Gold Dollar Kamasori

[McShaverson]

I've had an idea!!! No no, wait. I know what you're thinking. Just read on

For those of you with experience with GD's; would it be possible to cut off the tang of the razor, TIG weld an extension, and grind the handle to a kamasori shape? From there could you wrap the handle, remove the heal, the shoulder, polish, hone, and shave with it? I have been thinking about this for a few days but I would like to have some outside thoughts from those of you with blade modification experience. I do understand that it would need to stay cool in order to hold its temper, but with that provided I don't see any reason for it not to work. Especially since the extension of the handle doesn't need to be hardened in the same way the blade does.

Also, has anyone ever made a scale sketch of the razor blade itself. Like a flat .dwg or .pdf outlining the razor in scale size? If so, could you send me a PM with the file attached. If not, I will make one when my razors arrive in the mail and anyone who is interested can have the file. What I'm aiming for is to play with the blade design on paper before I put it to the steel. Thereby decreasing the chance that I will make mistakes along the way

-Kevin

 

[Kentos]

ladykate made a couple

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/292615-Putting-my-efforts-into-one-sock-Ladykate

Yours would be unique as I haven't seen one done with welded handles yet. Good luck!

 

[DominoM]

What i did when I was designing my scales for a shortened blade in inkscape was take a photo of the blade. Import into inkscape. Drew a rectangle over blade on the image end to end. I changed unit display to cm and made a note of the image size, and the rectangle size. I then measured the blade. Used a calculator with this formula: image size * blade length / rectangle length which gives the correct image size to have for the blade to be the correct size in inkscape. I enabled proportional scaling and set the new width on the image, the height gets done automatically. This gives a true size photo of the blade in inkscape. I just drew the scales over that, but you could use the besier pen tool to trace the blade and save as svg or pdf then.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I have been thinking about doing something along that line, but with a cast resin handle.

 

[Seraphim]

Do it.

No need to cut off the tang, make use of it as it is.

 

[zirrow]

Do it.

No need to cut off the tang, make use of it as it is.

are you just epoxying the blade into the handle? If so, what kind of epoxy?

 

[Obiwan]

Seraphim, I love seeing those pictures. You should make those more often.

 

[ladykate]

You might not need to cut off the tang. The standard GD has quite a bit of acreage on the tang and you can just use a bench grinder (or a Dremel if you just like to putz with it) and slim it down quickly (or don't slim it at all). It won't look like a real Kami but if you put a handle on it, no one will notice. There is ample space/clearance to make a handle that swoops down or up so you can make it look like anything you want.

Making a Kami-object from a GD is not only fun - it is pretty easy to do and you'll have a unique(ish) item that works very well. Kent linked a couple of my projects. I must say the two razors on that link are very nice to use.

Edit - here is a closer look (and I notice that the camera is showing my sloppiness - need to take a toothpick to it and clean it a bit more). It is glued in with standard 5 minute epoxy from the local lumber yard. The pin isn't needed and is used for looks rather than utility.





Here is another one - perhaps even simpler - that uses a fricasseed eBay burn - the blade was toast and the scales were rotted. I cut it down and was pleased with the results. The tang was not modified. The handle is easy to make - two popsicle sticks and some waxed seine twine. Epoxy the wood onto the tang. Shape it a little with a knife/sand paper. Wrap it with the twine. Use CA to seal it from wicking water and to seal the string ends so they don't fray.

I was surprised with the GDs at how little you have to shorten the blade to make it look right. Assuming the word 'Gold' in Gold Dollar is screened at about the same place each time, I found that cutting off the blade at the first 'L' leaves about a 60 mm blade after everything is cleaned up. That is about the size of a large Kami.

 

[McShaverson]

It's great to have all of this positive input! I am very excited to get this project on a roll now!

I have mulled over the idea of making a wooden handle for the kami-blade and, while it looks very nice, it isn't the amount of traditional I'm looking for. However, I hadn't thought of sticking two popsicle sticks on the sides and wrapping it in twine. That's a very good idea for an easy to do/traditional look. I may have to try that out just to see how it looks on a GD blade.

Another thought occurred to me last night just before I fell asleep. Instead of TIG welding a handle extension on, could you use a strong epoxy like JB weld to hold it in place? That would certainly fix any chance of ruining a good temper, but I don't know if it would be strong enough to keep it in place while grinding and shaping.

 

[ladykate]

Instead of TIG welding a handle extension on, could you use a strong epoxy like JB weld to hold it in place? That would certainly fix any chance of ruining a good temper, but I don't know if it would be strong enough to keep it in place while grinding and shaping.

There are some who swear by JB Weld. I swear at it.

If you are really wanting to put another handle on it (I wouldn't but I'm lazy so ignore me...) then I would TIG it. Might as well do it right if you are going that way. When I first started the first GD mod, I thought I would weld a handle on it but I discovered that I didn't need to. I was calculating how to prevent overheating the blade and came up with lots of novel ideas. However, if you are going to cover the handle anyway then I would offer that you are doing something that doesn't need to be done. Of course, doing something that doesn't need to be done was never a good reason for me to stop so I bet it won't stop you. ;-}

 

[McShaverson]

Of course, doing something that doesn't need to be done was never a good reason for me to stop so I bet it won't stop you. ;-}

I don't even know if it needs a handle extension. At this point, I don't even know what it needs, because I'm not holding in my hands I will be keeping you all updated with pictures when my test victims... errr.... I mean razors come in.

 

[paco664]

just grind it down......

tig welding the tang can be done *(i have done it)... much care must be taken to control the HAZ *(heat affected zone)...

careful grinder work will give you a better job with less headaches and BS....

 

[McShaverson]

I'll definitely keep that in mind for when they get here Paco. Good to hear from someone who has done welding on these types of blades.

 

[Doc226]

View attachment 247383

I like this one

 

[McShaverson]

Woohoo! I got my razors in earlier today! The grinds on both of them were a bit off, but were in decent enough shape so I started working on one of them. I've got the majority of the blade shaped and now I just have to polish it up. Pictures will come tomorrow since it is getting late so I will leave you tonight with yet another question.

What dremel tools work best for removing scratches in a blade? Such as those from low grit sandpaper. I need to remove the scratches so I can buff it with my polishing compounds and wheels.

-Kevin

 

[Slash McCoy]

Hand sanding. Start with 120 grit. Keep going until ALL of the original scratches are completely gone. ALL. If you do a halfassed job in the first stage, your results are doomed to be mediocre or worse. When you are absolutely positive that all coarse scratches are gone and replaced by 120 grit scratches, go to the next stage. (150?) The next stage must completely do away with the coarser stage. Each stage must replace the scratches that came before it, with new, finer scratches.

 

[ladykate]

What Slash said if you are hand sanding. However, if you have any decorative work on the spine or tight areas, it is sometimes hard to get to them if they've been scratched. For those cases, I like to use the Dremel rubber polishing tools to get the nasty marks off. They come in x-fine to coarse and they seem to be less prone to make a deep mark like a sanding sheet will. They still have to be buffed out but you can sometimes do an amazing job of eliminating grinder or sander marks with them. I've been making 'Western' Kamisoris from GDs and I seem to be stuck on the same spine decoration - my OCD won't let me change designs. ;-} Anyway, the dips in the decoration are made with either a grinder or a sanding drum. The rubber wheels make short work of getting out the scratches.

 

[McShaverson]

Thanks guys! I'm going to stop by lowes today to see if I can find some coarse rubber discs. If not, I'll have to stop by autozone and get some sandpaper.

 

[McShaverson]

Mmmmkay, as promised here are the pictures! I've also attached a scale .pdf file of the other Gold Dollar blade I have here. It can be used to sketch out blade designs so you can decide on what you like before you start grinding. Sadly, it isn't perfect due to the fact that I only have a ruler to measure it with. However, since I used the metric scale, it is pretty stinkin' Lincoln close.

 

[smalltank]

unbelievable!..whatta transformation...imagine if companies did this 100yrs ago..or even the average straight razor user who was very handy with tools and metal shaping