and daughter for 3.5 hours looking at knife/razor making sites last night is any indication of the things to come... I know for a fact I'm going to have more questions no matter what, but this right hear was a very useful primer, thanks. I'm going to look and see how to make a small brick forge running on LP, figure on where to get the carbon steel, and most importantly see how other people do this. This looks like a lot of fun can't wait to get started... now, just how am I gonna convince my wife that a firebrick forge would make a better backyard decoration than her Blueberry bush???

Originally Posted by Tbucket

...now, just how am I gonna convince my wife that a firebrick forge would make a better backyard decoration than her Blueberry bush???

Buy more firebrick than you need for a forge. Build her a wood-fired pizza/baking oven in the back yard. Use the leftover firebrick to build a forge. I mean, you can't just throw away expensive bricks! She'll need a new knife for cutting up stuff she's baking. Along the way, you'll have to experiment with other blade shapes...

There are aspects of thermal cycling I don't fully understand and steel choice when forging. I think you can ruin some steels if they get them to hot????
For my stage of development stock removal would on the face of it seem to aleviate many of these considerations, decarb can also be a pain so extra material needs to be left on to get past this soft skin.
Even stock removal you have to watch excess heat, especially for air hardening steels. Chime in you pro's if I'm not exactly right on some aspects

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Buy more firebrick than you need for a forge. Build her a wood-fired pizza/baking oven in the back yard. Use the leftover firebrick to build a forge. I mean, you can't just throw away expensive bricks! She'll need a new knife for cutting up stuff she's baking. Along the way, you'll have to experiment with other blade shapes...

That's a pretty good idea... I definitely think that would work a lot better if there was something in it for her too!