Quote Originally Posted by TristanLudlow View Post
I have some pretty old razors, incidentally they seem unused and show no hone wear.

However, I found them hard to sharpen, with and without tape.

Then I calculated their bevel angles and all were above 20 degrees.
They're heavier grinds.

If the angle is too low, simple, add layers of tape, but too high?
Maybe it was more common to use those angles in the day.

Do I just keep honing them on the 1K until I make good contact over the entire edge? Without tape that is, so things wear down?

I'm fairly sure I honed such razors in the past without tape and things eventually worked out.

Tape isn't working on them and the angles will only get higher, so just checking in to ask how you go about honing those razors?

I figure it's just a matter of spending time on the 1K
Yeah, that approach is valid. You do have to have a good bevel and eventually you ought to get one, if you just keep at it. But do you really want to start at 1k? Judgement call, but you might want to start out with something much more coarse. If a lot of steel has to come off, then save some of the wear you would put on the 1k, by starting at 320 or so. Even coarser? Up to you, but remember the coarser you go, the bigger the chips, and the more time you will spend removing them as you move up in grit. If your goal is a more acute bevel angle, then obviously no matter how you normally feel about it, tape on the spine is exactly diametrically oppositely wrong.

If you wanna play this game, I suggest you set aside all of those razors except one to be the sacrificial lab rat.

A 20° razor can be made to shave. It won't be a spectacular shaver but it can shave. I have shaved with a ZY430 though it ain't nothing to write home about. To an extent, you can make up for a very obtuse angle with a very fine edge treatment such as the pasted balsa progression that I document on my website. An ordinary 12k synthetic edge really needs a bit of help when it is applied to a really fat bevel. If you are into naturals you might experiment with a really hard Jnat and a thoroughly broken down, very thin slurry, gradually diluting to pure running water. Then a few dozen extremely light laps with dish soap on the clean stone.

Regrinding is a touchy subject. Is it even worth all the extra work? If the razor is that valuable, do you really want to diddle with it? Up to you. Been there, done that. It can be done, even with fairly primitive and basic gear, but that's an awful lot of work when you can just buy a nice vintage with good geometry for $20 to $75. How much is your time worth?

If OTOH you are looking for a hobby activity, you might pick out a likely candidate and just hone, on somehting coarse, heavy on the spine, maybe after relieving the grind a bit at the shoulder. You will likely end up with a wedge or near wedge, and a very very worn stone. Sandpaper to the rescue. Save your stones and do all the heavy lifting on red resin type wet/dry, secured to your lapping plate with spray adhesive. What grit? Up to you. I Have started at 60 grit but you are gonna end up with a lot of chips that will have to hone out at some point, so around 220 is more reasonable. Depends on how much steel is coming off. Judgement call. Before you reach your geometry and bevel goal, you should already be bumping up the grit so you aren't struggling for days at the 1k level to clean everything up. But before actually setting the bevel and calling it set, do you want this to be a full wedge razor, or do you want it hollowground? Putting a good hollowgrind on a razor requires a degree of craftsmanship, especially with less than ideal equipment for it. I have done this with a jig, a Dremel with sanding drums, and then hand sanding. I have also used the nose roller on a belt sander clamped upside down in my bench vise. And I have trashed a LOT of razors doing this LOL!!! How many can you afford to sacrifice? A full wedge is a much easier grind to manage. You want to create a fairly acute overall bevel angle, so that you can apply a compound bevel that is reasonable and effective for shaving.

In doing all that, you are essentially creating a razor using pre-hardened steel via stock removal. Just sayin. Most of us don't have time for that.