Thread: Hope this isn't a stupid question

Hey there guys,

If you want to get into making razors from scratch, is a forge the only way to do it? Is it not possible to work roughly cut piece of steel down to the finished product via grinders and polishers?

The reason I ask is that I'm hoping to get into this but a forge is out of the question for me.

My apologies if you've heard this question umpteen times before but I'm new, and not to bright.

Originally Posted by Arcanum

Hey there guys,

If you want to get into making razors from scratch, is a forge the only way to do it? Is it not possible to work roughly cut piece of steel down to the finished product via grinders and polishers?

The reason I ask is that I'm hoping to get into this but a forge is out of the question for me.

My apologies if you've heard this question umpteen times before but I'm new, and not to bright.

Grinders and polishers work just fine.

You will still need a small furnace to harden
and temper the steel. There is a thread
not too old with a one brick furnace for heat
treating razor steel in it.

you can purchase steel from places like Crucible , then cut grind heat treat etc by your self

In the knifemaking world it is known as 'stock removal'. As far as heat treating, some custom makers do the grinding/polishing and what have you and send their blades out to be heat treated. A pro heat treat business will have all of the bells and whistles to insure the highest quality. Maybe not necessary but I've heard some razor makers do that rather than getting into the heat treat and tempering.

Thanks a lot guys.

I'm a complete novice and want to know it all! Basically the way I see it is that if I can gain as much info as I can before I take the plunge into fitting out a small workshop of sorts, my garage, then less chance of ending up with the wrong types of equipment, tools, materials and such. So if there's anything you think I should know, no matter how inconsequential you think it might be, please tell me.

Ok, I didn't know about tempering the steel after working it. I'll go off and find out as much as I can about that process, just so I know what's involved. Heat treating myself may be something I could do in the future but if there are companies local that can do it for me I think that's the best thing to do, at least to start with. I assume before handing the blades over for tempering they would have to be as finished as possible but not sharpened and honed? For safety purposes and to avoid and damage to the razor edge itself.

If you know of any good you-tube videos that demonstrate the proses I'd be really grateful for a link. It's always a huge help to see it happen rather than just read about it.

Thanks again.

If you go into the Workshop forum and look for archived posts by Mike Blue and LR Harner among others you'll find some good tips. A book on knifemaking might be a good idea too. A lot of the same equipment is used. If you haven't any experience with lathes and milling machines taking a course in a machinists school would help a lot IMO.

Hey there Jimmy,

Thanks for the input mate, I've made a note of the names you mentioned and I'll be sure to do a couple of searches, like I say I'm willing to take on board any and all info available.

I've been looking to get some books and DVDs on relevant subjects. . . But I'm in England and there doesn't seem to be much on offer over here. Can you suggest any good ones? If I have a specific book or DVD to look for I might be able to order them, or catch them on ebay.

I've been looking for a course to do but there's nothing relevant available, it's all general stuff that covers a multitude of varying practices, but I'll keep looking.

Thanks for the good luck, I think I might need it.

Ah, there's a bunch of stuff going over your way. PM sent.

Look for Bob Engnath's library on line. You can't go wrong with his tutorials.

Bladeforums.com is a very good resource. You need to read the pdf by Verhoven ( spelling?) that will give you a good dose of the basics in metal.
There are dvd's available on hollow grinding. In the Wiki there is now a brief tutorial on hollow grinding.
Some guys use a waterjet service to cut the razor blanks out of the steel, then grind the razor blank, send it out for heat treating and tempering, then finish grind the blade. Del1r1um just posted a thread on this.
Your primary tool will be a grinder, check out KMG and Bador grinders and also usaknifemakers.com if you want to build your own grinder.
This is a start.
here is the Verhoeven info

Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Others
who Heat Treat and Forge Steel
John D. Verhoeven
Emeritus Professor
Iowa State University

Here is a link to download the pdf
[URL="http://www.feine-klingen.de/PDFs/verhoeven.pdf"[/URL]


Hope this helps, enjoy the journey,

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Ah, there's a bunch of stuff going over your way. PM sent.

Look for Bob Engnath's library on line. You can't go wrong with his tutorials.

Thanks Mike, got the PM.

And thanks for telling me about the Bob Engnath's library, found and bookmarked, lots of stuff to read there.