Thread: Custom Design - thoughts please

The bevel (the plane from the edge to the spine) is correct on this even with the curved spine. Manufactured as drawn, the blade will sit flat on a hone because the face of the spine that touches down is flat.

I've been thinking about the geometry of a smile in terms of the bevel and it's doing my head in actually. I can't picture how it works. I'll have a play around with it at lunch tomorrow.

All I can think is, if you extend the length of a smiling blade around the same radius 360deg, the bevel becomes a cone, not a flat plane. If a razor smiles, and has a flat bevel, which it must, the face at the edge where the bevel is seen, must get longer at the heel and toe, and skinnier in the middle. I've never held a smiling razor so I don't have a reference.

All shapes and grinds aside
The most noticeable factors I find are the dimensions of blade ( 3"+/- 1/4" )
and thumb area (1& 1/2") heal to pivot
Also agree on O1 as the steel and suggest you make a copy from thin ply or Perspex to confirm the feel of your design before you shell out the big coins

Originally Posted by Sxot

All I can think is, if you extend the length of a smiling blade around the same radius 360deg, the bevel becomes a cone, not a flat plane. If a razor smiles, and has a flat bevel, which it must, the face at the edge where the bevel is seen, must get longer at the heel and toe, and skinnier in the middle. I've never held a smiling razor so I don't have a reference.

I think you will need to draw a cone as mentioned
The smile only needs to be a few millimetres of curve not to extreme to be effective
Drawing it is easy, you should try grinding a 3" long curved hollow smile on a 2" wide flat belt lol
A note on Honing a smiling blade, the blade edge and spine is not flat on the hones the whole time, this is why you need to do a rolling X stroke to get the full edge length right

Originally Posted by Sxot

The bevel (the plane from the edge to the spine) is correct on this even with the curved spine. Manufactured as drawn, the blade will sit flat on a hone because the face of the spine that touches down is flat.

I've been thinking about the geometry of a smile in terms of the bevel and it's doing my head in actually. I can't picture how it works. I'll have a play around with it at lunch tomorrow.

Have you honed a smiling blade, one with a curved spine and edge? You will remove the smile from a blade by just up and down strokes on a hone. They need a swooping X stroke and sometimes with a bit of a roll in it if there is a twist/warp in the blade or tang. It is hard to visualize unless you have done some honing on that style of blade.

Bob

Originally Posted by Sxot

All I can think is, if you extend the length of a smiling blade around the same radius 360deg, the bevel becomes a cone, not a flat plane. If a razor smiles, and has a flat bevel, which it must, the face at the edge where the bevel is seen, must get longer at the heel and toe, and skinnier in the middle. I've never held a smiling razor so I don't have a reference.

If you have a consistent width of blade the bevel will follow and be correct. You also need to take into account the thickness of the stock you are using so you get the correct angle to suit width of razor. Search here for Saito, Kikuboshi and smiling razors will help with design ideas.

If the spine thickness is the same plus the grinding and geometry is good then honing a smiling blade shouldn't pose much of a problem, here's my custom 8/8 smiler with a very even small perfect bevel I've honed the razor a few times very straight forward razor to hone using X strokes.

To me that Waterhouse is kind of a benchmark for a custom razor in terms blade shape. It's not a 'hey look at me' design, but neither is it a replica. Personally, I like stamped tangs.
Generally I put custom razors into two camps: hot rods and classics. My bias is the classics. There are people who like both.

I agree with the idea of a smiling blade, i did some research on this myself about a year or 2 ago and found that about 1/8" deep is a good amount of smile without causing headaches for honing etc.
It also looks like there is going to be a fair gap between the toe of the blade and the wedge when closed, it could just be an optical illusion though and it is purely aesthetic anyway.
I am not sure if hammer finished tang and spine filework might look a bit busy, alternatively they may juxtapose nicely.
If i were going to notch the scales at the wedge end i would probably notch the wedge as well. I realise that the idea is to show off the brass though.

Originally Posted by BobH

Have you honed a smiling blade, one with a curved spine and edge? You will remove the smile from a blade by just up and down strokes on a hone. They need a swooping X stroke and sometimes with a bit of a roll in it if there is a twist/warp in the blade or tang. It is hard to visualize unless you have done some honing on that style of blade.

Bob

No I haven't. I just maintain my razors and send them out for honing.