First shot at custom razor from scratch: san mai/damascus 8/8 smileing frameback

So here it is I still have plenty of work left but I'm happy so far, nice and evenly worked. I plan on doing a damascus spine with lots of file work so when honing the damascus will show everwhere that has been filed and pinning it to attach. The blade is san mai and getting a few jimps. I think I will grind it to a wedge with a very shallow angle just a couple °'s or so (without the frame) for more feedback. The scales are still up in the air but I have a variety of stabilized burl, ebony, and some abalone for inlays. Any suggestions welcome. Feel free to post pics of some amazing customs or some tricks on getting a frame back right

Wow! How did you do the hagane/jigane layering for the sanmai?

Very nice. Looking forward to more.

stoop said:

Wow! How did you do the hagane/jigane layering for the sanmai?

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No I didn't do it myself but once the new forge is up and going I'm going to try some. Its a hitachi white paper core and some low carbon sides. I can't wait to see the contrast hardened, but the soft sides means it's gotta be frameback.

Not much time to work yesterday but still a little progress

That looks very nice so far.

Marking the centerline I first colored the edge with sharpie then used a drill bit larger than half the width of the razor and scribed one side all the way around, then the other. This gives us the size I will reduce to before HT. It's about the width of a nickle

The start of the rough grind, love that little offset. guess what tools I'm using

i thought frame backs were made of two separate pieces of metal?

I am enjoying these posts. Thanks!

Yep I still have to put the back on it. This whole razor has been made so far with a hack saw, and swiss, diamond and standard files. The only part I plan on using power tools for is cutting the channel in the back and drilling the holes. Although I could do the holes with my spiral push screwdriver i'd rather have them straight.

So here it is again I know it doesn't look like much has been done but it's been hours of fileing. To anyone thinking about this, be determined and work both sides at the same time exactly the same way. One file on both sides before moving to the next, You'll never be able to get them the same without identical processes. Here it is:

I'm very happy now just a little file work on the tang, a lot of sanding, a hole, some jimps, and getting the spine cut, curved, filed, drilled and sanded then it will be ready for HT. Then some more work. This takes a lot I can easily see why customs are expensive.

Doing all this work with just files is something else. You must be a man with a lot of patience. Great job so far.

Time for another update its been alot of work. I sanded and filed a whole lot more. This is the first razor or knife or anything like this i've built so im very happy and have plans for a few more. I think the others will be a little simpler after this, i kinda went for the toughest coolest thing i could think of.

Im so happy with these jimps. Now im just waiting on the special material for the spine to come it shipped 2-day today. so more work with that soon and then hopefully the heat treatment treats me well. so excited!

Look pretty good!
My one concern would be tang shape and how it's going to affect stropping. Looks like your hand going to be in a bit of a funny position .
Also, what's the razor spine thickness and razor width. Is that 5.5mm suminagashi steel?

MileMarker60 said:

Look pretty good!
My one concern would be tang shape and how it's going to affect stropping. Looks like your hand going to be in a bit of a funny position .
Also, what's the razor spine thickness and razor width. Is that 5.5mm suminagashi steel?

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Ive been paying some attention to this, when stroping my index finger sits on top of the point right behind the first finger groove, not much harder than some of my razors with taller spines, a few seconds of playing and it doesnt seem much of an issue. Alternatively it rolls quite nice with just my index and thumb in the second finger groove. Ill report more on this when the handle is on, but this was def a secondary concern for this razor since i use a long paddle strop. Ill admit this one is more for a great and flashy shave than ease of honing and stropping.

The steel was 3/16" thick and now sanded and everything the back is 1/8". The width of the blade 1" and i have a 1/4" rod coming for the spine. also, it will be honed taped since im using a special material for the spine

looking great, hope to see the final product soon

Wow, very impressive. How did you acquire the blade?

I went went for acquiring the blade on ebay for my first, knife forums had great reviews and it was in my my budget for something sorta fancy for a first. Now I have a few more pieces of steel from knife supply places that I'll put to use soon. I'm gonna start work on them then I'll get them all sent for professional heat treat at the same time. So little break in posting this one, but I'll Def be posting progress on the others.