If you’re not overreaching, occasionally, you’re probably not fully exploring your options.
Something gave me the idea of challenging Mike Poor to a “straight razor bake-off” so I promptly did. I have no idea what Mike came up with but it’s going to be pretty good. To make matters more exciting, Mike posted about the challenge and several other bladesmiths asked if they could play. I’m not sure what the final field looks like (it’s smaller than the Democratic candidacy for 2020) but there are several professional bladesmiths involved, and Fans of the Forge has agreed to serve as judges.
My first attempt failed. Or, rather, I failed it. The metal came out great and as I was grinding it, I dropped it on the floor. It landed on its spine so I thought, “whew” until I picked it up and saw that a great big crack had formed across the edge. So much for that. I use it as a box cutter now.
Attempt #1:
To get the sawtooth pattern, I took two pieces of 1095 in a vise and hacksawed away madly, then laid them up on either side of a chunk of 15N20 and welded it down. You can see there are still weld-lines in there; more grinding took them out. It was perhaps a bit flashy but I liked the idea.
There was one problem with that concept, though: as I hollow-ground to the edge, the teeth started to get thinner and thinner and I nearly lost them completely. The sawtooth design is probably OK for a thicker blade but not a razor or a cooking knife. It’d be fun to make a sword blade like that.
Attempt #2 I decided to go for “classy” or something, and made a bar of 1″ x 1″ damascus from 1095 wire rope. I let Mister Happy Dancing Bandsaw cut that up into 1″ cubes, which I arranged into face up, face horizontal, face vertical pattern, then welded back into a bar. My thinking was that there’d be these cool patterns on the sides from the vertical wires in the rope. As it happened, I got some texture but not really much. Oh, well. I was running out of time for another attempt so this was going to be the horse I had to ride.
The wood of the cover is red oak; I have this piece of highly figured oak which has grain running in all directions. Initially, I assumed that the cover would get thin and the grainy oak would be strong and stiff, but as I shaped the cover, it seemed to want to stay chunky. I do this sort of thing entirely by feel with very little planning.
So, that’s my arrow fired. I sent pictures of to Fans of the Forge and I’ll wait and see what the other entrants wind up looking like.
We didn’t want to have any kind of prizes or voting, simply a panel of experts saying “this is the best and here is why.” But Mike suggested that the winner is to be “paid homage” by the runners-up. So I decided, naturally, that appropriate homage would be a Tshirt. I’ve got a small number of custom “Badger Forge” tshirts in production and I’ll post a picture of one when I get them.
All in all this was a fun and frustrating effort, but it dragged me kicking and screaming into a new direction and made me think about hollow grinds a bit differently. So, it’s win/win all around.
Because the grind-lines on a razor are its most visually recognizable feature, most razor makers brace the blade against the wheel so that there is an absolute minimum of angle shift. I guess I was being arrogant (pride comes before a fall and all that) and thought I could freehand it, which I did. But it shows. Also, razor blades have to be hard, hard, hard, which means that getting the scratches out sucks, sucks, sucks. That’s why a lot of razors have grind-marks in the concave surface. I made a wooden “plug” that matched the grind of the blade and attached it to a profile sander and let power tools do what they are supposed to do. There are still scratches, naturally.
I’m sure as hell not going to try to shave with this thing. It’s pretty darned sharp but I’m a fan of safety blades because that’s how my toxic masculinity rolls. This thing may need a home; do any of you use a straight razor? Note the careful wording: you could probably use this razor tactically, it’s pretty big. But for it to be “tactical” I’d have had to dye the cover black and parkerize the blade a deeper shade.
Technical notes on product photography: since I was sending photos in for judging I didn’t even clean up minute pieces of dust or adjust contrast or deepen the shadows. This is right off the camera, resized.
Pretty nice looking razor, although the spike point is mildly terrifying. What’s the width?
And yeah, I do use a straight razor…
A saw-toothed swordblade – hmmm.
Possibly the mini-shrapnel from the first blocked stroke would get in the opponent’s eyes; certainly the resulting dull spot would interfere with the wielder’s subsequent blows/survival. If anyone has tried this, the lack of such swordsmithery since implies a very Darwinian process at play.
Great visual concept for a Hollywood bad-guy’s blade, though!
If you are not regularly getting your ass kicked, you need to find a better league to play in. If you’re not winning occasionally, you need to find an easier league to play in. Your optimum is a league that beats you down pretty often, but in which you win from time to time.
(this is my stock advice to anyone doing anything, although it is mainly applicable to sporting things)
That red oak is gorgeous …
The wood grain on the oak is amazing.
I like the photograph too. Straight off the camera seems good to me, but maybe in your opinion it is better to do some tweaking?
Dunc@#1:
Pretty nice looking razor, although the spike point is mildly terrifying. What’s the width?
It’s about 88mm along the cutting edge and maybe 30mm edge to back.
I agree about the spike point. It just sort of happened. When the challenge is done and judged, I don’t expect I have the guts to try to use it on myself. It needs some more sharpening but it’s already scary enough to me.
Pierce R. Butler@#2:
If anyone has tried this, the lack of such swordsmithery since implies a very Darwinian process at play.
I was just thinking of a saw blade pattern in the welding.
There were “sword catcher” blades in the renaissance – the idea being to have teeth on the back that could grab an opponent’s rapier so you could snap it.
Wow, that’s pretty wide – the widest razors you normally see are 7/8″ (about 22mm), although you do very occasionally see wider… Between that and the spike point, this is not going to be an easy razor to use.
Good Luck in the competition.
I like the red oak – the grain is fabulous. I hope no-one wants to see it fade to tactical black.
Can I volunteer?
I currently use a double edge razor. Compared to disposable plastic crap, there’s already not that much waste generated by using a double edge razor (there are only disposable razor blades and at least no plastic). Still, I prefer to create as little waste as possible, because I just don’t like leaving a trail of trash behind me. Thus I have been thinking that I should try a straight razor and see if it works for me.
This is probably not the best razor to start straight razor shaving with – it’s usually wide, which means its going to be both heavy and difficult to manoeuvre, the spike point will be very unforgiving of mistakes, and getting a new razor to proper shaving condition isn’t entirely trivial. But it does should like you should try a straight razor…
Sorry, that should be “unusually wide”!
It is very nice looking, that is all I can say since I know near nothing about razors. I have razor strop, somewhere, but I never use it. I think I also have an old razor, somewhere. I never use that too ever since I found out that I usually feel better unshaven than clean-shaven.
Pierce R. Butler @2:
The villain Mokoto Shishio in the 90’s manga/anime/movie Ruruoni Kenshin used a sword named Mugenjin (Infinity Blade) which had a sawtooth design. The idea was that it was supposedly self-sharpening as the edge chipped away. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also, I guess he never cleaned the blade because he could scrape the tip on stone or the scabbard and ignite the absorbed human fats and oils on the blade from hundreds of kills. Again, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
What body parts are y’all shaving?
What body parts are y’all shaving
As Dunc says its probably not very functional. Maybe could shave some Proud Boys.
Looks cool to me! They seem like a good challenge to make if you’re trying to learn new things
I use a safety razor. But I admit it’s pretty shitty when shaving 5+ day-old beards.
Makes me think of the “Shropshire Slasher”.
PS Like a hand-mower; grass is already shortish, no worries. Long, hard yakka.
I agree with this. I think for people actively trying to “win”, you should “win” your league about twice as often as chance to know you’re in the right league… since some people are just content to play the game and will never/almost never actually win the league. You want to win the league about as often as chance would predict if chances of gaining the championship are divvied up solely among the participants actually trying to test themselves and win. Some leagues, I would guess, have more than 1/2 the entrants being competitive, but it’s a fair guess to start.
John Morales @#18
Have you tried an open comb safety razor? The open comb construction allows bristles to pass through without clogging the blade as much. I shave about twice per month, so I really appreciate a razor that doesn’t immediately clog up with hair.