Straight razor question

Matt Rochester

Matt Rochester

Joined
Nov 28, 2014
Messages
1,864
I want to give a straight razor a shot. I have an 8" wheel and am wondering how tall and thick my stock needs to be. Any charts out there? It's probably going to be Aebl. Thanks.
 
an 8" wheel will give almost a Wedge grind.

I like to use a 2" wheel so Ive got a tall hollow, this is MUCH more difficult.

for beginning an 8" wheel will work, make sure to give it a little smile.
 
stephanfowler said:
an 8" wheel will give almost a Wedge grind.

I like to use a 2" wheel so Ive got a tall hollow, this is MUCH more difficult.

for beginning an 8" wheel will work, make sure to give it a little smile.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat with 1/8 AEB-L and haven't had the time or ability to start this yet.. by smile do you mean curve the grind to make it higher on each end?
 
1/8 is WAY too thin. That is the problem with AEB-L in that we know it is almost perfect for razors as that is what most of the razor blade today are made from, but the absolute thickest that you can get it is like 3/16 and there is none of that to be found unless you want to by a huge spool of strip steel. Razors are VERY thick at the spine compare to what we are used to for blades of that size because the spine serves as a built in honing guide. You lay the razor flat on the stone and grind away. As the edge creeps up, the spine, in theory gets thinner and you maintain that angle until there razor is kaput. With a "full" hollow ground, you proabaly won't even have to thin the blade as it is a uniform thickness about 3/4 of the way up the blade face. As for the original question, my understanding is that with 1/4 inch stock and an 8 inch wheel, you do not get a partial wedge, but a 1/4 hollow IF you are making a BIG razor like and 8/8 or 9/8. 1 inch wide, 4 inch radius wheel equals 1/4 I guess. The formula that I have seen says that the width of the blade should be 3.5 to 4 times the thickness of the spine so as to get that optimum included honing handle of 15 to 17 degrees. Narrower bales would require smaller wheels to get the same profile. a 2 or 3 inch wheel will probably give you what they call a "half hollow"
rustyrazor said:
I'm in the same boat with 1/8 AEB-L and haven't had the time or ability to start this yet.. by smile do you mean curve the grind to make it higher on each end?
Click to expand...
 
I know traditional ones are like you described jdm61 but would thin (1/16) aeb-l full flat ground not serve its purpose just as well? Ive often wondered why straight razors are made the way they are.
 
jobasha11 said:
I know traditional ones are like you described jdm61 but would thin (1/16) aeb-l full flat ground not serve its purpose just as well? Ive often wondered why straight razors are made the way they are.
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yep... that was kind of the thought process I had when I first ordered the AEB-L. that and perhaps Japanese style razors... I didn't do any research before ordering the aeb-l, I just knew I would like to make a few razors. nobody said I was a genius, but shooting from the hip did me so well for so long that it's hard to use my brain, lol
 
if you made a true frame back razor say using something like 440 for the frame and tang, then you could use THIN AEB-L for the blade. of course, the problem there is that we can't get super thin AEB-L either. Most of the AEB0L we see is the stuff that is the proper size for kitchen knives. The 1/8 stuff is a fairly recent addition to our market so you can make thin bushcraft knives and such, but still way too thin for razors and thicker single bevel Japanese style kitchen knives like a yanagi-ba or deba. Aldo say that he is trying to brew up a steel that is similar to 14C28N which is kind of like AEB-L with a little bit of nitrogen to improve stain resistance and he say that the large size will be like 3/16 for folders. You could do a 5/8 razor with that and a yanagi-ba but still no big monster "axe" razors.
jobasha11 said:
I know traditional ones are like you described jdm61 but would thin (1/16) aeb-l full flat ground not serve its purpose just as well? Ive often wondered why straight razors are made the way they are.
Click to expand...
 
jobasha11 said:
I know traditional ones are like you described jdm61 but would thin (1/16) aeb-l full flat ground not serve its purpose just as well? Ive often wondered why straight razors are made the way they are.
Click to expand...

Many knife makers think that straight razors must just be really sharp knives. In reality it is a whole other animal. My advise would be to get your hands on a few antique razors in decent condition, learn to hone them and shave with them and then try to make one. Its not really harder than making a decent knife, just different.
 
Will do john. I have a lot to learn!
JMJones said:
Many knife makers think that straight razors must just be really sharp knives. In reality it is a whole other animal. My advise would be to get your hands on a few antique razors in decent condition, learn to hone them and shave with them and then try to make one. Its not really harder than making a decent knife, just different.
Click to expand...
 
Research the Japanese straight edge razors.
I don't make them, but I think you might be able to make that kind of straight razor out of your 1/8" stock.
 
Tradttionally ground kamisoris are still not what you would call thin either. They still use one side of the "spine" or shinogi to be more accurate, as a honing guide.
Rhinoknives1 said:
Research the Japanese straight edge razors.
I don't make them, but I think you might be able to make that kind of straight razor out of your 1/8" stock.
Click to expand...
 
jdm61 said:
Tradttionally ground kamisoris are still not what you would call thin either. They still use one side of the "spine" or shinogi to be more accurate, as a honing guide.
Click to expand...

that's also what i found out after i rushed into AEB-L... thinkin "razor steel" as it's listed would be good for razors. funny that the guy using rusty razor as his name doesn't know S*** about razors, lol
 
rustyrazor said:
that's also what i found out after i rushed into AEB-L... thinkin "razor steel" as it's listed would be good for razors. funny that the guy using rusty razor as his name doesn't know S*** about razors, lol
Click to expand...

No harm no foul! I use AEB-L for a few of my culinary patterns. 440C would be a inexpensive stainless to start with for Razors.
The company, Dovo makes some nice straight edge Razors out of 440C.
 
Just to be clear, I don't have any steel yet other than what I have for knives. I was just wondering if I could make a razor with an 8" wheel since that's all I have.
 
Short answer is - Yes, you can use an 8" wheel.
With an 8" wheel you can get a 1/4 hollow on a 7/8 or 8/8 razor.

You should optimally have several wheels to shape a razor blade. A 3" and 6" would be a good two wheel combo, and 2",4",6",8" would be a full set. Since you already have an 8", get a 3" or 4" as a second wheel.
 
This is something I was just going to make for myself. I am really into knives. I will eventually get some other size wheels for knife making but for now it looks like it's a 1/4 hollow on my eight inch wheel.
 
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