From go to woe

[bg42]

well this is it ,its the first razor that I have made completely ,blade and all,and actually shaved with it.I did make one about a year ago out of ATS34 stainless steel ,however I have never gotten around to honing it .
Both the razors suffer from the same problem ,they are too thin and I need about five or six layers of tape on the spine to hone a proper edge.
I`m a bit behind the eight ball when it comes to doing the blades as I don`t have a variable speed grinder, so you have to be extremely careful that you don`t burn the steel,I know a bad tradesman always blames his tools, so with a bit more practice hopefully we might see something a bit more presentable
The scales a Burdikin Plumb finished with CA and wax and the L6 carbon steel is also heat treated by me as well . I like to do the heat treating on carbon steels myself , however I always send the stainless steels away to some one who knows what their doing
Kind regards Peter
No 8

[Bill]

I like gun-stock scales. I am also a big fan of the "Irish" tip. I have seen some references calling it a "French" tip. I can't find the "French" tip illustrated anywhere. On the same subject, I find it amusing that a new word has surfaced regarding the tip/point of a razor being called the "toe" I think it was made up over there at srp. There's no such thing as a toe in any book I can find. I guess it was deductive reasoning since there is a "heel".

You are right to blame the one-speed-way-too-fast grinder, Peter. 3450 just won't cut it. Neither will 1725. I'm impressed that you did as well as this without the proper grinding equipment.

How thin is the blade, and what is the width? Is it 1/8th thick? The angle of the photo makes it appear that the scales are wider than they need to be for the width of the blade. Did you heat to a "straw" yellow? Quenched in water... or oil? Tempered at 375, 400, 425? For how long?

Congratulations on accomplishing what only a handful of people would even attempt. You made it sound very easy and I'd like to clue everyone in that what you did takes patience, knowledge, and perseverance. Good job...

[bg42]

Well Bill this has turned out rather fitting ,being my tenth post while answering one of your questions ,I hope that this can`t be misconstrued as being favoritism.
Anyway Bill ,the method I use to heat treat L6 carbon steel is to heat it up evenly to a bright red at which time I start testing the metal for magnetic properties ,when a magnet no longer is attracted to the metal along the entire length of the edge I just place the edge into oil that is heated to about 140 deg Fahrenheit to about half way up the face of the blade
this is done twice ,the blade is then polished ,you can actually see the line down the middle of the blade where the crystal structure in the steel has changed where the edge has become hard.
Yes it is about 1/8" thick or just a tad over
Thank you for correcting me in the use of the terminology with reference to the word toe ,I will stop using it

As always thanks for you help and advice
its always appreciated
kind regards Peter
PS I do believe this is post No 10 I`m in , I`m in, I`m in Yahoo

[Joe C]

I quite like it. And I use "toe", too. Just habit, I guess. I do think 1/8 is a bit thin, however, for a razor, to get the proper angle. For one that size, I'd prolly use 3/16. Of course, that's a minimum size for me. Tough to find that thickness in L-6, normally, though. With razors, variable speed is an absolute must. Some of the best hunting knives I've ever made, though, were L-6, and 1/8" thick, which is about as thick as I ever make a knife. Outstanding first effort, Peter.