Thread: Question, so I don't screw up

Nice work man, Can I ask you guys what's required in making your own razors? like how long would it take a complete newbie to metal working to learn

Originally Posted by saitou

Nice work man, Can I ask you guys what's required in making your own razors? like how long would it take a complete newbie to metal working to learn

Good Morning,
As a Knife maker that has now made only 2 razors, I can only advise on what I have recently learned,the learning curve would be greatly reduced if you have someone near you that can get you started, as a hobby Knife maker I already have the equipment, albeit I now know that I will need a few Razor specific items, there are many things to understand (learning and understanding are two COMPLETELY different things) in your build, steel choice, ability to work and properly heat treat chosen steel, and the tools required to finish the project. Not knowing your ability's or tools you own, it gets harder to answer your question of "How long would it take", so I'll leave it here for now.
Ambition is a very good start.

Thanks for the reply Redrock,
I've just gotten started with straight razors and I've never owned any tools in my life. I just bought a dremel recently. I did a bit of wood working stuff in high school but since then no exp using power tools like table saws, belt sanders, grinders, etc..

I'm just getting started by trying to restore old razors off ebay and from vintage stores, so far i've just been polishing blades by hand and tried with the dremel but its a bit scary worried my hand will slip and chip the blade. I've got a set of naniwa hones on the way so going to basically learn how to restore maybe try and make my own scales. as some of the 10 or so razors I've bought in the last 2 weeks have cracked scales. But yeah I guess my question is how much would i have to spend on equipment assuming i have nothing, to get started with making my own? prob wont be for a while yet as i wanna learn how to restore old blades first and get better at shaving with them.

But yeah making your own razors/knives is just COOL AS *%^@#$!! I want to do it too! lol.

peace.

-john.

Originally Posted by Redrock

Good Morning,
As a Knife maker that has now made only 2 razors, I can only advise on what I have recently learned,the learning curve would be greatly reduced if you have someone near you that can get you started, as a hobby Knife maker I already have the equipment, albeit I now know that I will need a few Razor specific items, there are many things to understand (learning and understanding are two COMPLETELY different things) in your build, steel choice, ability to work and properly heat treat chosen steel, and the tools required to finish the project. Not knowing your ability's or tools you own, it gets harder to answer your question of "How long would it take", so I'll leave it here for now.
Ambition is a very good start.

That is a good way to get started.
learn to shave and hone. Try to restore a couple of razors. Make some scales. That will give you a feel for it.
It will also help you greatly in understanding the geometry.
Then you can buy some stock and try to make your first razor.

The most expensive tool is a belt grinder. If you go retail for a grinder and the extras you would need to make razors, you are looking at around $2000. You can maybe cut that in half by building your own and scrounging used parts. You can make a forge for less that $100. An anvil would be $100+ and up - way up! Hammers and tongs - at least another $100. As you can see, this is a major investment. If there is a local blacksmith organization near you, see if they have beginning blacksmith classes - or locate a local razor or knife maker that could take you on as an informal apprentice. There is a lot to learn before you can even think about making a razor. Good luck - this forum is a great place to learn from the experts.

I would ease into it. I definitely advise against buying a grinder immediately, and ditto for the anvil / forge. At least, for the purpose of making razors, you can start with restoring them to learn the ropes. Then you'll buy a dremel, and a drill press, and some files, etc etc.

I'd stay away from the really expensive things initially for 2 reasons. Firstly, you may or may not end up liking this. Even if you end up with your own razors, unless you make a lot of razors, that belt grinder will be a very big investment for just a couple of razors. And secondly, without a good working knowledge about razor geometry (which you gain really well from restoring some razors) you won't really know how to use those things really well.

Learning to forge is fun, but it's a task all by itself. If you try to forge razors immediately, you're trying to learn forging while at the same time trying to figure out the finer points of razor geometry and trying to learn how to hone a razor and make scales...
Doing that all at once will be extremely time consuming, as well as frustrating if you have no metal working skills to build on.

Starting with restoration and scales is fun, valuable, and (important) cheap because you don't need much in the way of tools.