Emerging Technologies to Consider for Straight Razors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
xChris
...I think there are a couple of emerging technologies that can be adapted to straight razors. Metal Injection Molding (MIM) could produce razor blanks with the grind already made in the blank; it would just need final honing to produce the shaving edge. H1 steel is a work-hardened steel that has no carbon in the composition. Nitrogen replaces the carbon in the metal to produce a truly rustproof steel...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Namdnas
Chris, that is a most excellent idea. I didn't consider sintered or injected metal powder, as I don't know much about them and have no experience with them. So a few questions;
- What are the attainable material properties with an injection molded metal piece?
- Can they be made hard enough?
- Are they tough or brittle?
- Can the edge be cold worked or heat treated to increase the hardness on the final product?
- How about honing, any special concerns?
- Do MIM pieces take to INOX hardening? I have a suspicion that the conversion to martentite might be easier with something which is starting out without the well defined autentitic nodules in the base.
Again, this is a great concept, and certainly opens up the door to very interesting and complex designs similar to multi-grinds with little to no additional work except in the mold making. At that, the molds could be sintered metal produced in virtually any shape that a solid modeler could create.
Take care,
John
Here's the start of a thread to talk about some technologies that could be used to move straight razor manufacturing into the 21st Century. This discussion started in this thread about Solingen manufacturers looking at how to preserve the straight razor manufacture/industry in their city.
The two that I've proposed are Metal Injection Molding (MIM) & H1 steel. I'm going to start off with the MIM since John brought up a lot of good points about its consideration in the previously mentioned thread.
MIM is already being explored in the cutlery industry by mass-production companies to include Spyderco and Kershaw. In fact Kershaw already has a model on the market whose blade is manufactured using a MIM process (http://www.kershawknives.com/productdetails.php?id=370), and Spyderco will have one in the near future. The Kershaw uses 440C for the blade steel.
Here is my understanding of the process -- simplified & based on discussion with a Spyderco Representative. The process is very similar to plastic injection molding. The mold is actually 20% larger then the finished piece. A mixture of the molten steel & plastic are injected into the mold. The plastic is necessary to allow the product to be released from the mold after cooling. After removal from the mold, the piece is heat treated accordingly. This does three things: 1) hardens the steel 2) melts out the plastic from the piece 3) returns the piece to the expected size (reduced 20% by the removal of the plastic). The advantage of this process is that things like unique shapes or grinds can be molded right into the piece with no requirement of typical stock removal (e.g., wheel grinding machines). Final finishing of the piece is pretty much all that's left. I'm not sure if there are any special concerns with the final properties of the metal after the use of a MIM process. None have been mentioned, and it seems that the steel reacts as it would from more regualr production methods (e.g., forging, sheet steel w/stock removal). I am not in possession of one of the Kershaw knives, so I haven't used or sharpened one. I cannot comment on if their is a perceived difference myself.
Now, I'm just a knife knut & straight razor shaver. Please join in the discussion if you've got further information, a better understanding of these technologies, or can clarify these points.
John--
This may not answer all of your initial question right away, but I'll keep trying. Let me know what I missed...