Thread: A couple of progress pics

Originally Posted by Maximilian

That's a mean looking beast (in a good way).

5mm = 3/16. Considering the width of that razor I wonder how you'll be able to hone it up on the hones without some serious spine widening. A healthy 7mm chunk of steel would have been easier imo.

Max, good call on the thickness. This one was just a mock-up out of something I had laying around in the workshop. This was never going to be a real shaver, I just wanted to try grinding the smile and testing the integrity of the cutout and play with some file work. It is a 8/8 blade which with the 3.5 ratio 'rule' works out just over 7mm.

A couple of questions, how do you go about your filework? Do you file before the blade grind or after? Do you use a small hack saw to start or just jump straight in with the files?

Sorry to throw so many at you at once.

Thanks for your feedback.

Stu

I depends. If there's going to be filework on the spine I prefer to do it before blade grind. That way I have a better view on the distance needed below the spine when I'm doing my master grind. All before HT off course. I use a very coarse triangle file I have laying around to file my initial groove.

Wow this is going to be a wicked looking razor.

Looks ok. Though I am still a bit worried about HT.
If the cooling is a bit a-symmetrical, that heel could bend to one side ot the other, and you'd have to do quite some grinding to get it to look good again. Don't let that hold you back from giving it a try. Personally I would not go for that look, but from a technical point of view it will be an interesting experiment.

Also, for spine work, you definitely want to do that before HT. Working 'soft' steel with a file is much easier.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Looks ok. Though I am still a bit worried about HT.
If the cooling is a bit a-symmetrical, that heel could bend to one side ot the other, and you'd have to do quite some grinding to get it to look good again. Don't let that hold you back from giving it a try. Personally I would not go for that look, but from a technical point of view it will be an interesting experiment.

Also, for spine work, you definitely want to do that before HT. Working 'soft' steel with a file is much easier.

Your right the HT is an unknown. Currently, the plan is to use a RWL34 steel on this. The RWL34 is a powdered metallurgy steel which, as far as I know, has no residual stresses to relieve during HT. Also the heat treatment facility that I will be using utilises a nitrogen gas quench which will hopefully provide a fairly even cooling profile. Fingers crossed