Thread: almost shave-ready, but ready to go!

Hello,

I wanted to start my intros before I begin shaving. I haven't started yet. Lynn, will soon be sending back a shave ready Dovo Pakkawood.

To make a long story short, I never thought I'd be using a straight razor. My friend Roger only recently turned me onto DE shaving, and the B&B site. I immediately loved it, and then pulled out this straight my brother gave me years ago. The only time I ever used it was, (gasp!), when I needed a razor in the midst of a upholstering/refinishing job for my 1940's wet bar. Needless to say it seems unharmed. Eventually, I soon found my way to SRP.

So, now I've jumped into this world with great excitement and enthusiasm. I've decided to have my razor honed professionally so I can work from a baseline. I do have a question regarding stones though, I thought I could quickly throw in here.

A local Japanese cutlery place sold me a beautiful natural stone for sharpening. The gentleman told me it's at about 6K. I originally wanted to go with the ubiquitous 4K/8K by Norton, but they had only Japanese makes. Do you think I made a mistake by going with something in the middle (of 8K and 4K)? Will I have to get a Norton eventually?

Also, as posted in this section, I plan on getting an old razor from an antique store (many here in Alameda) to experiment with and gauge against the pro-honed Black Star.

Cheers!
-Lear

The Norton is a good starter set, but certainly not necessary. The 6k should be pretty good for touch-up, and you'll probably need something for polishing.

If you plan on honing new/neglected blades, you'll need something in the 1k neighborhood.

It's going to depend on what you intend to do. Are you going to buy old or new razors? Are you just looking to maintain your Dovo? If you want a cheap route, you can just get a barber hone, like a Swaty, for a polisher. You will need a finer hone, but you will only need a more coarse hone if you intend to do more than maintenance of already sharp razors.

BTW, great avatar! Seven Samurai is one of the best movies ever made!

Good start and good luck.

You might want to ask A guy named Old School about your hone he knows the japaneese stones and how they relate to razors.

One stone is rarely enough even if it is enough! ;-)
You may want to consider a yellow coticule for polishing and maintaining your blades. It is a step up from the 6K. With a slurry, you have about an 8K stone. Honing with water only, you have about a 10K stone. The 8K/10K range is an approximation that will vary with stones but is a fairly good general rule for coticules.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

Good start and good luck.

You might want to ask A guy named Old School about your hone he knows the japaneese stones and how they relate to razors.

Nice, thanks!

And many thanks for the advice! I guess razors from antique stores vary in condition. Ideally, I'd like to get any one I may pick up into shave-ready condition. In other words, MORE HONES!

--I'm not sure if the Mifune avatar is from Seven Samurai, though. My thoughts are that it's Sanjuro or one of the less serious flicks. .---

I'm a fan of natural stones. It really depends on how the stone cuts, it may be very good, or may turn somewhat less useful. I find that rarely is a stone unuseable, you just need to find what it's good for.
I'd say that if it behaves like a 6k stone, that's an medium coarseness and it may be good for bridging the bevel setting stage (1k-2k) with the finishing state (8k and up), or it may be very good for removing microchips. May be the edge off it is pretty good for shaving as is.
You'll have to find out.

Yup, who knows what it's going to turn out

Whatever it is - don't despair, you'll find some use. Btw, I hear some Germans on their site shared that they routinely shave off Blue Belgian or similars. Someone (Bruno?) shaved off under 2K once, and said it wasn't too bad. My grandfather also used scary coarse stones...

Cheers
Ivo