Thread: What are you working on?

Originally Posted by bdcoffey

Bruno,
I have been leaving the edge about the thickness of a dime before I heat treat. I agree, it looks thinner than that in the picture. What thickness do you grind to before heat treatment?
-Brian

I prefer to stay at 1/16. I know I can go some thinner, but by leaving it at 1/16 I know for sure that I have good steel in the middle, not affected by decarburization or scale formation.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I prefer to stay at 1/16. I know I can go some thinner, but by leaving it at 1/16 I know for sure that I have good steel in the middle, not affected by decarburization or scale formation.

I think 1/16" is about where I am at. On my last two razors I went to the same thickness and things went well. It's good to know what others use as a general rule. Thanks.

Nicely done Roy. I can't think of any other way to have made that repair.
You did the best that could be expected with what you had to work with for sure.
Job well done sir!!

Ray

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Hi All!

Here's the razor I received from a 77 year old Canadian who approximately 70 years ago witnessed his father shaving with his father's razor (granddad's) at the kitchen sink when the father dropped it and it hit the edge of the sink breaking a thumbnail size 'chunk' out of the blade.

He saw tears in his father's eyes! Years later after his mother and father had passed and he was clearing their home out, he found that they had saved the razor, the broken chunk and the box the razor was in. He held onto it for sentimental reasons. Granddad had came over to Canada from England and raised his family. He had died at a young age and the owner's father inherited the razor. The family story handed down is that Granddad had brought the razor with him from England!

Long story made short, through a chain of events I was asked if I could 'place the chunk back' so that his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren etc could see something from their heritage!! I accepted the challenge and about the last of January I received the razor.

I told the owner that it would not never ever shave again, nor would it ever close into the scales and he was fine with that! At one time this was a very beautiful Boker razor! It had some gold wash on the blade and the tang was blued. 99.9% of the gold wash was gone and most of the bluing and the owner OK'd polishing off what remained of the gold wash.

Here's some pictures to help with the journey!

Here's the AWCRAP!

Attachment 160022

Here's how I attached the broken piece back to the razor. I used JB WELD at both ends then after that had set I applied the JB in the middle and finally got it almost perfect before the working time of the epoxy was up. It is ever so slightly raised at the top and I could have sworn to GOD that it was flush when I was finished but all in all I think it came out very nice:

Attachment 160023

Here's how it looks now:

Attachment 160024

I had a friend make the display box. I've tried and tried to get the pictures to show how really nice it looks but No Go! It's got a beautiful gloss finish inside and out and the wood is much darker! The top is secured with two guide pins so it can be lifted of and the glass can be removed and allow access to the razor. There are vent slots cut into each side. I made 90 deg angled pieces of 1/16" brass rod and then polished them. The one is at the end of the blade to support it and the other two sit between the scales. That helps prevent any lateral movement. They are also close enough to keep the razor from rocking in them.

Attachment 160025

The owner has been so very patient and understanding this whole time! Once the razor had cleared customs in Chicago the USPS in all of it's wisdom sent it to New Jersey which is about as far away from me in a direct line running East to West as you can get in the StatesI do hope that the owner will be pleased when he sees it first hand as the pictures really don't do either the Razor or the display case justice!

I'm hoping to have it packaged and headed home with tracking and insured today! Padding and boxing it so it makes the journey in perfect condition is my biggest worry so far!

I hope all have enjoyed the journey!

Great save cudarunner a unbelievable story and remarkable journey indeed glad you were able to make the razor complete

Originally Posted by walleyeman

Nicely done Roy. I can't think of any other way to have made that repair.
You did the best that could be expected with what you had to work with for sure.
Job well done sir!!

Ray

Thanks Ray!

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to go about it! My first thought was to sacrifice a steel feeler gauge but a friend said that the wood was a no brainer as far as adhesion went! I agreed! However as a machinist you know that there can second thoughts/well at least sometimes! If I was to do it over again I'd have followed my instincts and used the feeler gauge as after all was done I realized that I had some strong magnets that are only about 1/2" wide and 1 1/2" long! I 'think' that if I'd used the steel then I could have used the magnet on the back side after the epoxy had set to help keep the 'chunk' in place so that the alignment was better!

I've tried to live my life by a phrase that I learned from a movie in the 70's and that is 'Practice the 6 P's'!

Proper
Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance!

Frederick Reynolds needed scales

Maple was the medium this time. Coming along well.

Ok so it's a case of too many too fast...

I still need to but my norton 4k/8k!!! Lol

A wostenholm IXL in horn. Found on eBay real cheap at $13.00
Got it naked and took a quick run at it with some 1500 wet/dry. Under the tap.

The frown is only from bad angle it actually slightly smiled

Looks as if it broke at the tang. I flexed it with considerable pressure and it didn't move so it couldn't be glued.. strange anomaly in the steel? It goes all the way aroynd. Anyways gonna get rid of cancer tonight and maybe re pin it into its original scales.

_____________________________________________

Just received my Bruno blade today. Looks great.

I am in for a long sanding session. Then to make scales. Then to hone the blade.

Can't wait until it is done. Thanks Bruno..............

Today's work.

Started out with a bummer. I wanted to grind the kitchen knife which was commissioned for a birthday present. I HTed it last week. During grinding I thought it behaved oddly. After some testing I figured out it had not fully hardened. My fire is too small for evenly heating a long blade. I thought I had managed to pull it off but no such luck. So I molested my fire in order to make it bigger and spread the air around more while burning an upside down pyramid of charcoal, more or less.

The end result was a properly hardened blade. Only now it had warped a bit so I needed 4 temper cycles to straighten it out. I lost more than an hour re HTing the blade. And my fire has pretty much disintegrated completely. But there is good news as well. The owner of the dealership where I bought my car had a 16 gallon oil drum which is large enough to build the fire I want. Got it for free so that was nice. Tomorrow I'll buy a small stick welder and some steel to build the frame.

I spent the rest of the day grinding 3 razors, and grinding and polishing 2 kamisori style razors so that they're finally ready. Next week I'll continue making new razors and finalizing the blanks that are currently halfwya to being a razor blank.

The top one has the fire black still attached. In this case it is even, and covers the entire blade. I thought it looks nice, and since I took care to round the corners and center the blad before HT, it could remain like this. Or not. But I thought I should at least ask because I think it looks nice.







I finished the Japanese style razors in 2 different ways. One has the fireblack and grinding lines. The other had the grinding lines removed and was then lightly satin polished.

Bruno,
I LOVE that top blade. Great work!!