Single Edge Razor By Steve Leahy


Painting on single edge razor blades began out of pure chance for me. I was assisting Mike Learn teach an automotive painting class in Norway. One of Mike’s students


had just purchased one of Mike’s hand tuned, super detail, Mojo airbrushes and wanted to see what it could do. Since the Mojo airbrush is known for its ability to spray extremely fine, I decided to do a small painting of skulls on the first thing I could find which was one of the single edged razor blades that had been used during the class to cut mask. From there the art on razors took on a life of their own. Painting on such a small scale presented a number of unique problems. Prepping small surfaces, transferring a large scale draw- ing on such a micro scale, getting an airbrush and paint to perform correctly and controlling traditional brush strokes


all became very real issues. This article will hopefully shed some light on some of the techniques that I use to paint on a micro level. Supplies used: The airbrush that I have been using for the last 10 years is the Richpen 213c. This gravity feed, detail brush was the first and only brush to take the place of my venerable Iwata HP-SB. The 213c has a .3mm nozzle yet it has been remark- able in capturing details that I could only get with the SB. Further than that, since the overall size of the nozzle was bigger than the SB, it processed thicker water based paint better as well. The paint used in all my work now is the Wicked Detail paint line by Createx. The detail line offers an extremely controllable, matte finish paint that can be eas- ily clear coated. For traditional paint brushes I use Winsor and Newton series 7 watercolor paint brushes. The sable bristles and larger belly of these brushes gives me incred- ible control.


Prepping the blade. Most standard razor blades are made of steel and have an aluminum grip. In order to eliminate the change of injury with the blade, I first grind off the sharp edge completely.


Second the entire surface of the blade needs to be sanded and cleaned. This is done with a 600 grit wet and dry sand paper. Take care in moving from the blade to the grip as the aluminum is much softer than the steel of the blade. After sanding, the surface is cleaned with a standard auto- motive wax and grease remover.


Third, the blade is primed with a self etching primer.


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