Hobbyist DE Razor Showcase

CeraKote refinish on a Contract Tech.

That is pretty cool. I have also played with Moly Resin (used by the government and a competing product to Cerakote), and I am very impressed with these baked-on finishes.

A friend of mine coated it for me. I bought the razor with the intent of having him coat it and I think it turned out great, plus, he got to use it for his first DE shave! I may have a convert!

Your skills are incredible. Beautiful work.

I am also starting to do knurling on Titanium, for these DE handles - still work in progress, but here are a few things I am trying/working on:






If you guys are interested, I can post additional photos and a short video on the Titanium knurling.

Now that I have the flood coolant running running on the lathe, I tried again the cut knurler, and the results were much, much better. Here on the left I am setting up the OD - the portion on the right was the one I did last time which came out OK:





Just two passes, one at 0.008" and the second (a cleaning pass) at 0.010":





The finish was even better (new on the left, and previous on the right):








The knurling came out nice enough that I decided to go ahead and make a DE handle out of this portion, so I am cutting of the previous piece, then cleaned it up:








Not too bad for a newbie:








Not that anyone would shave with it, but it looks cool:





Here I started drilling and tapping the new DE handle:

not gonna lie, i would aim for a BBS with the short handle.


amazing stuff man.

A few more work-in-progress pictures. I first tried cutting the cone from the back, but did not have enough clearance:





So I changed it to the other side:







Perfect fit:



Then I applied my preferred grooves, although I came with a slightly different pattern for this handle (2.6" long):



Cut and face the back:



Finished Ti DE handle:

I want that brush.

Hear me?

I WANT THAT BRUSH!

Excellent work, sir - verrrrry nice.

I decided to try and make a large or Magnum-size Ti handle, and I decided to knurl it as I did with the smaller/shorter handle. Here are the WIP pictures - I hope you will enjoy them.


Facing to start the drill operation:



Drilling:



Start the tap (so that it is concentric to the hole:



Create the thread relief with a chamfer cutter:



Turn to the right ID to match the 25 teeth knurler wheel in my Dorian knurler:








Cut a bevel to easy the knurlers when starting to cut:



This is the slowest part - the actual cutting of the knurl:











Trim the large handle:



Face the base of the handle:



Setup in the lathe to cut the cone:



Cutting the cone (multiple passes, about 0.010" per pass - very slow process):



Cone is finished:



Comparison on a long handle EJ 89 - before and after, and with the short handle for comparison:

A couple more pictures of the new Ti handles with various DE heads:

I am trying an asymmetric knurl here in this fat & shorty Ti DE handle:



Doing the cone:





End result:

Hmmm, travel razor handles?

Looking good Will!

very cool!

Kentos said:

Hmmm, travel razor handles?

Looking good Will!

Click to expand...

Merkur25 said:

very cool!

Click to expand...

Thank you guys. I actually have that midget/travel-size handle being evaluated by a 3-rd party, along with the two other knurled Ti handles.

Wow! I am always impressed with what a machinist can make!

happy birthday kats... I think i am too late but my wishes are with you....

Just finished another Ti DE handle - here shown with an EJ89 head:

Okok said:

Like many posters, I am fascinated to see the details of the machining process. I work in industrial sales, and in the upper Midwest at least, we still have a bunch of hard-goods manufacturers. There are so many talented people who work in these facilities. I'm often in awe of their capabilities. Beautiful work, wquiles.

Click to expand...

Thanks much

I just finished this custom Ti DE handle for a customer in Europe. Here is how the finished handle looks compared to the raw bar on the back:



Here are the work in progress pictures. First, double check tailstock and spindle bore alignment:



Drill and tap. Start the tap on the lathe (to ensure concentricity):



Finish the tap by hand:



Cut the cone:





Clean and true the OD:



Do the shallow grooves:



Then cut the deeper grooves:





Trim excess (customer gave me a target length of 85-90mm):



Clean/face the base of the DE handle:



Here (2nd, going left to right), is the customer's new handle. Specs (left to right) rounding to nearest mm:
89mm long, 17mm wide, 2.7oz
88mm long, 17mm wide, 2.8oz (customer's handle)
73mm long, 16mm wide, 2.4oz
67mm long, 17mm wide, 1.7oz
53mm long, 17mm wide, 1.6oz





Customer's new handle on an EJ89:



Customer's new handle on an Gillette NEW:



Close-up on tip and threads (M5x0.8):