Thread: 6th Annual North Central Texas Razor Meet at Charlie Lewis Straight Razor Workshop

I would quote a price on the steel but it varies by thickness.

im in for the 16 through the 19th. does anyone have the phone number or website for the local hotel to make reservations?

blues, you are more than welcome to visit my shop. I have a 50lb powerhammer, and a shear for making Damascus. we can make a lot of Damascus in half a day that would take you a month by hand. and I really like 3/32" 1095 with 1/16" 15n20.

If you show up at the Twilight and need a room I can share!

Is anyone else interested?

sure I can share a room and split the cost, or reserve another one. either way is cool.

I mean if someone is strapped and needs to split a room to be able to make it, then id hate to impose.

Originally Posted by caltoncutlery

sure I can share a room and split the cost, or reserve another one. either way is cool.

I mean if someone is strapped and needs to split a room to be able to make it, then id hate to impose.

Last time it was $50 or so a night. / by 2 = $25....

Clean bed but I unplugged the refrigerator because it was loud!

Man, this is killing me. Wish i could pull it off and come to this meet. Sounds like a lot of learning to be had. Ive never really wanted to weld or pound out my own razor but you guys are making it so tempting.

Just curious, and i know it verys but what is the cost for steal to make one of these multi layered razors? Just the cost in steal is what im wondering about. I dont have room for a forge and the wife would throw a fit if i was to start making one. Just no time in my life for this kind of thing.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

That works fine, but more often than not I'm working alone. Since I have the thin material a higher layer initial stack makes a lot more sense.

I know you were saying last year to not go over 7 layers when hand setting the welds but I'm pretty confident that this will work for me. Of course I'm only buying 1 piece of 1/8" 1095 until I have verified that it will work.

My successrate with > 7 thin layers has been hit or miss.
If you can get reliable welds throughout I'll be happy to learn your process.

Originally Posted by Bruno

My successrate with > 7 thin layers has been hit or miss.
If you can get reliable welds throughout I'll be happy to learn your process.

I had 1 to fail, 1 to hit at Charlie's last year. I didn't let it soak long enough in the initial set. Forge should have been turned down and the heat time should have been longer.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Just curious, and i know it verys but what is the cost for steal to make one of these multi layered razors?

Pattern manipulation is incredibly wasteful when making pattern welded steel [PWS]. Waste can easily be in the 75% range. So if you go to a knife supply site you will see that you could buy enough steel for a razor for a few dollars. Multiply that by 4 to account for waste and it is still an insignificant amount, but it is a bit like calculating the cost of the paint when looking at a painting or how much stone got worn away when you hone a razor. In the end the steel cost just looks like another consumable like propane and grinding belts. Now if you look on the knife sites again at blanks of 'quality' PWS you will see costs 20 to 100's of times the cost of plain steels.

The above is all related to mass produced steels used in PWS. Hand made steels such as Wootz is another discussion entirely.


Edit; I just thought of a better comparison. It is like calculating the amount of money that you are saving by wet shaving with a straight instead of buying all of those disposable blades.

the cost of the steel is vastly less important than the time and the name of the person handling it.