Thread: Brian's First Blade

I think this is the pattern I'm going with! It speaks to me. Unfortunately, it is also not going to work with my piece of steel I have. I need a piece 1 1/2" wide to accommodate the curves rather than the 1 1/4" piece I have now. I wonder if I could minimize it a little bit on the copier and make it 1 1/4" wide? Then I would only have to thickness the blade as I worked on it, rather than order another blank. Hmmmmm..........

Oh also, Charlie Lewis, this blade was inspired by your designs. I've been looking at them all day! I'd love to be able to do that some day. If I could get a hamon like yours on this razor, it'd just be the icing on the cake!

Originally Posted by medicevans

Oh also, Charlie Lewis, this blade was inspired by your designs. I've been looking at them all day! I'd love to be able to do that some day. If I could get a hamon like yours on this razor, it'd just be the icing on the cake!

I wish I could take credit for that shape, but I can not. That is a shape is screams Sheffield to me. That is a good looking design.

Save the hamon for later, for now turn that O1 into fine grained whisker wacker it is a great steel.

Charlie

Love the hunchback tang, blade a little too curved for my tastes, but beautiful nonetheless!
How are you thinking of grinding it? Would make an aggressive wedge!

It will be a wedge grind. I am doing everything with files because I'm poor and clumsy. I think I'm going to try using the sen Phillip/pdobson sent me to hollow it ever so slightly. It's a totally different tool than I'm used to, but hell, the whole thing is new! haha.

Ok, finally got the dang picture to email to myself so I can post the patterns.

I figured out that I can't put a 1 3/4" pattern on a 1 1/4" piece of steel. I tried to minimize it on the copier, but that just looked dumb. Time to redraw!

Here's what I drew out. The stubtailed club was my major inspiration for this pattern. Love the Shepard and Goughs, of course the old John Barbers, Packwoods, Clark & Halls, Warranteds and so on. I think the pattern stays true to the pre-1835 range. I'd take suggestions though.

I am going to have to wait until I order another piece of steel to make the top razor. The width of the bottom blade is not correct. The heel is 8/8 and the tip is about a 17/16.

What ya'll think?

Looks great... think you could knock out two

Of which pattern? If you are willing to wait for a bit, I sure could knock out two! I'm getting ready to switch jobs, theoretically giving me more home time, which if you are married you know does not directly translate into more time to work on my own projects! haha. I will pm you so we don't get into trouble.

Well.......I started looking at a couple custom makers (Charlie and Brian) and at the stubtail thread last night. Then, this morning I looked at my razor sketch. A 3 3/16edge on a 6" razor not only looks stupid, but throws the razor's balance off as well. I would have to make super heavy scales to even make it shavable. Sooooo.......I made a copy of the pattern, cut the tip out, then started sliding it up and down the blade length until it looked right. Surprise, suprise, the cutting edge was about 2 7/8". Apparently the old makers figured all this out 200 years ago. Anyway, I went ahead and cut the new pattern out and went to the bathroom to "shave" with it. SUCCESS!! It balances wonderfully in the hand and the wide, curved tang feels nice. I'm going to cut a pattern from G-10 when I get home tomorrow and play with it some more, but I think that it is going to work well!

I went ahead and sketched a scale pattern just to see what it would look like. I like them, but I'm still reserving the right to change it up a little bit. I'm thinking blonde horn scales for this one, brass pins with domed washers. The sloping wedge is on purpose, but I'm not sure about it. What material?? Maybe bone of some sort.....or black horn? That might be nice. Yay!

As always, soliciting good, bad, mean, or nice comments. Tear it apart guys. Tell me what you like and what you hate.

Since you asked for honest opinions...

I think the blade is going to be too big for those scales. It looks like it is going to be a very big lopper and chopper, probably needs a larger set of scales to give it balance. Personally I like the blades to sit deeper into the scales than that, but YMMV. I also kind of like the end of the scales to somewhat match the shape of the tip... Squared off tip razor, I'd make a more squared off end scales.

These are just my opinions, not trying to discourage, but just give honest critiques and suggestions. Certainly you should do what you want, as it is your project. Good luck.

UPD, thanks for the opinions. That's the kind of comments I was soliciting.

I am still undecided about how high the razor should sit in the scales. I put my recent restores down in the scales a lot, but I had looked at other stubbies and they seemed to have the blades sitting higher than modern razors. However, now I looked and saw several sitting lower. I am trying to maintain a decent amount of historical accuracy, so whatever that is.

As far as the wedge end, I agree with you about the square end. I favor square ends in general. I tried and tried and tried earlier today to draw a squared end and it just wouldn't come together, so I left it for a while. I have a better sketch now.

Still want opinions. I know you guys have 'em! Let's hear it!