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My first hand made straight.

Since I have access to some grinders at work, among other power tools, I asked my boss if I could use them to make my own straight. Once he realized I was serious he said I could. So off to the bay. I ordered a piece of 1095 tool steel at 1/4 in thick and 1 1/2 X 7 3/4. I was hoping to get two razors out of it. Unfortunately the band saw blade at work was duller than dirt.... So I used a sawzall, and got lucky and got two razor shaped objects. I then took the razor shaped objects to the grinders and sanders and they came out looking like this:

$Made by me 002.jpg

Then I covered them in steel blue and scribed center lines on them with a drill bit the same diameter as the steel thickness.

$Made by me 003.jpg

Then off to the surface grinder to take out more steel before heat treating.

$Made by me 006.jpg
$Made by me 007.jpg

Now for the heat treating. I tried Texas Knife Supply, but they don't HT 1095. They suggested Lee Oates. The maker of Bearclaw Knives. So off they went, and when they came back they looked like this.

$Finished straight 1 008.jpg

Back to work with it and I knocked the crud off with a 1" belt sander and then put the first one on the surface grinder. I pre ground a couple washers and cut them in half to act as spacers under the ground side so the magnet didn't pull it down at an angle. I also had to be careful about dressing the grinding wheel. The way it wore while I was grinding worked out well for getting the wedge shape. I got pretty lucky there...


To be continued
 
Here is a pick of the shape of the blade.

$Finished straight 1 005.jpg

And here is the finished product. The final thickness at the edge wass .010 inches. I had to stop there because I couldn't grind any more without the heat affecting the temper. This made it a pain in the *** to hone. I bought a DMT fine/extra fine and was seriously worried about wearing it out. For the next one I'll probably get a coarse/extra coarse. It took a very long time to set the bevel, but I finally got it after three days of working on it. I'll find out tomorrow how it shaves. I shaved already today.

$Finished straight 1 002.jpg

$Finished straight 1 003.jpg

$Finished straight 1 006.jpg

$Finished straight 1 007.jpg

This was a fun project, and I still have one left to finish. I decided to finish one at a time so I could make any necessary adjustment's in my process.

Special thanks to Brian Brown. A true gentleman who answered all my questions, and encouraged me to do this. I couldn't have done this without Badger and Blade and all the member's here who's tips and tricks I used.

Thanks for looking.
 
Thanks guy's. This really was a lot of fun to do. Now I need to figure out a holder for it.

diyguy- go ahead and do it. I would love to see what you come up with.
 
My vote, wrap in hemp and CA seal it.

I meant something to set it on when I'm not using it. I was going to wire wrap the handle but SWMBO, who never really said much about my razors before, said no. She like's it the way it is. The next one will have a wire wrapped handle and I will coat it with CA, or something else to seal it.
 
Very nice work. I miss working in a machine shop more and more when I see everyone posting stuff they made. Maybe one day I'll buy my own equipment. Nice job I can't wait to see how it shaves. You could use a wine cork with a slot cut in it to stand it up between shaves. Don't know if this is the best route but I have seen people do it before.
 
You cut '!095' Tool Steel with a Sawzall...They look laser or water jet cut.....How many hours do you have in these ?
 
Very nice! I been debating about which steal to use for my first one. I'm just going to buy the stuff do my own heat treating. I studies metallurgy and did a lot of heat treating in college. Actually miss playing with metal. I doubt I could have pulled that off with sawzall!
 
I LOVE IT!!!

i am not the only guy who does this at work when i should be doing something else!!

very nice effort!
 
You cut '!095' Tool Steel with a Sawzall...They look laser or water jet cut.....How many hours do you have in these ?

The pics are after about two hours of grinding and sanding. They looked a lot rougher after I finished with the sawzall.

Very nice! I been debating about which steal to use for my first one. I'm just going to buy the stuff do my own heat treating. I studies metallurgy and did a lot of heat treating in college. Actually miss playing with metal. I doubt I could have pulled that off with sawzall!

You could do it. I didn't take pics after the sawzall work, just after shaping the blades on the grinders and a big belt sander.

I LOVE IT!!!

i am not the only guy who does this at work when i should be doing something else!!

very nice effort!

Thanks Paco. You're the one who got me off my dead a@# to finally do this. I love you're work.

I forgot to put the blade dimensions in the description. It is 7" long, with a 1" blade width.

Thanks for all the nice words everyone.
 
I really like it! I've had the utmost respect for people that can do stuff like this, particularly blade making. A very nice example indeed.
 
+1. Nice work.
Unfortunately I don't think I would get to far using the "tools" here at work. Trying to cut 1095 tool steel with computer cords, printouts and hard drives might take a bit longer than a millennium!
Can't wait to see how the other one turns out.
 
Thanks guys. I appreciate the kind words.The second one looks a lot better initially. I finished the one I was least happy with first so I could learn from it.

I finally got it honed up. It took a lot longer than usual to hone. I was worried about the edge, so I took it to work and looked at it under the microscope. It looked terrific, it just wasn't sharp enough. So this morning I took it back to my coticule and chinese finisher, followed by 1, .5, .25 micron diamond and then chromium oxide. All on bench strops. It took an amazing edge. At least as sharp as my Henckels Friodour. I got bit by the tip, but I blame that on the excitement of using something I made to shave with. :innocent:

Overall, an excellent shave. I am so glad I did this, and I encourage all you guys who have been thinking about this to just do it.

It is going to be very difficult to reach for any other razor for quite a while I think. At least until I finish the second one....
 
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