Thread: An experiment in steel

I recently decided to try my hand at making my own razor...
From scratch...
Not having very much experience in metal work, I did a lot of reading
this is my first attempt (still in progress)
I started with a piece of high carbon tool steel from one of the knife supply places.
I cut it down with a hand held grinder.
(Did I mention I intend to do this for under $100)


I used a standard bench grinder with 6inch grinding wheels
and ground out the rough shape I wanted.


and drilled the pivot hole.

some careful grinding work, and I have a basic hollow grind...


I'm in the process of polishing the blade now and hope to have more to add very soon.
But so far I can conclude that the basic shaping of the blade can be done without all of the specialty tools and sanders...
Although using a grinder is tedious...

I'm going to give a go at this myself once I have a little time to spare. Out of curiosity, did you get the steel online or some place local to you?

Very cool! I look forward to more pics. The blade looks very nice, I like the shape.

Charlie

Originally Posted by wpfontenot

I'm going to give a go at this myself once I have a little time to spare. Out of curiosity, did you get the steel online or some place local to you?

purchased at Texas knife supply
none of my local suppliers had anything better than 1040

Looks to be on the right track from here. How do you plan to heat treat it?

Please keep us updated when you can, thank you.

Looks like you're off to a great start. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

More hollow grinding
and a bit more shape to the tail...


Filing jimps on the tang, and a little something on the spine...



and a profile shot...

I don't plan on taking this one to a mirror finish...
too much work without the belt sanders...
so it will be a rough looking blade, but it's big anyway (8/8ths)

The heat treat is going to be the kicker, because I'm determined to see if it can be done with a bare bones setup, I am going to make a small forge using some fire bricks and a propane torch.
I plan on heating the blade until it becomes non-magnetic using several of those cheap magnets-on-a-stick..
I will then "soak" it for about 1 minute, and quench in warm peanut or motor oil
(I found these instructions in a knife book)

If I wasn't determined to do it myself, I would be calling on MikeBlue or Robert Williams to see if they would temper it for me. (hey, it never hurts to ask)

Assuming the blade doesn't crack or warp, I plan on hand sanding the blade to a satin finish, and scaling it in olive or satine.

Any suggestions for placing a makers mark on it?

Mike, there have been an uncountable number of serviceable blades heat treated according to that recipe. Go for it!

Tempering will be easy. The trick there will be to avoid overshooting the best temperature for the steel you're using. Kitchen ovens work fine if SWMBO receives a very good explanation. The peanut oil is best, it smells like you've been making cookies, where used motor oil does not.

You'll have scale on the blade after heat treating so get ready to do more grinding to clean things up. Although firescale is a durable finish when oiled. Really, you only need to sharpen the cutting edge...

If you were going to engrave or hammer it in, now is the time to put your mark on, while the steel is still soft. You can etch the mark on any time later.