Razors and a couple of knives

[Jfk742]

All these have been made or started in the last 2 years. There have been more razors that either died for testing or I just screwed it up irreparably while hollow grinding.

Most are WIP’s, either waiting for their turn or for the inspiration to work on them again catches me. All steel is either 1095 or 1085. I have some bars of 1075 too, I want to make razors out of.

Disregard the staining on the two knives, the single bevel has been in service for two years and the petty/paring knife for almost a year.

I can split the knives off and stick them in the proper section if this is a problem, was easier to do all the pieces in a few photos.

I am open to any and all critiques. There are many little issues and screw ups. Getting more time in the forge would be helpful, that and my constant chasing of perfect lines which inevitably creates a problem or an irreparable mistake then I bin it or set it aside to see if my ability catches up to my mistakes.

 

[Bruno]

Don't worry too much about where what goes. Those are more like guidelines instead of rules.
We're not too fussy around here

 

[Bruno]

Btw those razors look very clean. They really need some scales and a customer.
Also like the shape of the knives. Not a real big fan of wood unless it is stabilized, but that's really more a preference than a functional argument.

 

[Jfk742]

The wood isn’t stabilized but I have a never ending supply so I use it. I have a vacuum press that I need to make a stabilizing pot for and get some stabilizer.

I love wood for the look but it isn’t ideal scale material in comparison to some modern materials or stabilized wood.

The darker handle material is ipe, it is very close in hardness to iron wood and polishes almost as well. For knife scales it is pretty good stuff. The backs of the scales need to be hollowed and wiped clean with denatured alcohol or acetone a few times before glue up. The wood does what it wants and prep pays dividends. I had some scales on a small knife that twisted themselves off a full tang. I was actually on my way to drop it at my friends house who I had made it for. It sat in the truck at work and it was a hot day, maybe 85-90. I had a buddy at work that’s really interested in knives and making and wanted to see it. When I pulled it out there was a small separation at the tang junction. When the knife cooled down a little the scales went back to where they should have been but now were loose. I haven’t had a chance to get the scales removed yet to replace them. I’m assuming I’ll see a combo of glue starvation and me not roughing up the tang enough. The failure happened right at the junction, which is hand sanded to 1k. I roughed it up as best I could with a dremel but most likely wasn’t aggressive enough near the junction as I was afraid to hit the finished visible surface. Hollowing the scales would have taken a lot of the woods ability to move out of the equation. The density of the wood won’t allow it to accept a meaningful amount of stabilizer, I would assume. I also had plenty of squeeze out. The surfaces were all mated together flat, like I was doing a wood to wood glue up. Live and learn...

 

[Jfk742]

The Hoshi Tombo rip off is in redwood. It was saturated with thin ca glue then polished to 1k then lightly buffed with crox on a loose cotton wheel. I shave fairly often with it. The handle is too high in relation to the blade angle. There is a forge form in one of the photos that will be a remake at some point. It strops well and hones easy but is so thin I scratched the blade up during finally honing when I set the bevel from just using torque, it also had 3 layers of tape on it at the time as I thought it may be a problem. That blade needed almost a 1/32” taken of the edge before it stopped chipping. May have been less but I took it way back. Honing angle is 16ish degrees with a piece of electrical tape on the spine, width is 8/8 steel is 1095.

 

[RezDog]

Very traditional shape on your razors. There is always so much going on in life, sometimes it’s difficult juggling all of the family, work and hobbies.

 

[Gasman]

The razors look very nice in the pics. A couple big ones if im see them right.

 

[Jfk742]

The widest one is a touch over 8/8’s. They look much wider than they are due to my liking of a shorter blade. Most my cutting edges end up in the 2.6-2.7” in length for a western straight. The scaled western kamisori looking one is 15/16” but with a 2.1” cutting edge. I like wide blades but don’t care for the weight that comes with it. Though I think a few quarter hollows are a good idea as I seem to blow them up going full hollow, well that and realizing my limitations in front of the grinder and getting over my disdain for hand sanding hollows. Coming to grips with those two things would leave me more steel to play with during finishing, most likely mitigating most of my failures.

The semi matched pair with the thumb notches and two different blade profiles will be quarter hollow. Depending on balance they may get ground with a 3” wheel to lighten the spine side to make them balance to my liking. One has a tapered spine from toe to heel, should have a very Sheffield look to it when it’s done and I think they guy I’m making it for will really appreciate it. The other has a parallel spine. They will both be dressed in bone that Shaun so kindly sent to me. I’ll post progress pics of those as I go through final grinding and finishing. Those two have my interest atm, just need to cordon off some time to get them going again.
They will both end up at 7/8 or just a little under after final bevel. Currently they’re both around 15/16”.

 

[Jfk742]

The grind got away from me on one side. I tried to chase it down and decided I’d rather have a razor that looks kind of crappy than no razor at all. The finish is also subpar but shouldn’t tarnish easily and the surfaces are flat and true, just needed some more attention sanding. So I’m calling it finished and now needs some scales. I was thinking of using the bone that Shaun sent me but I’m afraid it might be too heavy for how light the blade is. Nothing worse than a razor that wants to flip around when you’re shaving.

Just a touch under 7/8, 1085, full bellied hollow. I had some shit happen where I needed to take the edge back .06” from where I had originally set the bevels and now the bevel is a little fat and a touch wonky looking. I think I have some horn laying around but it’s really warped as I remember. I flattened a similar set for another razor resto and it was a pita to say the least.

 

[Bruno]

If I understand correctly, it was your intention to do a bellied grind like that, and one side is a bit uneven?

 

[Jfk742]

Yes, I intended to do a bellied hollow just not an uneven one.

 

[Bruno]

If you grind the toe on the front side just a bit closer towards the edge, it would be good again, wouldn't it?

 

[Jfk742]

I started messing with it again. Looking at it I was embarrassed to say I made it. Started hand sanding. It seems I didn’t do quite as accurate a primary grind with the 8” wheel. I left the spine side of the grind too high to accurately grind it to zero at the edge. The fuller is really accurate as far as I can tell. So the problem was the inverse of what I though and why I couldn’t clean up the belly on the grinder. Looking back on it, it is obvious to me now. I was planning on sending this one to Jerry for the SRP giveaway but after the way it came out I was going to make another for SRP and keep this one just a personal user. Now that I’ve fooled around with some hand sanding to make belly look like it’s correct I feel much less apprehensive to put my mark on it. The steel does feel a little softer than it should which also has me a little worried. I’ll shave and strop it for a week or two and see how the edge holds up. I have learned a lot on this particular razor. My lack of attention span and laziness almost landed that razor in the trash on several occasions. Turns out I can rescue some mistakes that I thought were detrimental before.

I still need to do some more sanding on it and straighten out all the facets again. The hollows are really close and I think I’ve found a way to fix the uneven bevels as well, in spite of not being able to use the grinder because of the belly. There is nothing worse than a blown out line and why I try to avoid hand sanding. I prefer to true everything on the grinder when possible and only use hand sanding to produce the finish I want.

I’ll follow up later when this thing is done in a new thread in the appropriate section of the forum. I’m hoping to cobble together the process I went through and all the screw ups. Possibly it helps someone else learn from my mistakes as well as allow you guys to help me out with things I am doing incorrectly or could be more proficient at.

 

[Jfk742]

Sorry, Bruno, typed all that and forgot to address your suggestion. I’m at like .003” above the belly, hand sanding is even touch and go at 400 grit. If I oil can it or grind through I’d probably break down in tears. I’m easily 20+ hrs into this blade with all the messing around I’ve done. I still haven’t started the scales, that for me is also very time consuming, at least another 2-4 hrs depending on shaping and getting the scales to bow equally. Having never worked with bone before I’m not really sure what to expect. From what reading I’ve done it should be the easiest medium I’ve used for scales yet.