Novacularis Vulcanus - A new direction in design for Special Circumstances Inc.

While I have always been fascinated by straight razors, largely due to their depictions in movies and literature, as I've grown older, I've begun to appreciate some of the more old-fashioned ways of life and my appreciation for the idea of shaving with a straight razor has grown proportionately. Of course, if you want a high-quality straight razor these days, you generally have two options. Luck on eBay/ local fleamarkets or purchase a new/restored one for around a hundred dollars or more. So, being the curmudgeonly sort and quite cheap, I decided to make one for myself. This was also somewhat of an experiment just to see if it was possible for me to even build a functional razor with my typical materials selection. And the first time I've ever built something that folded. And in a particularly perverse spark of design inspiration, this would also be the first time that I would attempt a hollow grind. By hand. With a file.

Enough with the pre-amble, on to the meat of the matter!

Introducing the Novacularis Vulcanus, Novacula for short. Named in my usual fashion, in Latin, the words stand for "Vulcan's Razor".
This razor has an aggressive clip point, with a cutting edge length of right at 3.5 inches. Overall length while open is 9.25 inches with a closed length of 7 inches. The seemingly long closed length is due to the blade tail that does extend past the handle scales some. The blade itself is roughly 3/16ths of an inch thick, with a grind inspired by a traditional Japanese straight razor grind, that leaves one side flat ground almost all the way to the spine and the other side with a deep hollow grind. The blade is, of course, made from my usual combination of carbon fiber composite laminated with 6AL-4V titanium with a tungsten-carbide embedded edge.
The handle is made from translucent G10 composite, with a Tagua Nut backspacer. The Tagua Nut is another departure from my usual preference for synthetic materials, but I used it as a nod to the traditional ivory handles of the vintage straight razors, as Tagua Nut is a close analogue to natural ivory in appearance.

On to the pictures!

The blade before attaching it to the handle.  

This grind was done entirely by hand, using a convex carbide-grit file and then finished to a lustre with  escalating grit sizes of sand paper. 

 In this picture you can see the "right" side of the blade with the flat grind.

And the hollow grind on the other side. 

Oddly, while the line where the carbon fiber meets the titanium seems to wobble a bit in the middle, the line on the spine is laser-straight. 

Note that despite my drill press being monstrously out of true, the blade still centers in the handle. 

Overall, I am quite pleased with how this turned out. There are things I would do differently the next time but this was without a doubt a learning experience. Now I get to teach myself how to sharpen a straight razor, which by all accounts is an arcane art in its own right. As it is right now, with my inexpert attempts at sharpening, this is still one of the sharpest knives that I've ever made. Not, sadly, sharp enough to truly shave with, although it will take hairs off your arm with little effort. On the plus side, it IS sharp, the point is evil personified and is thin and pointy enough to split an atom, the knife is exceedingly light and fast in the hand, and comfortable to boot. I am finding myself incapable of putting it down.