Thread: F. Herder blanks

I didn't see anyone else post this. I found F. Herder blanks for sale. Here is the link F. Herder™ Razor Blade Blank Grabbag These are in the very early stage of production but some even have the F. Herder stamp on them. For 10 bucks I fugured why the heck not. lol Now just to fugure how the heck I'm gonna grind these.

I remember seeing these a long time ago. IIRC I contacted the vendor and asked pics of individual blades to choose the ones I wanted. IIRC again, he answered something like: "You'll have to wait and see what I send you."

I have done biz w/ SMKW in the past. I'm sure some of the craftsmen here could really create some fine razors w/ those blanks.

I'll tell you real soon...about ten days from now and I'll see what they send me.
~Richard

I would have bought some a long time ago but they wouldnt let me pick what I wanted, so screw them.

would those Herder blanks only require polishing and honing, or would they require heat treating, etc?

I'd love to polish, hone and scale them, assuming that is all the work they really need.

Those blanks are industrial forgings which have been (hopefully) heat treated and are now ready for hollow grinding, polishing and then sharpening.

Such blanks always have a good bit of extra metal to allow for the grinding process. In theory, you could polish and sharpen them without doing that grinding, but you would end up with kind of a thick end result

I have to stress that (big unknown) question as to whether or not these forgings have actually been heat treated. They might have been from a batch that never quite made it to the furnaces.

To quote from the web page:

"Level of completion may vary due to the abrupt end of production caused by the war."

To my eye it looks like the pivot holes were never stamped/drilled and that would suggest that these are still in unhardened condition.

As well as some appear to have no makers marks on the tang yet, those would also be un hardened, right?

The heat treating is definitely the question. If anyone finds out..........

I ordered 2 batches just to see if there was a variety. There isn't, you get exactly what is shown in their pic. The 2 little ones have tang stamps and have been heat treated. The others are right out of the forge, no stamps and soft. I plan to take one to a metallurgical lab to have it spark tested so I will know how to heat treat them. None of them have had the hollows ground. This is going to take a lot of time and sweat but hopefully rewarding experiance. Now I gotta get my hands on one of those fancy grinders they use. lol