Let's make a razor!

jaycey said:
Do razors have a different heat treatment than knives?

Lovely stuff Mike :)
Click to expand...

Hope not!

The unknown for me with heat treating razors is how much to grind before and after heat treatment. Steel has a tendency to warp at various points during HT and a blade that has a 6mm spine and other parts than are less than 1mm could scare the faint hearted.

The three I did today seem to have stayed straight :)
 
I reckon the term straight razor is something of a misnomer, Its little wonder any of them ever come out straight given as Mike pointed out, the changes in cross section.
It must make it easier to hone them if they are straight tho but a razor shouldn't be a write off if its a little less than as none of us have slab sided faces...IMO
Nice to see it working out well for you Mike
 
Yep that's the big question how much to grind before heat treatment Mike I've seen a few nice projects before and after heat treatment and once they come out and cool down the edge is a mess, I'm interested what are we talking about no less than 1mm or am I off the mark?
 
Cheers Terry :)

I'd say it's best to leave around 1mm on the edge, though there's a lot more to stopping blades warping than that. You need to get your grind even on both sides and how you quench is very important too.

Also I always do at least one normalisation or stress relieving cycle before hardening which basically means heating the steel up to what's called critical temp then letting it cool slowly. This removes the stresses in the steel and seems to result in a lot less bananas. Not to be confused with annealing.

All this and they still could turn out to be awful to shave with!
 
Mike, in my experience most razors have quite a defined spine - regardless of the shape. Effectively it's a straight line where the hollow grinding ends and although it may get a rounded appearance through buffing and polishing, as long as the spine is even it should make no difference to either honing or stropping.

I don't know if that answers your question but, if not, put some more detail in.
 
At least now I know what the hardest part is....Grinding the blade to an even thickness at the edge



Here I have set the bevel with a fairly coarse diamond stone. There is probably a difference of 0.1mm between the thickest and thinnest part of the blade but, as you can see this has a huge impact on the width of the bevel. When I say huge it's of course all relative.

This is after setting the bevel and going back to the grinder to try and even things out for a good few hours! I am beginning to doubt my ability to do this :(
 
If it was easy, we all would be doing it!
Having looked at your knives, I do not doubt your ability from just seeing them online. As with everything in life the second one will be easier and by this time next year you will be knocking them out in your sleep :)

It looks very good to my eyes.
 
Hi Mike - what are the dimensions of spine and blade width (from where the spine first hits the hone to edge)? It could be that you need to use tape.

The other potential issue is the spine itself - as opposed to the edge. Unless it's just the way light is falling, the hone line near the spine appears to be bowed and this also co-incides with the wider bevel. Maybe you were applying more pressure in the mid part of the blade than the ends?

In any event, you are being harsh on yourself after a first attempt.
 
It's 20mm wide and 6mm thick. I did hone it using one layer of tape so the angle should be ok.

I'm sure you right about the spine playing a part. The spine is pretty consistent in thickness but the width is a bit wobbly.

I'll keep trying....
 
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