It’s terrifying.Â I’m still in shock that it actually works, but it totally does. One dollar of materials and two or three hours of work, and I now have a safety razor of my very own.

Why? Why would you do something like this?

Basically, I’m cheap and I like making things for myself. I’d been toying with the idea off-and-on since reading a Lifehacker post on safety razors. It all came together for me this past week.

Eureka!

I was looking at an image from an old razor patent when inspiration struck. Based on the known razor width and some trigonometry, I was able to determine that the two main radii were 0.53″ and 0.66″. It turns out that these are almost identical to 3/4″ and 1″ sch40 pvc, which is available everywhere.

Construction

Sorry. No mid-build pictures on this project. I never thought it would work. This was supposed to be a study of sorts, just seeing how things might work in further iterations. Instead it worked, and I’m stuck trying to give the gist of it…

Cut a piece of 3/4″ pvc slightly bigger than the desired top piece. Wrap sandpaper around some 1″ pvc and sand down the botton edge of the 3/4″. Cut a section of 1″ pvc for the bottom piece. Make holes in the top and bottom pieces. Run a bead of jbweld down the center of the top piece.Â as it hardens shape it into a ridge. After the jb hardens, sand such that it just fits the blade’s slot. Remove material from the bottom piece to make room for the jb ridge. In theory, you’re done!Â In reality there’s some fine-tuning to do.Â It took me about an hour of trial-and-error sanding until I was happy with the final shape of the top piece.

I’m going to shave with this for awhile, and when I make the next one I’ll try to be more diligent about documentation.

Tags: DIY Safety Razor