Well after a lot of talk here and discussion with my knifemaker buddy (and waiting on him to build his new grinder) We have finally begun.
The idea is to make a razor based off of possible (can not confirm any documentation on them) historical examples and images from period wood cuts. Apparently sometime between 1500 AD and 1800 the style of razors changed drastically. Earlier folding razors were half open at 180 degrees instead of the 270 that we use today and can easily trace back to Victorian times. Now admittedly my research has been into early to mid 1500s and not really much past that so I can't be sure when the swap took place or why, but that isn't the focus right now. Some of you might recall some of the images I compiled in this thread
Three of the images first shown are very similar so that is the shpe my buddy Rob and I are going with at first.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/attac...68ba6f885b.jpg
http://straightrazorpalace.com/attac...326a01c122.jpg
http://straightrazorpalace.com/attac...f3c877769d.jpg
So with that in mind we got started with some 1095 steel he had sitting around. First I worked out some basic designs.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_5...204_160122.jpg
Now these have little tang due to begin used fully open. The idea is to put either a pin ot to close the back of the spine so that the small tang can catch on that and hold itself open against the motion of travel used.
I spent the next hour or so cutting the rough shapes out with the bandsaw
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_5...204_170631.jpg
Now here I must apologize as my phone died on day 2 before I could get shots of the work done. I think it was due to him being out in the boonies and the phone constantly searching for a solid 3G connection. I will update the post with the fully shaped images of them in their current state as soon as I get back up to grind out the partial hollow in them. Instead I will treat you with a pic of the grinder we are working on and a link to the album I will be posting up future images to https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_5...204_170641.jpg Grinder has the flat, glass platen in place for angles before the hollowing work