New Batch of Custom Razors

John C said:

Gosh dang it Bill!
I wasn't jealous of this thread until you posted the pic of your handpiece with the quickchange bits......


Are you using thermolock to hold the blade in place on the vise? If so, how do you have any trouble with the blade moving at all while your engraving?

thanks for an awesome thread!

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Yes, John, ThermoLoc it is. I get mine at GRS Tools. It's also where I went for my engraving class. ThermoLoc is fantastic!! Get the outfit that helps you make a clamshell for whatever you are holding. The ThermoLoc you see in this thread is merely locked on to 4 pins that sit in the vise. I separated the TL for each set of 2 pins so that I could take the blade out as necessary. You can save the jigs that are made or throw the stuff in a microwave for 25 seconds and start all over. Project holding doesn't get any better than this. While you are there, go ahead and pick up a Magnum handpiece while you are at it. I noticed that you did not have a stereoscope and were engraving with bare eyes. I'd be out of luck if I had to do that.

Jsteele said:

Bill.. would it be too much to ask for a video of you grinding a master bevel on a new razor. I for one am very curious how you do it,besides years of practice.

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Yeah yeah... we both know why you want the video. Curiosity has nothing to do with it... I really like your new KMG grinder, btw.

BillEllis said:

Yes, John, ThermoLoc it is. I get mine at GRS Tools. It's also where I went for my engraving class. ThermoLoc is fantastic!! Get the outfit that helps you make a clamshell for whatever you are holding. The ThermoLoc you see in this thread is merely locked on to 4 pins that sit in the vise. I separated the TL for each set of 2 pins so that I could take the blade out as necessary. You can save the jigs that are made or throw the stuff in a microwave for 25 seconds and start all over. Project holding doesn't get any better than this. While you are there, go ahead and pick up a Magnum handpiece while you are at it. I noticed that you did not have a stereoscope and were engraving with bare eyes. I'd be out of luck if I had to do that.

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I LOVE my thermolock! I'd love to get a Magnum handset, but I'm using an older Gravemeister setup (1200 spm max), so it's not compatable.
One of these days, I'll get enough funds put together to get a nicer set up as well as a scope. Although, I'll probably use the cash to go up to Emporia first!
Or goto Emporia, take the classes, *and* buy the new tools!!

btw, the copper inlay is looking *very* nice. Like you said, most of the guys don't understand all the steps involved. Thanks a ton for all the pics!

Absolutely beautiful work Bill! How do you feel about Warthog Tusk for the scales?

John C said:

I LOVE my thermolock! I'd love to get a Magnum handset, but I'm using an older Gravemeister setup (1200 spm max), so it's not compatible.
One of these days, I'll get enough funds put together to get a nicer set up as well as a scope. Although, I'll probably use the cash to go up to Emporia first!
Or goto Emporia, take the classes, *and* buy the new tools!!

btw, the copper inlay is looking *very* nice. Like you said, most of the guys don't understand all the steps involved. Thanks a ton for all the pics!

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Thanks for the compliment. You are right about a lack of understanding the difficulty sometimes from the viewers, but it's our job to make it look easy...

You'd love the classes at GRS. I love my GraverMach. Don't buy the $1,500 scope there, though. I got mine on eBay for a tad over $500. I took class from Rex and was very happy with his teaching ability and his personality. I'd actually like to go back for the advanced class and get Rick Eaton for an instructor this time!!! He is definitely one of the best. Here is one of his knives.

leadingedge said:

Absolutely beautiful work Bill! How do you feel about Warthog Tusk for the scales?

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Thanks. Monkey is happy. Feed the monkey. Wart hog is good for knives. Don't think I've ever seen anything long enough for a set of scales though. Unless, of course, I make a very curved razor or section it. I'm not absolutely sure that it would be flexible enough either. If I had to section any of the exotic materials, I think I'd go with dinosaur tooth instead. I have enough of that to do 2 razors.

Now THAT would be something! I don't think I have ever seen anything with dinosaur tooth, no idea where you found enough of it for 2, but, well done! PS- You'd be surprised to see the size of some monster warthogs, but you are right, it probably will need a fair bit of a smiley blade though. Monkey will go to my tree and eat banana now, cheerio.

Here is a bit of the inlay process. The handpiece has a regular piece of 1/16th inch brass rod inserted into a quick-change holder. It has been narrowed somewhat at the end. This is what is used to mush the dead-soft copper into the "teeth" I created within the cavity that was dug out for the inlay. The silver practice plate with all my scratches is 2 inches square to give a size reference.

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The second photo, here, shows the first row of copper wire going in. It is pounded in with the handpiece, cut at the border, and then a new row is started next to the first one. After all the rows are in, I make sure it's firmly seated in the teeth of the cavity. Then I use my engraver with what looks like a chisel to cut the surface relatively flat and close to the surface of the surrounding design. After that, it is sanded flush. Once it is sanded flush, I cut the outline and move on to the next inlay.

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This next pic shows the quarter-inch wide spine just about finished up.

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Now, it's off to the tangs. Here is the preliminary scroll work skeleton:

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I use a very heavy "lazy susan" as a base for my vise. It allows me to turn the work for engraving the curves while keeping everything in the field of view of the stereoscope. The scope makes things look very... very... big. One of the compressors I use for my engraving machine is on the floor. It's pretty quiet. In fact, I can hear the TV that I have in the shop while it's running.

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Oh, and I just bought this dandy piece of maple burl. It has possibilities...

Seeing the master at work is enlightening! Very, very beautiful.

All those lovely toys you have in your shop *slurp*

Thanks for sharing all these steps, incredibly interesting!

so how secure is the inlay? does the tamping process really provide that much friction?

bradyarz said:

so how secure is the inlay? does the tamping process really provide that much friction?

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I haven't had any fall out, but I imagine that if you took something sharp and started poking around, you could pry it out. Much the same way as you could with any stone in a piece of jewelry... or such.

Normally, I don't get this detailed all at once. I did this to show the relative size of the scrolls and the kind of detail the whole tang will have.

First, I cut backbone lines

then I cut tendrils and leaves and stems

then I cut background out

stipple the background

gussy up the lines where necessary

put in shading lines

sand surface to 600

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Every new post is like christmas morning

Would it be to much to ask of some pictures of your shop as a whole?

This is just getting more and more insane.......

thirdeye said:

This is just getting more and more insane.......

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A little insanity is good for the soul....
Maybe I missed it in an earlier post, but is this blade already heat treated, or do you do all the engraving pre heat treat?

thanks!

Man that engraving looks great. I like seeing precise work!

And some of those shop photos- man, you've got a killer setup!

John C said:

A little insanity is good for the soul....
Maybe I missed it in an earlier post, but is this blade already heat treated, or do you do all the engraving pre heat treat?

thanks!

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I know nothing, but based on the coarseness of the grind on the blade, I would guess it is not finish-ground yet, and not yet heat treated.

Just guessing though...

Bill, your work is amazing, and I hope to someday be able to say Hi and shake your hand.

honed said:

Every new post is like christmas morning

Would it be to much to ask of some pictures of your shop as a whole?

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coming up..

John C said:

A little insanity is good for the soul....
Maybe I missed it in an earlier post, but is this blade already heat treated, or do you do all the engraving pre heat treat?

thanks!

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Not heat treated yet. Good thing, too, 'cause this 154 already tears up my gravers like there's no tomorrow. These were dulled up just on the tang and about 20% of the end of the spine work.

I love reading these updates.

johnmrson said:

I love reading these updates.

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oh yeah, me too.

very cool to see the processes in getting a razor from block of metal to work of art