Thread: Rating razor quality poll

Its like walking in the door for Thanksgiving, and smelling all the scents of a feast.
You havent seen a thing or tasted anything. You just know.
If Mom burnt the turkey you can smell it before you see it.
If you dont know food or cant smell, well.....
Hones give the smell of the taste of the shave.
Happy Turkey Day All

I judge how a razor is built by how it looks and feels on the hone first, any imperfections, unevenness, warped or not, all those thing play a part in my inexperienced honing journey
Imperfect blades are a pita on the hone getting the entire edge right
Most razors I have are great shavers when finished right, but not all are made equal with the same amount of attention to detail

I've honed a couple of Iwasaki Tamahagane Western Straights and they are not a fast and easy hone from glassed edge. So I will say it's all bout the hone feel because they are horrible shavers!

Honestly, for me it's the feel of the blade in my hand before it even touches stone that tells most. I then make it happen when steel meets stone. If it feels rubbish, I don't go through the trouble. On the hone, it's blade geometry. Spine to edge and how it meets the stone. That being said- eg. I've held some Sheffield steel that had geometry problems, and I tuned them back in sync with one another for fantastic shaves. When it first went on the stone, the edge meeting the stone might say it was garbage, but I could tell it was only improperly honed in the past. ...now ask me what test I use to see if my chisels are sharp

I can tell a lot from the feel & sound on the strop. I usually use the same two Shell cordavan strops. A Koken & a Jager. I got a razor shaped piece of steel made in Packistan & just for fun I gave it the whole treatment from setting bevel up through 10K water hones & Yes it felt kind of wonky. Stropped on smooth leather with .25 Micron Dia. spray then on my Koken Shell strop. It felt & sounded different & off in my mind. I tried a shave with it & that is all it would barely do. Stropped it after shaving & two days later tried it again with even worse results.
Yes I could tell on the hones that it was not good material but for me the strop told the real story. Guess I am just different.
Slawman

Originally Posted by jnats

I've honed a couple of Iwasaki Tamahagane Western Straights and they are not a fast and easy hone from glassed edge. So I will say it's all bout the hone feel because they are horrible shavers!

Honestly, for me it's the feel of the blade in my hand before it even touches stone that tells most. I then make it happen when steel meets stone. If it feels rubbish, I don't go through the trouble. On the hone, it's blade geometry. Spine to edge and how it meets the stone. That being said- eg. I've held some Sheffield steel that had geometry problems, and I tuned them back in sync with one another for fantastic shaves. When it first went on the stone, the edge meeting the stone might say it was garbage, but I could tell it was only improperly honed in the past. ...now ask me what test I use to see if my chisels are sharp

You're kidding right? About the terrible shavers bit?

How many strokes do you give on the polish stone. I run 100 slow even strokes. Is this more than necessary. Then I go to the strop, linine side with food grade pumice on the linine and finish on the leather.

How many strokes is dependent on what hone is used and on the particular razor. On an Ark, a hundred or more strokes is going to be common. On other hones, the edge may begin to degrade long before half that many strokes.

Utopoian is absolutely right.

A Charnley Forrest can take 100x while a Shapton 30K takes only 2-3x. It also depends on the razor as they vary in hardness.

My sharpest razors are my German ones but my best shaver is a 6/8" Pre. 1881 Wade & Butcher 1/4 hollow I really learned to hone on that razor. I paid a few bucks for it & my early honing abuse didn't hurt it. I think you could hone that razor on a brick & get a good shave.
I would have to say both on the poll myself. Working with steel all my adult life You can tell good steel by the way it grinds, welds & machines. Good steel is a pleasure to work with.

Slawman

Hone Damage! I have used a straight razor nigh on 40 years and a majority of those years I had no idea how to hone the blade. I started with diamond hones, shave, and it was s _ _ t. Went to limited Arkansas whet stones, and shave was S _ _ T. Broke down after several years and bought Norton Water Stones, shave was S _ _ t. Bought new Arkansas stones. Some blades finally came up to cutting the steel and giving me a bit better of a shave. At least most of the blades will cut the hair. I persisted, over hacked up nickes and burning face. I did have to back up the SR shaves with a standard dollar razor which cut better than any of my hones. Contacted a barber friend from High Sch. Alumni and asked him. He sent me instructions, but nothing like what I found here, but he said barber schools were dropping the straight razor (I don't know. he said so.) and said use the dollar razor because the SR damages the skin.
I have worked my drooping A _s off to get this right. I have about 20 SR's and Zombie hone which I call Cave Man Grind. I have about four SR's that are not ground to death. I have used tape to try and achieve the right edge. I will go to my grave without having finally achieved the honing skill to alter these conditions. I have read everything here and on other forums and the internet. So, so many ways to approach the honing. But. The grade of steel, to me, is a critical factor, then whether the blade has been abused n the honing process.