Thread: Hello!

Hello and welcome here. Forging and grinding a razor means knowing the world of straight razors. You have to use them to understand them.once you do so, you can just begin to think about making one yourself.

Hi and welcome. You will want to check out the forge forum and get some help from the makets in there. Main issue using a knife would be geometry as most wouldn't have the thickness of blade to start with. Would probably be easier to start with a blank and grind it back. Good luck and I'm sure you will find all the information you need to be successful at making a razor

I ordered 3 blanks yesterday. 2 A2 blanks and 1 D2 blank. They are all .25 by 1.25 by 18 inch. This little project was sorta like a spur of the moment thing. I have a belt grinder and other tools, but I wanted to do it all by hand. It is just VERY SLOW... things like that little frown would take me a matter of minutes on the grinder. With a C- cell battery and some sand paper ... well... it takes more than minutes. I really wanted to "feel" the geometry, and I'm certainly feeling it lol. By the way I feel I should mention, that I grew up in a knife store (my dad's business) and have been shaving with straight razors since I have been shaving. Thanks for all you guys help. If it's okay, I would like to keep posting updates on this little project? I feel I may have put this in the wrong section. But I am a noob, and now you all know me lol.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Ouch. Dont think I'd want to shave with one of those. Keep it up. You will get the hang of it.

Better???

Well I have having a hard time with the stropping aspects of that cleaver, looks more like a kitchen knife. Maybe need to thin out the metal just past the blade, and see about making it more like a razor so you can maneuver around the face, There is a reason for their design, but looks like the grinding is going ok,, what's the spine width versus the blade heights? What kind of grind are you shooting for?

Yeah it's not very practical at all. It's prob 1/8 by 7/8 so I know it's not gonna be usable to actually shave. I think I want to do a 1/4 hollow. The cutting edge is very thin prob in the neighborhood of .01. The blade is also very short so it would at most make a pocket razor... lol. I just can't get over how much fun this is to do by hand (although today I used the belt sander a bit. It's a harbor freight deal for like 50 bucks. I didn't even know how to turn one on last week lol.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

Well I have having a hard time with the stropping aspects of that cleaver, looks more like a kitchen knife. Maybe need to thin out the metal just past the blade, and see about making it more like a razor so you can maneuver around the face, There is a reason for their design, but looks like the grinding is going ok,, what's the spine width versus the blade heights? What kind of grind are you shooting for?

ah yes I see what you are saying about the shape... I will try to thin that out for sure

I'm highly impressed by your ingenuity!!! We need someone like you here more than 50% of the other folks here. Please stay and do not be put off by some sad sacks!!! You had me at the battery with the sandpaper wrapped around it!! You definitely need to be here and can add tons of help to people here. You've already sparked my imagination greatly! Thank you for that!!!

Wow!!! Thanks!!! I'm humbled by your kindness.

As far as sad sacks go, you might want to Check that attitude, the man asked for opinions, he will get them good or bad. But when you start in on members like that your not helping. Especially with your limited knowledge of all of us here. No one has given him grief or been nasty, but this place will let him know where improvements can be made from our experience. Tc