Screw the contest. Make your own razor!!!!

Bruno

Administrator
Staff member
First I proposed to hold a contest, order to get some activity. That got no interest, so scratch that idea. I've got a better one:

Have you ever wanted to make your own razor?

I have some annealed blanks carbon steel that I'm never going to finish again (because I don't have time for carbon steel anymore).

I can send you the annealed, hollow ground blank with a piece of flat stock for the tang. Then you can shape it / file it / decorate it however you want and indicate where the pivot hole should go. I'll drill it, do the HT and finish the hollow grinding and send it back to you for polishing, scales etc. If you post the progress pics here in the workshop section, start to finish, then the blank and my part are free (*). Up for it?

I have only a couple of blanks but if I get more interest than I have blanks, I'll make a couple more. Should I get an avalanche of requests, I reserve the right to stop the free blanks at my discretion.

(*) The blank and my work are free. Shipping the original blank to you first time is free. However, when you mail it back to me for heat treatment, customs might hit me with a processing fee. You pay that fee and the cost for sending it out the second time.
 

Gasman

Show me that again!
I'm just afraid this is beyond my abilities. I'll leave a blank for someone else to play with. Grand offer Bruno. Cant wait to see what folks end up with.
 

Bruno

Administrator
Staff member
I am a bit delayed in getting the blanks ready. Due to problems with the contractor (slippage in cost and planning) I've been doing a ton of work to enable the rest of the renovation to go forward as planned. I keep wanting to sneak off to the forge but every time I find somethign else that needs doing urgently. Renovation is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get :)
 

Bruno

Administrator
Staff member
I generally like home improvement projects. I am fairly handy and I have all the tools. It's just not that enjoyable to have to rush to meet deadlines that were supposed to be very easy. For one thing, the contractor didn't work normal hours of at least 8 hours per day like normal contractors do (or more). He didn't arrive before 8, and left before 4. He's been awol many times as well. And every single time he had to scheduled other people, something went wrong. It got so bad that I didn't believe anything anymore. When he finally arranged for that crane to be removed, I literally didn't sleep from the stress of anticipating his failure (miracles happen, the crane is gone). As soon as the crane was gone, I sent him the dear John email.

The schedule slippage also caused additional problems. The sewage pipes had already been dug clean for renovation. But because things had slipped, the holes had to be filled again so that the window company could install the glass in the windows. And now I have to dig them clear again :)

But I mustn't complain. The work has progressed immensely in the last 2 weeks and the new kitchen building is starting to look neat indeed :)
 

Mrchick

ROTD Champion
I had a home renovation done a couple of years ago and remember how stressful it can be. Best wishes Bruno.
 

RezDog

Member
Man this is such a great offer. However, I still have not had a chance to put a handle on the kitchen knife I got from you. I have so many half finished project it is ridiculous, and I’m not ever counting the ones on the honey do list.
 

Bruno

Administrator
Staff member
Replacing the pipe coming out of the septic tank, connecting it to the mainline heading for the sewer. Filthiest. job. ever!
Anyway, things are slowly returning to normal. This weekend I'll be going to the Gembloux knife show to hang out with friends and buy handle materials. Starting next week, normal operation will resume and I will get those razors ready.
 

paul76

Member
Well with traveling more for work now I find myself with a lot more time in the evening sitting in the hotels. So this does seem like a good way to spend that free time constructively. So I’m in and I guess it will be hand tools only while out of town.
 

Bruno

Administrator
Staff member
Wonderful. That's 3 already. And I've finally gotten some more time to spend on blades. I'll try to get them done over the next 2 weeks.
 

Bruno

Administrator
Staff member
Today I cleaned up the first blank. this is at 40 grit. I post this to give an idea of how it is going to work. I am going to clean this up further to 120 grit, clean up the spine, and hollow grind. Nothing else. And then it will go to you, where you can shape the point how you want, do filework on the spine, cut, file , shape the tang, etc. I will not drill the pivot hole yet, because that will depend on your design.

I advise everyone to use a sharpy to draw the blade outline first, then drill the pivot hole, and only then remove all the material.
 

paul76

Member
its Been a little tough trying to come up with a design so far, seeing a blank is helping the creativity though. Thanks Bruno this was a great idea!
 

Bruno

Administrator
Staff member
Ok this is the blank I'm sending to Brian.
This is the ground blank. The tang is already tapered. The hollows are ground, and the spine is sanded to 120. I leave the tang as a big stub instead of forged to shape.

So, the idea is that Brian uses a sharpie to draw on the point and the heel, draw the tang, tail etc, and then remove everything that is not razor. I suggest making a cardboard shape first to get an idea of the feel. And while you're filing and cutting, regularly check for the feel in your hand.
The best idea is to drill the hole first after drawing the razor.that way you can shape the razor around the hole, which allows you to tune the shape so that the hole is in the perfect position. It is important that the hold is a bit larger than 1/16. I use a 2mm drill, which would be something like 5/64.

You can add jimps, notches etc but it is kinda important that the overall shape of the spine stays the way it is, and that you don't add filework that runs up right to the line where the hollows end. You don't have to do much sanding at this point. I will need to sand away the scale with my beltgrinder using 120 grit anyway.

I am not going to put my makers mark on these blades. But I was thinking of doing the following: using a set of small letter and number punches, I mark these blades 'WSW x' where x is the number of the razor. So this one would be WSW 1
That would be the front side (the side you see in this picture. I do that after I receive the blade back for heat treatment. And then you can put a mark of your own on the other side. This way, the razor would carry your own identification, as well as a mark that forever identifies it with this site. In a way, your razor will be a recorded piece of history of our site.

What do you think @Mrchick ?

 

paul76

Member
That leaves a lot of room to be able to do decorative work! Looks good Bruno!
And I think the wsw x is an great idea. One of a kind
 
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