Thread: My first honing experience - Wapi

My Wapi arrived today - thanks Wojtec!

I took my Arkansas stone, honed it for a while and switched to the pasted paddle strop and did 20-30 laps. Then, wehnt on to the linen side of my hairloom hanging strop and did 30 laps, and finished with 60 laps on the leather side.
How I tested. First I tried it on my arm hair and it went OK, so I got one of my chest hairs and rolled it over the blade and it popped pretty easily. As I shaved yesterday, I still don't have much of a long beard to try it, but I couldn't resist! I passed the blade below my chin and -how- it shaved what my old Dovo didn't shaved yesterday.

It got me wondering... This was too easy to be true. Are the Wapi's pre-honed? I must admit I haven't tried it before honing it.

Well, now I'm off to finding some new scales to the Wapi - that metal handle sure is heavy!

Congrats Leon! Good job my man. Woj does give them a bit of a honing before sending them out, but the rest was your doing. The Wapis do hone up nicely, don't they? For the money, they're the best darn razor value available anywhere! I re-scaled one of mine recently and the new lighter scales do feel nice. In the meantime, you will get used to the carbon scales if you keep using them. Nice work.

Mine were ready to shave when they arrvied.
I've got 3 5/8 and 9/16's wapi on the way. easy to hone and maintain. stamped or unstamped, imo the best bang for the buck. i'm partial to the stock scales on them. I like the heft of them.

I also found the wapis to be hone friendly, they somehow respond very well and still i havent overhoned one.

All i can say is that you did a great job, with all that honing and stropping is easy to mess up an edge...very...

Good job and keep us posted with your improvements.

I shaved with my Wapi yesterday and I looked like a teenager shaving his face for the first time. Man, the Wapi is S-H-A-R-P. Scary sharp. I never got so many nicks and cuts in my life! I think this may be due to the heavy scales that unbalance my hand when shaving, I don't know. So, in conclusion, my Wapi shave was close, too close... Definitely very different than my Dovo Best Quality that shaves OK and it's much more forgiving...

Hi Leon

I purchased a Wapi from ebay (from open_razor) and decided to keep it stock until I got a Norton 4000/8000 and started to learn honing. It came in pretty sharp but not honed. My father then took it and replaced the steel scales with some he made from mahogany and to be honest he has done a great job and so I am tempted to get it pro- honed as it looks and feels fantastic. I can’t wait to shave with it as it feels just right to me and I am interested to see if it fares as good or better as my Dovo.

The price of the Norton or similar stones means I will have to wait until Christmas until I can get hold of one (Rats!!)

Now I need to find someone from the UK that can, and is willing, to sell me a hone up for it!!

Ray

Mondy... get in touch with Iwan (Steelforge) for honing in UK.
Cheers
M.

Heads up for that!!

Thanks Mark

Sorry for the Off Topic Leon!

Ray

Originally Posted by Mondy

Sorry for the Off Topic Leon!

Ray

No prob.

I'm about to take off the stock scales and put some pakkawood scales - it will be my first scales replacement. For what I've read, it's not very difficult. I'll let you know then.

Good work fellas!

When you say it's so sharp 'you have never had so many nicks and cuts' are you sure it's sharp enough? I get nicked and cut when the razor's just about lost its keen-ness and I am overcompensating by adding too much pressure? Or maybe you have gone to far and over honed? Just my two pen'orth...

For anyone reading this and thinking Wapis are the simplest things to hone and you are struggling with yours fear not...one of mine was a pig to hone at first but a pointer or two from Randy regarding techniques got it right on the money.

It has a slight (and I mean slight) warp but it's sharp as hell now.

Simon