Thread: 4th Annual North Central Texas Razor Meet at Charlie Lewis Razor Workshop

Originally Posted by Utopian

Well, in a pinch Charlie's forge should be able to serve as a cautery wand.

Ouch!


Mike

Let us look on the bright side.

Racine 39f
Burkburnett 63f

Works for me.

Our trip will start next Wed with a High temp of 12 F in St. Paul, Kansas City, MO will be 35 F and Burkburnett will be 61 F and sunny !

I am thinking of washing my truck while I'm there. It is suppose to be grey but is white from the salt.

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Scotchbrite comes in all sorts of forms including belts for bench grinders. Given the limits of the selection of grits available it's possible to do what you ask. It's not going to be a mirror polish by any means. The finest grit is specified 400-600. I think it's a gray color. There are finer grits (white - maybe) but I can't recall seeing them for power tools.

Using it can be done by hand—and there's even scotch-brite wheels—and even though it probably can be done at low rpm's, putting a razor on a lathe (could be, fixed to a lathe using the pin hole in the razor—or have a vacuum fixture made, recessed, making up the difference for the finished surfaces of the razor) then turning it (going w/ the direction of the edge), finishing with pre-cut to size (say about two fingers width wise), scotch-brite pads might be—well—IS—dangerous but not necessarily undoable.

Done right, I've always thought a matte finish, worked from 7440 to 7447, then finished ever so slightly—and evenly, with 6448, so long as the surface is near a 3.00 to 1.00 finish (but this is subjective—and likely submits to having been turned), while not easy to do, aesthetically, is by far a better finish in my opinion, than 'mirrored' or 'chromed' finishes. I've worked with a lot of silicon + aluminum + copper alloys machining and finishing high end semiconductor parts when I was working my way thru school, but not so much carbon steel save for making brake piston parts out of SAE 1006 a few times, so—I can't speak to working with it using scotch-brite other than maybe removing scaling after hardening, turning at high rpm's on a lathe, but that's about it, or if using scotch-brite to finish a straight razor made of carbon steel can even be a thing worth doing.

I appreciate more the matte finish, when turned, using the right pressures and the right amount of coolant on other parts. From my point-of-view, a finish that's clean and even, the right pressures—not too much coolant, like the pressures, just enough to get the job done says a whole lot more about craftsmanship than mirror finishes. Having said that, I absolutely concede I don't know anything about making by hand, straight razors and that in no way are machined then finished by hand, silicon, aluminum, copper alloy semiconductor parts on an equal plane with handmade straight razors.

I agree scotchbrite in general leaves a pleasing scratch pattern, makes for a good matte finish.

Charlie

Do you guys have a definite headcount yet? Trying to bring some crawfish if I can keep them from spoiling.

I think Randy Tuttle is keeping the headcount/cat-herding. Send him a pm, heck, maybe he will make it public...I don't care.

Originally Posted by paco

Do you guys have a definite headcount yet? Trying to bring some crawfish if I can keep them from spoiling.

paco , did I see you were bringing your Rv? Where are you staying? , at the KIAat the border? Just wondering,Mauser I,m picking my Rv up and was going to use it. Tc

I am kind of curious about the head count also.

Charlie