Thread: First Custom: 17/16 Spanish Point in Ivory

I first need to thank both Brian and Charlie for various advice given on heat treating and grinding and for putting up with my endless questions. Guys - thank you!

I finally got around to getting this done before Christmas. Steel is 1084 and double tempered at 400°. The razor is approximately 17/16 to 9/8 wide. Slight smiling edge and Spanish point. I learned a ton going through this and hopefully will use what I learned to only get better. I left the edge about 0.008 - 0.010" wide after the final grind and it took me 2-3 hours worth of work on my chosera 400 and 1K to get the bevel set. In the future I will go thinner or get a coarser chosera to begin the work. After that it was coticule as usual for me and since I'm home visiting family that was as far I as I took it because I didn't want to pack other stones. It's popping hairs now with ease mid shaft and I will have a very special Christmas day shave tomorrow.

Scales are Ivory with an aluminum wedge. I didn't have a lot of Ivory to work with so they are narrower than I had wanted and thus had to thin the wedge spacer quite a bit to make sure the razor wouldn't stick out from the scales when closed. The wedge is tapered despite what it appears but only very small as it was getting too thin to work with. There are a couple surface microcracks on the ivory, but that is how the blanks came and I think it adds a little character. They definitely don't pose any risks.

Any advice/constructive criticism is more than welcome. I already know I need to work on my filing on future razors and also on keeping an even grind. I will probably take future razors thinner on the final grind as well to make honing not such a PITA.

Clean classy and great workmanship, you rock. That is a very nice razor, for a first razor it is amazing.

Charlie

Thanks Charlie!

I also decided to make my family knives for xmas (mom and dad, and 2 brothers and their families).

Having never made a knife, I decided to just wing it. Started with 1095 steel and flat ground my stock (0.155" thick) to 0.09-0.1" thick, drill the holes, stamped and heat treated. After tempering I convex ground the edges as thin as I could and made handles from resin stabilized burl in different colors. Having never made knife handles I can say that they are an exercise and straight razor handles are much easier at this point for me. They came out ok, but I can nitpick over each one. There was still some rogue buffing marks on the handles before snapping the photos (that I only noticed after) so that is the marks you see.

Each was sharped on a beston 500, 1200, and Suehiro Rika 5K and I'm just glad they all took an edge as they barely fit in my little forge (they are all ~210 mm long by 45-48mm wide at the heel).

I had to sharpen each at a 20-25° angle, so not ideal, but they all took nice edges. I wish I could have sharpened them at more like a 10-15° angle, but the way I ground them that simply wasn't possible.

I need to read up more on gyuto grinding before trying some more as I get the feeling that maybe they are more of a "v" grind thin to the edge? I actually don't own a true gyuto to compare.

Anyway, here they are and I hope my family likes them in the morning. I think they came out ok for my first ones, but I definitely have a lot to improve on.



(that actually isn't the bevel on the knife on the right in these pics, but just a reflection of light. The bevels are pretty narrow on these).

looks great. i think your family have a nice present whit those knifes.

Congratulations, the razor is beautiful and the knives are gorgeous.

Joe, only one word can express what I'm thinking right now: WOW!

That is really impressing work you've done here, with a razor like that at first try it won't be long until you're competing with the well experienced custom makers around here.


You might as well write me up on your list at once

Very nice work.

Harvitz, my dear friend, your razor soars with majesty. Did you say it is your first attempt at making a custom razor? Good heavens, man, you should be proud with such talented hands. Well done.

Very nice. the Al. wedges look great with the steel and ivory!

Wow you truly have a gift. They are all amazing creations. Well done!!!