Thread: Straight razor - starter project

I am certainly not experienced with every alloy out there. Here are my thoughts based on personal experience.

I love using CPM154 stainless steel largely because it's pleasant to work with. You can make the edge quite thin before HT (.010") without fear of warping if you have a skilled heat treater. There's also an alternative tempering range that leaves a bright finish on the blade. This means you can sand the blade to 600-grit before hardening and have very little finish work to do when it gets back.

The easiest to hone steel I've ever used is 52100. It just gets unbelievably sharp off of the Nakayama, quickly and easily. It's easy to grind, too. The downside is that the edge must be left thick before HT (.025"+) and it comes out of ovens covered in scale that must be ground/sanded off. I also have a hard time getting stock in the sizes I want.

Whatever you choose, the work will be difficult after heat treatment. You'll have to put the files away and sand the hollows by hand. For that reason, I waited until I had a grinder before attempting a razor (I made about a dozen knives with hand tools). Now that I'm more experienced, I've been going back to hand tools out of curiosity. For me, the easiest razor to make by hand is a simple kamisori. The ura side can be completely finished before heat treatment, so you only have to hollow the omote when the blade is hard.

Hope this helps.

Phillip

Maybe I misunderstood. If you hollow a blade, does that happen before or after h/t?

You can partially hollow the blade, but you should contact your heat treater to see about how thin you can grind it down to. Listen to them, they know what they are doing by experience...books don't come close to experience. I ground one thinner than he recommended and guess what...ended up with a potato chip blade, like wavy lay's. It was a 8/8 that I did, but was able to salvage it to a 6/8 @ the toe and 5/8 at the heal. I was using 1095 & will continue to use it for razors.

Shooter, you knew I was going to ask......why 1095?

I'm no metallurgist, but "it seems just about right" when it comes to high carbon steel. You can get it quite hard & back it down with the tempering. Real easy to work with before HT. Hard stuff after. I'm no expert or pro...I just listened to them & this is what was recommended to me. Why try and fix a good thing & something that turns out excellent razors?

There you go then. I guess the only real way is to just start trying and see what comes out. Still have to figure out how to hollow by hand though....

Originally Posted by medicevans

There you go then. I guess the only real way is to just start trying and see what comes out. Still have to figure out how to hollow by hand though....

Check out my post on a tool called a sen. I was just messing around, but it certainly carved a hollow by hand. With some refinement, it would be all you need.

Sen Zen was the name of that post. Interesting idea. I have an old file that is pretty much junk. Think I could use the grinder wheel on a dremel or the sanding drum on my drill press to grind the file down? Worth a shot I guess. I'm not wanting to make a full hollow razor, just something a little bit less than a full wedge.

Here's what I used, it's a wet grinder, so you can finish the hollow once the heat treat is done. Runs about $50 @ Sears. May be slow, but it works...I did my first 4-5 razors with this one:

Shooter, could you use that grinder to start the hollow before ht and then finish it after ht?