Journal of the Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association

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Razor Edge Systems, Inc.
A Sharper Approach from Stone Machinery
Joe Juranitch, also known as Ragnar,
uses a Hurco to make some of his Vikings
weaponry. He also uses it to cut down the
manufacturing time needed to make his
company’s sharpening equipment.
Before he was Ragnar, the Minnesota
Vikings mascot, Joe Juranitch, set the
world record for shaving his beard with
an axe (8 minutes and 43 seconds).
He even sharpened it himself. A true
Viking, indeed.
At the time, he was trying to gain
publicity for his company, not the
Minnesota Vikings. Shaving his beard
with an axe was one way to demonstrate
his company’s expertise at maintaining an
extremely sharp edge.
Juranitch is co-owner of Razor Edge
Systems, Inc., a company in Ely, Minn.,
that makes sharpening equipment for a
variety of industries. His parents started
the company more than 50 years ago out
of their garage. Today it employs about
20 people, including Jurantich and his
three sisters.
When Juranitch was selected to
become Ragnar in 1994, he fit the role
perfectly. He even made and sharpened
his own Vikings weaponry. But he never
quit his day job. When he isn’t greeting
fans in a fur coat and boots, Juranitch
is at his shop, working to develop and
patent sharpening tools that maintain the
sharpest edges possible. His office is full
of little inventions that have been made,
scrapped and re-done.
The Moustrap® Steel is one of his
company’s best known products. It has
been used for years in meatpacking and
poultry processing plants to restore and
maintain sharp edges. It even has been
featured on the show “Modern Marvels.”
“When I was a kid, I remember plant
managers telling my dad there was no way
we would be able to replace the butcher’s
steel,” Juranitch said. “But we did.”
An Edge on the Competition
In an effort to maintain a competitive
edge in a down market last year,
Juranitch began looking for a faster
way to make the plates that form the
bases of the industrial sharpening
equipment his company produces. Each
plate, weighing 30 pounds, required 14
separate operations, starting with a fourhour
preparation operation. From start
to finish, it took 36 hours to make just
eight plates.
Upon the recommendation of one
of his employees, Juranitch contacted
the people at Stone Machinery, a longstanding
machine tool distributor in
the Twin Cities. After careful analysis,
they recommended the Hurco VMX24,
a 3-axis CNC vertical milling machine,
which cut manufacturing time down by
more than 80 percent. Now the plates
are made in 6 hours, rather than 36
hours, and require just three operations
as opposed to 14, saving the company
hundreds of hours and tens of thousands
of dollars.
“We expect our payback to be about
one year,” Juranitch said. “The new
machine is much faster, cleaner and more
accurate. It’s nice to not have to handle a
30-pound part 14 times anymore.”
One of the best features about the
machine, according to Jim Kahnert,
applications manager for Stone Machinery,
is that it’s easy to use. “I went up there for 3
days of training and by the time I left, they
were making parts,” he said.
In addition to making machine
bases, Juranitch is using the Hurco to
make specialty Ragnar items. Recently,
he engraved his name on a custommade
hatchet and is planning to make
additional collector items this year.
“Look for some new Viking weaponry
this season that will be made on the
Hurco,” he said.
About Stone Machinery
Razor Edge Systems is one of many
success stories from Stone Machinery.
Founded in 1927, Stone Machinery
is the longest-running machine tool
distributor in the Midwest. Based in
Saint Paul, Minn., it sells and services
a variety of CNC machine tools and
accessories, including Hurco, Proto-
Trak and Chevalier.
Over the years, the company has sold
nearly 3,000 units to manufacturers in
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Iowa and western Wisconsin. It has
equipment in almost every large company
in Minnesota, but it also has machines in
garages and pole barns.
Five Years of Training
What separates Stone Machinery
from other distributors, however, is the
training and service it provides after the
sale. “We offer 5 years of free training, if
necessary,” Kahnert said. “So if a company
purchased a piece of equipment from us
in the last 5 years and has since hired new
employees who need to be trained on it,
we do that. We don’t just walk away after
we sell a machine.”
In addition, Stone Machinery holds
training classes twice a month at its
Saint Paul location on topics like tool
measurement, part measurement, tool
length, diameter probing and part
measurement probing.
Tom Drazkowski, Stone Machinery’s
owner, said he responds to several e-mails
a day from customers with questions
about a part print, a workholding
problem or some other challenge.
18 | PRECISION MANUFACTURING July | August 2010
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