Thread: Wade and Butcher Irontusk

Originally Posted by karlej

Not the traditional method of making a razor that's for sure. The powdered metal pours just like water. It is place in a die and compacted under up to 100's of tons of force in a piece of equipment called a compacting press. The razor will have the near finished shape and dimensions of the razor but very fragile at this point. You can break it in your hands, If you drop it. It will break like a piece of glass. Next it goes to a sintering furnace where the hardening will take place. Over 2000 degrees F. and gradually cooling down till it comes out the exit side of the furnace a hardened piece of steel. From there it may go to a sizing press where the blade would be place in a die and forced down into the die under up to 100 of tons of force and when ejected from the die it is very close to finished dimensions. Hardness will also have changed some. From there on to the grinding process. This type of equipment is very expensive and sintering furnaces cost a lot of money to run. Capital investment for a press can easily exceed 1 million dollars. The advantage to all of this is you can turn out huge quantities of product very quickly.
I worked as a manufacturing supervisor in a powdered metal factory for 14 years. I think I'm too much of a traditionalist to buy a razor made from powdered metal.

Investing in that production method does not seem suitable for use in producing a straight razor blade in the relatively limited numbers that there is a demand for. OTH if limited production runs of blades can be made can be made by an outside supplier between runs of other products that supplier produces it may be economically possible to do.

I too don't think it would be a satisfactory method of production for a traditionalist end user.

Bob

I should have read the whole thread before posting considering MichaelC's response.