Thread: Help sharpening

Hello,
I recently discovered this forum and it is filled with a weath of good information.
A started shaving with a DE some months ago and now I am thinking about switching to, or at least trying a straight. I have an old one that I would like to use, it is clean and sharp, but not sharp enough to shave with. So far, I have honed it with a very fine grit sharpening stone that I had, and stropped it with an old leather belt that I sanded the shiny finish off. I would like to try and get it sharp with what I have here, rather than spending money on special stones/strops, as I do not know if straight shaving is for me, and I am on a limited budget. I have included some photos of my makeshift gear. So far, i have gotten the razor sharp enough to kind of shave--that is bearly at all but at least not completely snagging as it was when I started, and it will cut a hanging hair if I use a fast slicing motion on the hair and it catches it. I could keep honing, but I did not want to take too much metal off the edge, and I know that the "hanging hair test" is not always accurate. Also, does stropping sharpen at all or simply "align" the steel for shaving?
any help you could provide would be appreciated

Hello!
I just posted my first experience on resharpening over on the honing forum. As I look at your photos I had two thoughts. First, is your blade truly straight or slightly curved? I can't be sure from the photos but it looks like it might be slightly convex, so the cutting edge has the appearance of a "smile". If so, that would make it difficult to get a consistant sharpness across the entire blade, as the angle will vary from the point to the heel.
The other is what sort of stone are you using? You don't really need 8 or 12K stones, though they will get a slightly better edge, sometimes a coarser stone helps "re-set" an edge, then you can work up to 6 or 8 K stones , then start stropping with either a rouge or Chromium. It doesn't have to be expensive to get the basics. Others here have a world of experience, and they may give better advice, this was just two thoughts I had.
Good Luck
Jim

I was noticing the same thing about the razors edge. But it looks to me more like the dreaded "frown" and an un-even frown at that. This razor may need some extensive honing, or maybe even re-grinding, to get it in shape. Other thoughts out there?


Scott

Since you already have the razor and don't want to spend much until you know straight razor shaving is something you wish to pursue, you might consider sending your razor to one of the sharpening experts on this list.

Several people here will sharpen a straight razor for a very modest fee; although if your razor is in need of serious rework it might be more expensive. You'd be in a difficult position to sharpen it yourself with the limited tools you have in that instance, anyway.

The experts on the list could make your razor as sharp as possible, thus giving you the easiest and best experience for learning on a straight. I know of my own hard-won knowledge, the learning curve of straight shaving is much more difficult when you're struggling to learn both sharpening and shaving at the same time.

BTW, I'm not representing myself as such a sharpener, I'm still new to straights, too.

KD

That is indeed a funny looking frown.

If you want to do this yourself, put tape on the spine, and sharpen the razor on a piece of wet/dry sandpaper. Usually 1000 grit is advised, but for this frown you might drop to 600 or even 400.

Then sharpen it until the edge is straight. Switch to 1000 grit sandpaper and do a couple of passes to remove the burring from the lower grit paper.

From then on you can remove the tape, and start sharpening the razor on your stone. Btw, have you lapped that stone? if not, do a forum search for 'lapping' to find out how to do this.
To test if the razor is sharp you can use thumbnail test and thumbpad test. You can also use HHT but that takes some feedback experience to get to know.

Sorry for this terse post but I have to go and work now or I would have made my explanation more verbose instead of telling you what to search for.

The simplest way would be to send your razor to one of us to straighten the edge and sharpen it so that you know what 'sharp' feels like and you can maintain it from there on.
I honestly think that it will be difficult to de-frown and sharpen that razor if you've never done it before and don't know what to aim for in sharpness.

If you do decide to go at it yourself, post about your progress and we'll help you along the way to try and get you there.

If you're interested, I'll tackle this sucker. Send me a PM and we can talk about it.

I wouldn't recommend trying to hone it yourself; it's in need of some serious work to get the edge straightened out before you try to get it shaving again. Honing is a little tricky when you're just touching up a razor that's been properly honed. This one hasn't.

It has a frown, which is a concave curve, as Scott mentioned. It also looks like there's some bad wear on the edge near the heel. I see this from time to time, and it happens because the thickness of the steel changes right there near the heel. The stabilizers make the blade thicker, and that thicker part wears more slowly than the rest of the blade. You end up with the heel sticking out like that.

I could also take a look at your stone and find out if it's something that you'll be able to use to maintain your razor, or if you'll need something else.

Have a great day,
Josh

Unfortunate update:
I had noticed the "frowning" as others had described, but did not want to take too much off of the blade. After reading the comments I held the razor against a flat surface and the frown was quite pronounced. HOw did it get so frowned--bad sharpening? I noticed it while I was sharpening the first time so i believe it was that way before i started. I held the blade flat against the stone so that the edge and the sides of the spine touched the stone, which I know to be the correct method.

I decided that I would make one last attempt with another sharpening stone I have of a rougher grit and if I failed, I would send it out to be sharpened. I shortly realized that the extra metal "support" on the hinge end of the blade had helped prevent that side from getting sharpened as much as the other side, which in part led to the curving. I worked to grind this side down, trying not to take the support off, however as the pictures show, there was one small section that did not sharpen properly and stuck out slighly on the end. In an attempt to grind this bump down the stone got caught in the ridge and cracked the blade at this point leaving a small crack up the blade.

So it seems that I am out of luck and at this point have no razor, unless I try and find one online on ebay, which may put me in the same position as i am now, an old razor that needs alot of work. What do you guys think, should I take a gamble on ebay?

As far as how did the frown happen, this is typically due to poor honing technique and too much pressure at the center of the blade.

The correct thing to do, and it's been discussed before, in fact I posted the complete instructions at one time not too long ago, is to do a few honing strokes with emaphasis at the heel and a few at the point. Over time this will create a convexly curved ("smile" as members here like to call it) edge that will under normal circumstances provide the best shaving edge possible.

Sorry about your razor, but chalk it up as a great learning experience. Keep that razor, safely dull the edge and use it as a practice razor for your stropping and honing technique. Then all is not lost.

Get yourself either a new, shave ready razor, or a reconditioned razor and I think you will be much happier. Save the ebay and antique store razors for later when you have more experience under your belt.

Good luck,

Scott

what about getting a razor on ebay and then having one of the "honemiesters" sharpen it. How much would such a service typically cost?

You'd be looking at the cost of the razor plus around $20 for honing.
if you ask im sure someone is selling one thats shave ready.