Thread: I can't quite get to shave ready...

You're close. If the last hone your razor hit was the 8k for at least 10-15 laps, strop and test.

good luck

I usually finish on chromium oxide, but last night I tried some different stuff, just for fun. I cut a 3 inch wide peice of MDF and glued a piece of glass of the same size to the MDF. I then taped down some newspaper tighly on the stone, and smeared a little bit of Mothers Aluminum and metal polish on hte newspaper, and stropped about 30 - 40 times. Since the glass is extremely flat and the polish is very fine, you could even do it a couple of hundred times probably and not over hone. Then I replaced the used newspaper with fresh, and stropped about a hundred times on the plain newspaper, i.e. no polish. The shave was surprisingly good. This was a on a 7/8 crown and sword 1/2 grind.
I felt no need to finish on a chromium oxide strop at all. The shave was very smooth.
It's dirt cheap, and you can even just pull the glass out of a picture frame and lay it on your table instead of gluing it to MDF.

You mentioned the belgian blue - it's not really considered a polishing stone. In terms of grit I would place it between your 4k and 8k norton. Your 8k norton would be your finest stone, most likely. Actually, in comparison to most other 8k waterhones, I think the norton ranks to be more of about a 6000 grit stone. I would finish your pyramids or whatever you want to do on the Norton, as gugi said 10 to 15 passes on the norton as a final stone, then go to your local auto store and pick up some Mothers polish. 30 - 40 passes on the mothers, then about a hundred on the newspaper. Provided you've set a good bevel to begin with as the others have pointed out, you should be able to have a good shave off of this. It's dirt cheap, and dang effective.

Good Luck!

How many pieces of newspaper are you using by the way? Just one, or a whole section's worth?

Wolff, I think you need to go back to basics. If your bevel is set, do a medium pyramid on the Norton combo and nothing else. That Belgian Blue may be the problem right there as it's not really a finisher. Test shave. If it's not quite there, wait a day or two and do 3, 1/3 laps and test again. If you're shaving and you just want it to stop pulling a little bit. Strop on newspaper for about 30 or 40 laps. That should help.

X

I agree, and that's what I did. I did the pyramid skipping the Belgian and then did the newspaper. I got a pretty good shave out of it too. But I must admit, it wasn't as smooth as it could have been.

I cut some newspaper and taped it to a 3''x5'' piece of glass from a picture frame and did 150 passes. I did so many because my newspaper strop was so small. How many layers of newspaper is recommended? I could feel the double-sided tape on the passes when I used just one piece of paper.

I use a piece of stair spindle, cut in half and sanded flat, and I wrap the newspaper tight around it and fasten it with a binder clip on the back side. I use one sheet of newsprint folded in half twice, (which makes four layers). I don't know what others do, but it works for me. Sounds like your method is okay, but I'd attach the tape in the back so there's no bumps.

cass

Don't use double sided tape. Tape one end down, then pull the newspaper taught, apply tape to the other end. If you think of it like a football field, then the tape is only on hte endzones, while the 100 yards inbetween is only newspaper with just glass underneath. Don't use double sided tape underneath, just put tape it from the top. I use 1" wide painters tape to ensure that I get plenty of adhesion. I use just one piece of paper.

As X said, Bevel setting is key.

Do you strop with leather too? Or do you just use your glass and leather setup?

I always do about 60 passes on a hanging leather strop before each shave.

Is that to give it a smoother shave? Because I'm doing about a hundred passes on the newspaper/glass set up, but it's not as super smooth as it could be. It's smooth, but sill not as smooth as my disposable straight's blades. Or is this just indicative of not enuff honing?