damascus straight razor handle construction

[azurefire]

hey im a art metals student at umass Dartmouth looking for feedback on designs and construction mechanisms for straight razors. a few months ago i formed this straight razor using both forging and stock removal. there are some obvious defects such as the shaft being un proportional and the blade being to wide however thats set in stone and im not changing it.

however now i am in the process of designing a handle for this blade. i have been trying to figure out a good mechanism for building the folder. the plan i have came up with so far has been to make the entire handle out of 6 layers of 16 gauge copper. i would first construct using the inner most layer a skeleton with 3 rivets( not marked but 2 on back spine one at top and possibly one front side below the blade to terminate the motion of the folder. the other two layers are going to make the framework for the Champlevé enamel drawn. these two plates which will be soldered together and fused by the enamel after composition will be riveted through the entire handle through respective tube spacers. i am intending to use this image to create a resist so i can electro pierce through galvanic etching to produce the cells in which my Champlevé will rest. everything dark will be where the resist is applied except for the places with the cross hatching going through it which i will manually apply a different color resist so that i can use them as a guide to keep my rivets lined up for the mechanism

the fulcrum for the blade has been posing an bit of a challenge as the hole in the blade seems to small for a spacer tube to be passed and have room for a adequately strong rivet to be passed through. so im trying to find a way to insert the fulcrum without compressing the sheath against the blade as a rivet with out a spacer would. on top of this i am hoping to be able to set using the same rivet to bezels on eacher side of the fulcrum that will house two lapis lazuli cabs represented by the circle in the drawing.

so here is what i am looking for input on( input on anything would be wonderful but these are the things im really trying to figure out).
1 i have a feeling the profile of my design might be a bit visually heavy and unbalanced( i like the form based off the anti radial curves im using but that made me go bigger which is part of the problem) so does the profile work and if not what can i do to improve it and reduce its weight.
2 i really want to find a mechanism that will keep it closed and that will limit the range it can open
3 how should i solve the previously described fulcrum situation
4are there any procedural or aesthetic concerns you have with this design or any thing i could simplify down

thank you for your feed back
-David Pogue

 

[azurefire]

pics

 

[YetiDave]

Is the spine even? I doesn't look like it'd be easy to hone, although it is very pretty. As for the points:

1. Have you weighed the blade? And how thick is it?
2. Don't. Find a way to lock it closed if you really want but if you plan on making it functional as a razor then you definitely shouldn't limit how far it can open
3. Pass
4. It may not be to everyone's tastes, but I like it. The only thing I'd suggest is maybe smooth out and simplify the curvature on the tang/heel

 

[mycarver]

To my eye, the large bulb at the tip seems to hamper the flow of the piece. I'm not sure where your hone line is, maybe this is it, but it looks a bit cumbersome there. This balanced against the thinness of the shaft visually throws the balance off with the weighty look of the massiveness of the blade itself especially in this area.. It's like seeing a 20 lb. sledge hammer on a 1/2 inch dowel. It seems to lack harmony in this respect of the front half of the blade vs. the back half.
Just my opinion.

 

[hig789]

I think it is beautiful but I wouldn't want to hone it. I say you did very nice work.

 

[trick420]

+1 to Mycarvers analysis. I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the overall length?
2. What is the length from the pivot to the tip?
3. What is the height of the blade?
4. What is the length of the edge?

I ask this because the scales you have sketched out look very large and cumbersome. Depending on the actual size of this razor it could be challenging to scale AND make it easy to strop. I recently scaled a custom that was very short, and because of this traditional scales had to have a very small radius. Looked awesome but was next to impossible to strop. To use a razor is to strop it, so if you can't do that... Also, the thinness of the tang will affect how it holds to strop, which will further dictate some trial and error in the scale design to get it right. Focus on the function first and experiment with the design after you figure out the constraints.

Regards,
Jeff

 

[mycarver]

Only having commented on the blade I have to concur with Trick. A razor has to function first,, then be embellished. I'm not sure how the designs will be carried out but it seems as if fru-fru was added for the sake of trying to 'jazz' it up. The lines lack continuity and flow to my eye. It's busy with no real reason with elements that don't tie in with the rest of the theme except heavy cumbersome lines.
I'm not trying to bash your piece, and art is very subjective as I'm sure there are those who will like it. For me it's just not balanced. I only speak from 22+ yrs of being a self employed artist.

 

[Kentos]

Very nice. Does it need to be functional or is it more a study on design?

 

[tomjr]

i like the design but i wonder how much control, in the shaving position, the fingers would have. of course this is just a sort of speculation.

 

[Lexbomb]

I would straighten it out a touch and leave it as a chunky kamisori

 

[Doc226]

Does not seem to have enough material to hold on to in the tang area given the size of the blade.