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A unique WIP

Well I think its unique! :001_smile

So this is something I have been thinking about, redesigning, and picking away at now for quite some time.

My thoughts behind this was to do a frameback in the truest sense of the word. I was thinking that in the glory days of straight razors, real high quality steel may have been in short supply, and to keep as much as they could, the frameback may have been born. Utilizing a lesser steel for the frame, and their very best for the edge, a smith could spare his resources along a little further.

I thought about making a simpler build, but I figured, hey, I will use the best I have! I haven't pulled all the punches before!

I was thinking kinda in bits and pieces, and accumulated the items I would like to use over a month or two. I have used this material in the past, and liked it, but I wanted to hold out for AAA grade Black Lip Mother of Pearl!! I found some, and ordered it up!

Next, was the frame and how to treat the spine. I decided I would use a hardenable steel, so the wear while honing would be more even. I chose 52100 carbon, its a ball bearing steel. I cut it to shape, milled the channel to accept the blade, and bent it to shape. Sorry no pics of that process. :blush:

For the blade, I chose a piece of fossil damascus, that I was going to use for a knife, but figured, as I mentioned, I would use the best I had., I rough ground, and fitted the blade, in the frame.


Now on to file working the spine, polishing, and heat treating the frame.


Then trimming and final fitting the blade, finish grind, and test etch. More on this later. Will be adding a barbers notch.


For the handle frame, I wanted metal, but not the weight, so I ordered in some titanium, cut it out, and manually surface ground it thinner.

Frame was cut out, both pieces CA'ed together, and profiled.

I had a bit of a brainbuster, trying to think of a way that I could attach the border strips, between the tiles of pearl. I didnt want to rely on epoxy, so I figured out a mechanical means to attach them. Then began fitting the tiles of pearl. Bit by bit, nice and easy...
 
Once the tiles were fitted, I profiled, shaped, and put them through grit progression. Here are some sneak peeks! The fire in these tiles are outstanding!! Tomorrow I want to have both scales pinned, So there is no chance the epoxy can fail, and have the blade sorted out. Maybe a decision on the wedge...


 
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Update. A little less accomplished than I had hoped today, but this is it so far. Finished up the scales, pinned and polished. Re-etched the blade, and fixed in the frame.


Then a quick pre-assembly photo.
 
Thank you sir! I appreciate the vote of confidence! Here are the finished photos. I have to say, pinning this razor took months off my life! lol! I was so paranoid I might split the Pearl!
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I used a file worked titanium wedge as well!

Here you go, hope you like it, comments welcome!





 
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