Some of my first straights - need to make mwoar razors!

Andre Grobler

Well-Known Member
I am a straight razor novice, but i like them!!! These are all O1 and wood scales
 

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I really like those. Great job. I too would be interested to know what size wheel was used for the grind.
 
Beautiful work. I want to make one but I have no idea where to start. or get parts for it to work. any suggestions?
 
Straightrazor place forum has a lot of info... there be snooty people but lots of theory about geometry... basics...

Cutting edge between 2” and 3”, grindheight 3.5-4x blade thickness... cutting edge 4/1000th”? or 0.1mm or less...
 
Work in progress… the kamisori is off to its new owner, the others part of a new batch for a local wetshaving shop..
 

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Cool. Is Straight Razor Place still open? I recall they had some issue where someone took the name or something like that.I also agree about some of the snooty people on there. EXPERTS (all caps) who don't want to hear anything even if you have been messing with steel for longer than they have. God help you if you suggest some alternate method. :D
 
There were a few knowledgeable people there, but you didnt get metallurgical or material science info there… but Spending waaaay too much time there long ago was useful for scale function and geometry…
 
There were a few knowledgeable people there, but you didnt get metallurgical or material science info there… but Spending waaaay too much time there long ago was useful for scale function and geometry…
Like one one bigger "experts" who poo pooed the idea of using 52100 because it was "too hard to hone." If you weren't using O1 or O2, you were apparently wrong. (this guy was from Western Europe, IIRC) This guy used something close to a "get it hot, get it wet" heat treatment regimen. But then again, this was the same guy who said that I was an uninformed idiot when it came to metallurgy because I hadn't made a razor yet. You are right about the scales. Some of the technique involved in making them work can initially be kind of counterintuitive to a knifemaker.
Edit. The name of the new SR Place is Straight Razor PALACE. It is still active, but not so much in the razor making subsections. I don't know if the razor "craze" has continued on Instagram, etc or if it has died down a bit like things typically do. In the case of some of the ktichen knife forums. they went back to their blind worship of all things Japanese or so it would appear. ;)
 
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I dunno for razors and kitchen knives… i get it as hard as i can, because i have one of those beards that just seems to dull most razors fairly fast… no issues with honing as long as geometry is fine… as usual… diamonds are the great equaliser… heresy i know…

which is exactly why i bought a thick bar of 52100 today… after exclusively using O1 and inadvertently O2… for all my razors…

i hope it does well, am researching 52100 ht now, but on all accounts it doesn’t get much harder than O1 without cryo…
 
I am interested… i want a hard razor for the difficult beards… at what tempering temps?
That would be "as quenched." Looks like I missed that up in my first comment.

I never personally have tempered below 300F. I would expect something around 64-64.5 HRC at that temp. I normalize 1650F and do two cycles at 1460F followed by cooling in still air. Then austenitize at 1475F - 1500F for 10 min.
 
Most older straights would never have been that hard. But who knows as the makers sere sometimes using some fairly effective if not rather dangerous heat treating methods involving stuff like molten lead. With that said, I read years ago that DRY whiskers on someone who shaves regularly are about like copper wire. ;)
 
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