Id like some input on this process. Im starting school again after some years to become a machinist, so I will have access to lathe's, mill, CNC heat treatment, etc. I was wondering what those of you who make their own ex. Bill etc, use and recommend to produce your own products.
It depends on what you want to make. I doubt Bill Ellis, Zowada and the others will reveal their secrets, but I think they use belt grinders and such. If you want to make full hollow ground razors, though, prepare for a 10year+ training and the search for a hollow-grinding machine as well as someone who can teach you (the last people who know how to do it can be found in Solingen and Thiers).
Frank Warner uses a mill or CNC machine (not sure which) for cutting his hollow grind into razors. Try contacting him through www.franksknives.com for some info/advice.
CNC would definitely work for the hollow grind. Just need to size the tool correctly. Most of the 'secrets' are in the heat treat. Don't make razors myself, so I'm no help there.
I do not know what the rules are on posting a link to another board. If I would be out of line posting it here please let me know. For now I will just PM the link to Turbo- I would like to post it for all to see but again would hate to be out of line so early in my posting "career" here. In the mean time, Bill Ellis has posted a wealth of information including what materials he uses and a brief overview of his grinding the blades on a sander. I am waiting to see the heat treatment...
Feel free to link to every site you like (as long as it's of value to the thread and doesn't link to illegal pages )
Great, thanks. I figured for anybody else who was interested... http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=53879 Bill has even mentioned what steel he is using (I figured it would be more of a "trade secret", but he is very open about the process.)
There is an entire forum section devoted to this on SRP http://www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/forge/
