Thread: Working with scraps. Should I attempt a razor?

A couple weeks ago my brother and I found some old lawn mower blades and made camping 'tools'. I made mine into some perversion of a seax, and was very pleased after cutting a small tree into firewood. So we went to a local scrap yard and found 4 more lawn mower blades at 0.35$ ea.

If anyone is interested, here is a link to the hideous thing.
Rags428 on deviantART

Now I'm working on a machete for my dad. A reasonable fathers day present I imagine.

However, I've had the image of a Japanese style straight razor in my head for weeks. I'm curious to see if I can make one with what I have, and what kind of things I should watch out for.

At the moment, I've got a few files, sand paper anywhere from 320 to a ridiculous micro-mesh, grinding wheel, and lot of patience.

Is this do-able? I plan on trying anyway, but I'd like to know what the experts think. Brutal honesty recommended.

Sincerely curious,
-Durante

The difficult part about hand making a razor instead of a knife is finding a way to precisely grind the hollows. If you have a belt grinder that runs slow and has good contact wheels, I'd say go for it. Another interesting idea would be to make a Japanese sen to slowly carve the hollows. The sen would be extremely tedious and difficult, but it might be satisfying.

I highly suggest that you buy some good steel. Steel is cheap, and it would be horrible to put 100 hours into a razor only to find out that it doesn't shave. Lawnmower blades are made from a soft, low alloy steel, so they won't break on rocks. As long as you don't plan on shaving rocks, something harder would be a good idea. An alloy like O1 should only cost a few dollars per blade. I'm sure there are makers here (myself included) who would be willing to help you out with heat treating, too.

Thank you! I really appreciate it.

I think I'll just focus on knives for a while until I can pick up a belt grinder. I might give it a try with what I've got, but I know I wont be producing anything amazing until I can afford the proper tools.

You can accomplish a lot with just a couple files and some sandpaper (assuming someone does the heat treating for you). There are some technical limitations, but no quality limitations when working with hand tools. It was said that there were no poor jade carvings in ancient China. This was because, without power tools, the artist would have to spend years, sometimes his entire life, on a single carving. With that kind of time invested, you could be sure that the carving was finished perfectly.

You will have a similar advantage by making knives with hand tools. The initial time investment is so high that finishing the blade is relatively quick and pleasant. The only significant limitations are the difficulties of making hollows and working with the steel in a hardened state. You can accommodate those limitations by sticking to flat grinds and picking an alloy that can be nearly finished before heat treating.

Here is a photo of my first knife. It is made from CPM154, blackwood, cocobolo, and sterling silver, with brass pins. The only power tool I used was a drill press, (I can't use a hand drill to save my life). I think it turned out well for a first attempt.



I noticed you live in PA. I'm out that way from time to time visiting family. You have some nice mountains out there. Also, if you haven't done so before, check out Edensaw woods in PT; you can find some good handle material.

Good luck with your endeavor, and don't forget to ask lots of questions.

Phillip

This is mostly speculation, but ---- I picked up a piece of end roll lawnmower steel at a bladesmith hammer in some time back, and if I remember correctly (which is a major problem at my age!) it was one of the 10xx steels - 1042????? My guess is that the mower manufacturers use tool steel, but do not harden it. Try a file test on the blades you have, and then do a crude hardness test on a small piece - heat to non-magnetic with a propane torch, and quench in oil - test harness with a file - if it "skates" (won't bite into), you have a tool steel. You still won't have the tools to make a razor, but you will know you have steel you can make a decent knife out of. You can temper your hardened steel in your oven at around 400 for 1/2 hour or so.