Thread: thinking of starting to make custom straight razors

My first advise would be get a 55 gallon drum to throw all your mistakes in and second would be find a market for steel wool because you will be making a lot of it.
My first real usable blade probably cost me 10,000 USD
Enjoy the process and make a few nice blades for you and your friends.

Originally Posted by 430pat

My first advise would be get a 55 gallon drum to throw all your mistakes in and second would be find a market for steel wool because you will be making a lot of it.
My first real usable blade probably cost me 10,000 USD
Enjoy the process and make a few nice blades for you and your friends.

don't understand how you can spend that much to get out 1 razor that u can call a usable blade. Did u spend lots on equipment or took you longer then others to fine tune ur skills. Any before and after pics of were u were and how far u come after spending so much money. Would love to see thanks ��

My 2 cents, A skilled knife maker can take a 1" cheep Belt grinder and make straight razors, given enough time. Razors can be forged with a coffee can forge for pennies


I would think with the highly technical belt grinders Made For Razor grinding make fast accurate work compared to the old opposing face grinders, so, spending a ton of $$ is easily done if one is not careful.

Craftsmen of all works Go On their Own Merit, if you really want it You can do it or have it.

Hi and welcome. Take a good look through the forge forum and make a few decisions on how you want to start. Are you going to forge or just grind out of stock. How do you want to temper. What grind are you going to start with. Hollow ground is going to take more equipment and skills. What equipment do you have already. At worst there is always a market on ebay

+1 it definitely is not a soul source of income,
unless you can devote whole weeks on end to your work grinding, building, materials sourcing, advertising & building a client base etc
practice, practice & more practice this is where the initial costs rise if you rush & make a pile of RSO's they still cost the same for materials & heat treating etc your the time it takes you is your only saving as your skills improve & become more efficient.
knives are easier to make & less chance of mistakes as when grinding below 10 thou" thicknesses

but I say take your time, build up to it & keep your costs & expectation in check & give it a go

you will never ever know, if you never ever go

The key post was that of Bruno IMO, and the key word was 'passion.' I was an ironworker for over 20 years and decided I wanted to be a pro tattoo artist. I began in my basement on my own legs, then moved on to friends. I figured if I learned to do it well enough before I ran out of friends I'd have a shot at going pro. This was before the internet BTW, and when a pro tattooer would throw you out of the shop bodily if you told him ..... 'I'm thinking about learning to tattoo.'

But I had passion, and apparently a bit of talent and a lot of luck, because I made my living in street shops, tattooing for 23 years before I finally hung it up. So if you have a passion for it, whether you'll ever 'go pro' or not, give it a shot. The joy is in the journey, not the destination.

Originally Posted by eddy79

Hi and welcome. Take a good look through the forge forum and make a few decisions on how you want to start. Are you going to forge or just grind out of stock. How do you want to temper. What grind are you going to start with. Hollow ground is going to take more equipment and skills. What equipment do you have already. At worst there is always a market on ebay

not thinking about forging . Stock removal is Wat I was thinking about. Wat my intentions are to get a great handmade product and cheap for the buyer. Not sure if u have seen few vids on YouTube. Portland razor co. ? Something on the lines of that if that explains Wat I'm going for. Ty for replying

If you want to make cheap razors you are going to have small margins while competing with hart, grim dovo and others. Profit per hour will be very low even when you invest in expensive grinders and other equipment.

And as i said don't forget taxes, social security and other costs of business.

If you want to know if you can do this, i suggest you run the numbers and consult an accountant before investing your money to see what the financial reality is.

Making razors is also going to cost you a lot of time, and you don't even know if you'll be good and just as important : you'll have to love doing the same thing over and over. Grinding and finishing dozens of razors every month. If you end up hating the repetitive hard work you'll hate it and quit.

if you really want to do this, learn to make razors first. Track the costs and time spent on the various steps in the process. Run the numbers with an accountant.

Only then will you have the information you really need to make a decision from a business pov.