Want to make my own straight...

amcardon

amcardon

Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
942
So, I have a couple knives under my belt now and have recently gotten into straight razor shaving and am trying to decide whether or not I should attempt making a couple razors... The big hesitation is my setup/materials: I'm a med student living in an apartment with a simple setup on the balcony and I wanted to have a small grinder (read: not a 2x72 quite yet) that would run off 110V so I went with a 1x42 Delta which means I don't really have any way to do a proper hollow at this point which should be my final answer to the quest. Anyway, I still can't stop thinking about it. The other hesitation is that I don't have a metal bandsaw and the only steel I have right now is 1.5" x 3/16" 1080 barstock so I would have to grind off a ton of material. I don't know if I'm writing this out to talk myself out of it or not but I'm hoping for maybe some of your thoughts even though I think I know what most of them will say! Well, maybe anyway.

Any comments, concerns, thoughts are very welcomed.
 
If you don't have a bandsaw (I don't have one either), there's always the drill then hacksaw between the holes method of cutting out your blanks. It works for me.

I can't help you with your hollow grinding dilemma. That's the main reason I waited to get my KMG before making a razor. I guess you could always make a true super-wedge, but honing would be a pain.
 
many fine pieces of cutlery were made with a hacksaw & good file work. remember some can do as much with a teaspoon as others can do with a D6 catepillar. dennis. [the desire to accomplish surpasses all the fancy tools]
 
Keep in mind, also, that fine knives AND razors -- many of them in high-demand to this day -- were made before the invention of modern power tools. Both belt grinders and bandsaws suitable for knife making are actually quite modern developments.
 
If you have the small belt grinder there is always the portable band saw option from Harbor Freight, not expensive and small enough to put away when you are done with it. I just picked up the Princess Auto version of it and think its going to make a big difference for my making speed. Up until now I was using a hack saw to cut out my blanks for knives or handing it off to a friend to cut out on his band saw. When I would send it to the friend I would purposely make the blank over sized and create more work for myself in the end because I would have to do that much more filing. I figure for less then 100 bucks you can't go wrong with it. I got mine through a friend that works for PA so I payed under $60 for mine but when on sale they are about $90.
I say go for it make the razor with what you have or get the band saw too and have fun learning how it is done:thumbup:
 
I think Butch uses a 10" wheel for his "wedge" razors, my personal favorite grind for razors.
 
The size of wheel depends on the width of the razor... a 10" wheel on a 8/8 razor would be a stiff grind, but you'd get a similar grind from a 8" or 6" wheel (guessing) for a 6/8 razor.

I have three razors heading to HT this weekend, and all are fairly hollow. they are 7/8 razors ground on a 3.5" wheel.

you can always rig some kind of wheel to do hollow work on (can you get to the wheel on the delta?).
 
Yes, I can get to the wheels. I upgraded the crappy plastic ones for a set of aluminum wheels and better bearings. They are 3" diameter, 1" wide and I can get to the top wheel but the frame keeps me from being able to utilize it.

I would love to see some pics of your straight razors!
 
Here is one I'm almost done with.
It's a 7/8 near 1/2 hollow, and I hope I don't ruin it.

I still need to finish the grind, polish to a mirror, and put scales on, but the work is almost done.

sway.jpg
 
That looks fantastic! What steel did you use? I love the look of shoulder-less razors! I would love to try out a custom razor but I think it's gonna be a long time before I can afford one...

Great looking blade there!
 
I wish I had a salt bath setup... Slick! You'd better post pics when she's done! What are you thinking for scales?
 
Ha ha... I wish I had one too.. a nice guy is giving me a hand with the salt, pics and scale designs are soon to come (to be honest I keep going back and forth on the materials and final shape).
 
What are you doing for heat treatment/forge? Or is it not needed for some reason?(not trying to be a smartass, I'm new to making knives/razors and I'm not sure if all types of steels need to be forged). I'd like to start making my own when I finish restoring the 20+ straights in my "to do" drawer. By the way, that's a great shape and the size is perfect. Good luck finishing it.
 
Burns420 said:
What are you doing for heat treatment/forge? Or is it not needed for some reason?(not trying to be a smartass, I'm new to making knives/razors and I'm not sure if all types of steels need to be forged). I'd like to start making my own when I finish restoring the 20+ straights in my "to do" drawer. By the way, that's a great shape and the size is perfect. Good luck finishing it.
Click to expand...

You don't need heat to make a razor yourself. I use stock removal technique and send my blades to Paul Bos for heat treat. Razors are so thin and small that you wouldn't even gain a speed advantage by forging to shape. I can get a blade profiled in the time it would take to just heat the a piece of barstock in the forge.

No steels "need" to be forged (unless you're smelting your own from iron ore). All commercial steel is forged in the steel mill by huge equipment. Hitting it with a hammer is nothing by comparison. Forging is just a way to get the steel into the rough shape you want (and you can use the forge to layer alloys for damascus).

Phillip
 
Ive been tinkering on 10 razors for the last 2 months . They are to say the least challenging,. I would not recommend anyone to try making them unless you have at least a 2x72 kmg type grinder or better. Yes man has made knives swords and razors for hundreds even thousands of years but the craftsmanship was passed down from generation to generation so there is a big difference. I knowing what I know now would not have started making razors until I have a vfd but I do now so I think it might be better .
 
Burns practice on the 20 you have in the drawer then you might have making handles figured out. I ruined 5 before I got one fixed lol but now I can make one handle from a block of wood or slab or horn in 20 min . But that is beacuse I have lots of equipement to the the job. Rescaling blades can be very self pleasing . I like doing razors from scratch because it is challenging.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top