Short summary, so you won't get discouraged when reading: I can't hone a razor, it seems to be curved (sideways).
Later edit 3: if this problem showed up already and is discussed elsewhere, I apologize for not reading thoroughly enough, I kindly ask you to redirect me to that post and I will read everything there and come back to my topic only if I have further problems.
(Or... yet another newbie with a HUGE problem.
Short background: against all the advice read on this forum, I went for a 6/8" black horn scales TI from CS as my first new (and real) razor, which I ordered without a honing from Lynn... If any of you want to say bad things to me about this, I can understand and I won't complain :) So, the razor arrived (along with a Dovo XL strop - another bad choice I believe), of course not shave ready. It would not shave, I was able to scrape some beard with it, when trying it on my arm, it would simply go over the hair - very thin hair indeed, but the DE just removes it - so the TI is not shaving it at all. The beard being a little stiffer (still, I have a somehow light beard), some of it would eventually go off, but very very little at a time and the razor just gets stuck in it. No problem I thought, since I was wise to also order a coticule, so I will simply sharpen it. Well, the rest you can read in the real "post" part of this posting)
So, the facts and then the problem:
Fact 1 - I am a total newbie in the straight razor area (I shaved with a DE razor for more than a year now, so I can say I can prep before the shave, no particular problems there, also not very tough beard), I'm not very patient, but I can concentrate at least on the razor, so I promise to try everything you say and not rush things;
Fact 2 - I have the following:
- a 6/8" TI (Sheffield Silver Steel) from CS - arrived not shave ready
- a 20x4 cm coticule (half as wide as razor is long, and five times as long as wide, I thought it would serve me well if it's longer and not so wide)
- a DOVO XL strop (wider than the razor, so the whole razor fits)
Problem 1 - I can't sharpen the razor, no matter what I try. But please also see Problem 2.
Problem 2 - it seems to me that the razor, when moved over the hone, has a particularity: on one of it's sides, the middle part of the blade does not touch the hone. The hone is not perfectly flat, but the other side of the razor seems to do fine. To expand the description:
- I generate some slurry
- On the left to right stroke, with the razor perpendicular to the hone, a very nice sound is heard, exactly like in the videos I saw on sharpening (woosh like - I don't really know a word but it just sounds how I was expecting it to sound). Also, I feel what I believe was referred to as suction (the razor seems stick to the hone's surface, you can move it sideways easily and it's harder to lift)
- On the right to left stroke, it starts the same, but when the blade's middle comes to the hone (to the middle of the hone I guess, the movement is uniform), the sound is gone, the feeling is gone, and if I look at the blade on the stone, I can see that it only contacs it on the stones sides and not in the middle. I wasn't able to find a way to make the blade's middle touch the hone. If I just slide it along the hone without the X motion (honing the heel and just to the middle) things do seem better, but then I need to hone the entire blade, and still it's not like on the other side. I tried turning the coticule, I tried only honing on it's left side or right side (let's say the left is where it has a small spot), tried only in the middle - different, but not like the left to right stroke. And this is happening with no pressure and also with a little pressure.
- Putting the blade on various surfaces that I can say they're flat (or somewhere near flatness), the razor seems to be curved, on side convex and on the other concave. Clearly, on the concave side, it does not contact the hone in the middle of the blade;
- the same seems true on the strop, on one side it does not contact the strop with the middle of the blade (but an X pattern does seem to help here). But I ordered the widest strop... :cry:
- Further problem: I live in Romania, so sending it over to the US for honing would be somewhere on the bottom of the list of the choices (expensive and possibly unreliable postal services). Only if there's no other way for me to do it myself will I resort to this solution (and furthermore, if the blade is curved, I won't be able to touch it up once it gets dull again). But, there would be something good in it - I would have a properly sharpened razor! Well... you tell me please... :)
So, please try to help me out :) I'm open to any suggestion, recommendation, and as I said, critiques :) Thank you!
Sergiu
Leter edit 1: the heel seems to sharpen somewhat, not "there" yet, but I can see some progress... But I would like all the razor to sharpen... And - sorry for the very long post, I felt that skipping any part would not show the whole problem.
Later edit 2: Alternatives (as I see them now, please send new suggestions): 1) Get a new coticule, long and very narrow (I saw this advice several times for this kind of problems and it makes sense); 2) send the razor to someone to sharpen - this makes even more sense, with the difficulties I mentioned; 3) give up the whole thing, draw a line, sum up the expenses (justify to my wife) - you see this is not realistic :D
