Straight Razor WP

[Tony Manifold]

I bought my self some 2" by 1/8" AEB-L to make some chef knives and I decided to attempt a straight razor with some of the left overs. Once I was done cutting out the knife blank I was left with a piece about 5" by 1". I roughed out the shape until I ended up with this.



Next I flat ground the bevels. I ground the bevels pretty close up to the spine as I want a nice acute angle. If my google trig skills are up to par, that will put me at about 7 degrees inclusive. Here is where I left off tonight.



I rounded the edge a little and am still not to happy with the tail. I think I will finish it to a 220 then send it off to heat treat. I think a nice ebony set of scales would look nice in the end. I will keep you updated.

 

[Tony Manifold]

I think I am ready for heat treat with this one. Bevels are ground, I got a rough finish on it to make sure I got all the high and low spots. I added some real basic file work. I didn't want anything intricate that could get clogged with soap scum.

 

[Mike Martinez]

Good try on a first Straight Razor. Here are some things to keep in mind if you choose to make a working razor with which to shave.

1: the spine of the razor acts like a sharpening guide when honing so you need an angle between 16 to 17 degrees to get a proper shaving edge

2: to achieve this angle your blade width and thickness need to be within certain ranges

3: with a 1" wide blade, your spine needs to be about .250 to .275 to form the correct angle

4: your whole blade needs to be uniformly ground, any variation in thickness will cause issues in honing

5: leaving a shoulder near the plunge line too wide or too prominent will keep you from honing the heel correctly

6: as you hone, the edge will mimic the spine in geometry, if your spine isn't uniform but your edge is, it will distort your edge

7: you need to have a longer shank/tang to allow for proper honing, stropping and use

8: Finish your grinding/sanding pretty close to final dimensions to lessen post HT work

9: Final edge thickness post HT prior to honing should be no more than .005 but is best around .002 ( you want as short a bevel as possible)

10: To hone you will need at minimum water stones in 1K, 4K, 8K, 12k, Chromium strop and leather strop

I hope this helps to get you going.

Regards,
Mike

 

[Tony Manifold]

So I decided to put a little more work into this one. I made it a little narrower from edge to spine to make a less acute angle. I also tried to get the bevel right up to the spine. I know the tang is short but this is just for me to try out the concept so I am not worried about it. I will only sporadically shave with it ( I use a Mekur safety razor with Astra blades and love it). Hopefully, I can prove the concept and then I can add the occasional straight razor to my inventory. As with high quality kitchen knives, there seems to be a resurgence in their use due to an increased popularity in traditional shaving methods. Plus it's fun and the increased level of precision needed can only improve my overall skills. I will post one more set of pics just before I send it for heat treat. Any tips on hardness? AEB-L is capable of 62 HRC w/ cryo and I would assume hard is good.