Thread: Blademeisters: Bellied Hollow?

This question is for those who forge and grind razors, you know who you are
Have you made razors with a bellied hollow grind? Does it require much more in resources, time, skill? What are some benefits and/or caveats to making a blade with a bellied hollow grind, from the maker's point of view?

Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by bassguy

This question is for those who forge and grind razors, you know who you are
Have you made razors with a bellied hollow grind? Does it require much more in resources, time, skill? What are some benefits and/or caveats to making a blade with a bellied hollow grind, from the maker's point of view?

Thanks for reading.

What exactly is a bellied hollow grind? Don't they all have a tiny bit of a belly?

I don't know, I have only seen a few razors that have an obvious belly, maybe they all do.
I'm going off this chart here:

Here is my incomplete answer, with my tools and experience it is exponentially harder to grind a hollow that deviates from the shape of the contact wheel/grinding wheel.



Charlie

Originally Posted by spazola

Here is my incomplete answer, with my tools and experience it is exponentially harder to grind a hollow that deviates from the shape of the contact wheel/grinding wheel.



Charlie

I agree. It's hard enough to do it properly with a more wedge-type grind.

I guess that's what I'd call a double hollow ground blade. Grind it once with a bigger radius wheel, say maybe an 8" or 10", then grind out between the spine and lower part of the blade with a 4" or 6" wheel.

That's how I would do it. Would I actually try it? Maybe someday, but I agree with Joe and Charlie. I haven't tackled full hollows yet, as those are an order of difficulty above simple quarter and half hollows. Something like this would be very tough to do well.

The old-time razor makers did their hollow grinding on machines that had a wheel on either side of the blade and a steady stream of water to cool the steel. A setup like that makes this style of grind a little less daunting.

Josh