After posting in the 'wootz razors' thread for a while, I felt like I was going a bit far off topic. So I decided to start this topic here that will serve 2 purposes. 1) I will post whatever ramblings related to razor smithing, where you can read them or not. 2) if you have a question you want a razor smith to answer, you can post them here, and I will answer them. Anyone who has posted in this thread will see a notification if something gets posted here so they can follow more easily. And if someone wants me to answer something in this thread, then I will see the notification when I log in. I don't have a whole lot of time for browsing here, and this way I probably won't miss any questions.
Someone asked about razors I made from a 1500s katana that was probably broken in actual battle. These are the blades. Keep in mind that these were made at a time when I didn't really understand anything about bringing out the hamon in a piece of steel so the pictures are really not that wonderful. I have 1 piece of that sword left, reserved for a commissioned piece. That one will come out waaay nicer. According to the information I got, this is a 15th century sword which was used in actual battle. As far as swords go, it is nothing special. It is like buying a second hand car. This isn’t a Porsche or Ferrari. It has 4 wheels and the engine still runs. But nonetheless, it is made from authentic tamahagane. From feedback in a group of Japanese sword experts: “Miyoshi Nagamichi Kanbun Era Iwashiro Province Miyoshi more like the name of the school or line of swordsmiths. The name belonged to two groups. One group from Oshu-Aizu, the other Mutsu. I have a feeling this is Miyoshi Denshiro of the Aizu group, later Miyoshi Toshiro, 3rd gen., sandai, Genroku period, who committed suicide and whose brother Miyoshi Masanaga was ordered to continue the line.”
If you are familiar with my work, then you know that by now, I use a LOT of fossil materials. Mammoth tusk, molar, fossilized ribs and other bones, .... There is a good reason for that. Firstly, my time is limited and so I prefer to work with exotic materials. Wootz, tamahagane, my own damascus, mammoth tusk, etc. I think it is more interesting, and I only have so much time so I focus on that. But there is a 2nd reason. Some of you guys know this story because I told it on other shaving fora, but I wanted to share it here as well since this is my 'ramblings' thread. Since this is an explanation of why I chose this route, I think it is topical. Years ago I made a Damascus knife with camel bone scales. It was a good knife and I loved the feel of the camel bone handle. But as it turned out, that is the one and only blade coming from my hands that will feature camel bone, on account of this little fella And his 12 friends When I told my youngest daughter I was making the knife with camel bone, she became upset. When I saw her a minute or 2 later she was crying her eyes out because camels are just so special to her (along with hippos). This was not pretend crying this was full out grief. So I had to calm her down, and eventually promise that I would not use camel bone anymore out of respect for her toy camels. Hippo bones are out for the same reason. Other bone or antler was ok, but fossilized was best of all because they died of natural causes thousands of years ago. My mammoth tusk and fossilize bones and molars were fine. I know it sounds silly, I could probably tell her to not be so sensitive but sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to make her feel that I respect her opinion. And this is one of those cases. I had 2 sets of bone. I used one, and was not going to buy any more. After considering things, I discussed it with my youngest and we decided to bury the remaining set next to the dead bird in the back of the garden so that the camel could go to heaven and keep great grandmother company. We held a small ceremony, with my daughter and one of the toy camels in attendance. My daughter held a short eulogy. And life was good again.
Don't worry. I will try to stay to razor related stuff. This is not going to be some 'random thoughts in my head' thread. But since this story is about why I took the course I took into exotic stuff, I thought it was appropriate to share.
That is a great story and I’m glad you shared. I was actually wondering about your materials and this was fun to read.
Here is a random thought. Forging doesn't make regular steel better. You'll hear about things like steel grain etc. That part is correct. Steel does have a grain, kinda like wood. But any modern steel has been rolled / squeezed to such a degree that the resulting bar has completely aligned grain. By the time a bladesmith gets his hands on that bar, any residual forging we might do achieves nothing. A stock removed knife or razor is just as good as a forged one if we work with modern steel. For tamahagane, the story is different of course. Tamahagane starts out as crunchy blobs of steel with slag and inclusions. The repeated folding and drawing drives out the impurities and will homogenize the carbon content. forging is what makes it cleaner and usable. Damascus steel, while pretty, is functionally no different from the plain tool steel you start with. At best, you get very pretty steel that is still as good as the original. Wootz requires forging because the dendritic carbides need to be stretched and elongated. So while forging has a specific role when working with exotic steel, for modern steel, the steel is already as good as it is going to get when you get your hands on it.
and at worst, you have the equivalent of two tin cans melted together and folded a bunch of times. We tend to call these things 'razor shaped objects.' They make great letter openers.
I would be very interested in your opinions on the Dovo manufacturing process, specifically how they punch out the blanks, harden the razors in a batch and then correct warped geometry by grinding them flat. How does that compare with your process?
The Dovo manufacturing process is more or less what I would use if I were mass producing things. Steel is cheap, time is expensive. The fact that their razors are always the same, in terms of shape, means that they can punch out the blanks efficiently and close to size. Have you ever wondered why Dovo makes 'straight' razors? It's because that is vastly more efficient to do in mass production. With their hollow grinder, they do the grinding by moving the blank back and forth. No worrying about curved geometry. And as you say, they can fix minor warp, and set bevels on a flat disc grinder. With smiling grinds this would be trickier. Dovo is a fine example on German Engineering: design something that can be manufactured efficiently, and then optimize the process to the fullest. Dovo does not make the best razors. But Dovo makes good razors in the most cost effective manner. This is also why they were among the first to switch to those hollow grinders. Full hollows have 1 huge advantage over other grinds: when used by ham fisted barbers who hone unevenly, no matter how much of the blade is worn away, you can always sharpen them easily because the bevel stays thin. As long as the blade is thin, the bevel stays thin. So they are pretty good, can function well under abuse, and can be made efficiently. My process is not at all the same. My blanks are forged to size, but less close. I grind each piece individually, and always make smiles because I think they are better for shaving. Note that on a proper smiling blade, the curve of the spine should follow the curve of the edge. There is also a lot of variation in my razors, in terms of size and design, so by necessity, I work every razor freehand, individually. Because I work with different sizes, and also different types of steel, each razor is heat treated individually. At heat treatment, there is about 1/16" thickness left at the at the edge. My razors don't warp. I have my process down well enough. Because my razors smile, there is also no easy way to make sure the edge is perfectly aligned. Instead, I do this by simple putting the razor on each side and rock it from heel to toe. I feel how the razor 'rocks' and if both sides rock properly. If one side doesn't rock properly, I simply remove a bit of metal at that side where it needs to be removed, and re-evaluate. When both sides are ok, I grind evenly until the edge reveals itself. At that point, the progression of high grit sanding and polishing begins. Going to skip that part here. Because all my razors differ from each other, I don't have standard scale sizes. I always trace the razor on cardboard and indicate where the pivot hole is. Then I draw the scales over the razor, and I cut them out. Then I trace that on the material I am working with to make the scales. So my process is opposite of Dovo's. I have organized myself and optimized my process for efficiently making individual pieces with different design, and they have organized themselves for making the same razor in large quantities efficiently.
This is me in Charlie Lewis' shop a couple of years ago. I demonstrate my technique for grinding edge down. I was the first to do this, and since then a couple of people use this technique. I discovered this technique kinda by accident after messing up a couple of razor way back when I started. When the wheel comes near the edge, the pitch of the sound changes. I use this change to guide me during grinding. Using this technique I grind until the edge literally turns to foil. And additional benefit of this is that this method is self correcting if you do it right, so the width of the razor and thickness of the edge is the same everywhere. Joe Calton was a bit skeptic at first because this is all freehand and guided only by sound. But he checked it with calipers and the thickness profile near the edge was literally micrometer accurate. This way of grinding is why the bevels on my razor are very thin.
Haha yeah this technique is purely my own. What Vic does is fundamentally different. Vic is the master of full hollows! I do't do full hollows.
One of the things that is important in choosing scales material is that I always try to buy whatever seems like it would work and is available. I don't buy fossil bone just when I need it. I don't buy mammoth only when I need it. Because if I do that, what I need may not be available, and it may be hard to guess from pictures if it will work or not. So if I find mammoth that is affordable and looks ok, I will buy it. If my friend has fossil bone that looks nice, I will buy it. If I see something with a very nice color, I will buy it. That way I always have a nice stock from which to choose. People like the idea of picking exactly what material they want on a knife / razor, instead of just saying 'some kind of...'. It involves them in the process, and removes uncertainty about what the end result will be like. Plus I don't need to spend weeks, hunting for something and waiting for it to come in. It also means that I have a large amount of money tied up in stock.
