This thread is a continuation on my pre-crash thread on trying to get a sharp enough razor to shave with. During the past few days, i have been working with a set of 3 razors, honing them on my 4k/8k norton and stropping on my new Tony Miller Travel/Starter Strop. The new strop is very nice, and i am improving my technique on it with each shave test.

In the last few shaving attempts, i have notice a gradual improvement in the C. V. Heljestran razor i got from my uncle. I don't know much about this brand, but is says Eskilstuna Sweden on it. It is slightly wider(6/8 of an inch), shank to edge, than the other two razors i am working with. It is pretty smooth on my cheeks going down, and only slight pulling going across the grain on the cheeks. It starts to pull going up my neck(but not down) as well as around my chin. With my new strop, i started applying a little more pressure, which resulted in good drag. I plan to continue stropping and test shaving with it in hopes that the sharpness continues to improve. BTW, i think it might be a stainless.

The other two razors are a pretty new dovo bismark super and a J.A. Henckels. I have had no success getting the dovo sharp enough to shave with, it pulls on my cheeks and i stop there. I've tried different approaches to honing and stropping on the dovo, such as going straight from the 4k to strop and stropping using different amounts of pressure. The J.A. Henckels razor is slightly sharper than the dovo, but still uncomfortable to shave with on my cheeks.

If anyone has any thoughts about these different razors, i'd appreciate it. If i have a week of limited success I might see if anyone would be interested in taking a look at them, and evaluate how well they have been honed. My RS microscrope shows a sharp edge, but being a newbie i may be wrong.

-Dan