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New Batch of Custom Razors

I had some thick steel that was going to be used for a specific project and the guy who wanted it changed his mind. I decided to see if the thicker steel would work on my standard profiles; the humpback and the stogie. The normal thickness steel I use is 5/32nds and 3/16's.

The steel is a quarter inch thick so that means the razors all have to be 8/8's wide in order to keep a good shaving angle at the cutting edge. These things are definitely going to be hefty since I only do 1/4 hollow grind blades. Dropping one at waist level would probably lop off important appendages by the time it hit the floor. Shaving in the buff would really put yourself in danger... :tongue_sm

I'll try to remember to post pics as the progress unfolds. One will probably have file work of some kind and the others will be engraved. I may do some inlay work on them as well.

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Here is where the horizontal grinder comes in very handy.

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This is after the profile has been ground. Pretty thick, no?

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I think I'm also going to make a 2-razor set. I've alway threatened to do one, but just never got around to it. The time is now. One will be a humpback and the other a stogie. They will come with a custom box as well, and they may require a small bank loan to purchase. Y'all think I should put in the barber notches?

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Very cool!! I like seeing the raw materials used.

I would say no to the barber notches as you have them drawn, but make them a little bigger into a spanish point would be awesome. But then I love the look of spanish points.
 
Well done my friend.

I would say Barber Notches, but I have one giant nostril that gets in the way of everything, so I guess I'm biased. Why not make half with barber notches, and half without?
 
I vote for no barber notches,stick with your style. It is what makes a "ELLIS" custom. Plus i would like to be considered as a buyer candidate for that 2 "ELLIS" custom set. :tongue_sm
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Good Work!! Can't wait to see part 2!
 
That will be a beautiful set and I have to agree with some of the others that I like the look without the barber notches.
 
Ok, no notches this time.



How can one get on your custom list?
By having a record of keeping the things they get from me instead of selling them. Like restoration CD's and razors and such... :tongue_sm Kidding aside, though, I just can't add anyone else right now. I do make duplicates pretty often and I offer them to the guys on occasion. If you want to be on that list, shoot me a kite at urleebird at comcast.net

That's very nice. Do you know what kind of steel is it? How will you harden the blade edge?
I may have to think on that one a bit. If the steel didn't come from a guy I ran across in the seedy part of town who was carrying around a bunch of scrap metal in a shopping cart a couple weeks ago, then it is the stuff I bought from Tru Grit. That would make it 0-1 high carbon steel. I haven't yet figured out how to just harden the edge, so I think I just toss the whole thing in my oven... then temper them afterwards. I can do that latter part in a regular oven.

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One of the first things to do, and never-forget-or-you'll-be-sorry, is to put on a set of parallel lines as reference marks. They are normally called witness lines. These are especially important at the cutting edge so you know where to grind to.

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As I said at the outset, these are going to be heavy duty cleavers. The blades are a quarter inch thick and 8/8's wide. Here you can see the weight before any grinding.

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Here is the weight, in grams, after the master bevel (the hollow grind)has been completed. It will get a tad lighter after final grinding post heat treating.

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This is a look-see at the differences between a blade blank and the other with the master bevel ground in to rough specs.

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And this is a shot looking down at the different stages. Note that the master grind goes to the parallel lines. Without these lines, blades have a tendency to morph into some pretty ugly configurations. These have the appearances of twists, offsets, and looks that just plain-ain't-right.

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I'm beginning to think this Bill Ellis guy may know what he's doing after all......

:biggrin1:

Awesome, 8/8! that is SWEET!:thumbup: Thanks for the well documented pics as well. Very cool to see the transformation. Thank you!
 
Well done my friend.

I would say Barber Notches, but I have one giant nostril that gets in the way of everything, so I guess I'm biased. Why not make half with barber notches, and half without?

As an aside: have you actually ever utilized a barber's notch for shaving around one of your nostrils? I cannot really concieve of how that is accomplished?:huh:

So, let's say you do stick the barber's notch up your nose....what then? You cannot then make any sort of shaving motion, can you?

I have always chalked that idea of the barber's notch up with many of the other old wives...er...barber's tales that has no basis in reality.

But I'm willing to be proved wrong.


Again.:blush:
 
Thank you for these posts. I have been kicking the idea around of making a razor for myself... I had cut out the profile but didn't think to draw the parallel lines. what a great idea.
 
Hey there, I am as new as they come for razors but I do make knives. You said you didn't know how to just harden the blade - I don't know if it is the same process as a differential heat treat on a knife but I would imagine it's similar. Here's how I do a differential heat treatment on 1095 steel: heat to 1500F, soak for 15 minutes and quench, edge only (about 3/8 of the blade height) in quench oil (I prefer parks 50, but to each their own). Ed Caffery (a great knife maker) uses a torch (a #3 rose-bud tip to be exact) to get the steel past the curie point (non magnetic) and then edge quenches in heated oil (about 130F) and repeats 3 times, cleaning off the scale between cycles and then tempers the blade for 3 cycles at 400F for the proper temper. Now, this temper is for a knife which ends up around 59rc, I don't know what the correct rc for a razor would be, I would imagine significantly higher but like I said, I'm VERY new to the game.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it and say thanks for the WIP!
 
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