Thread: New blood, and hone questions...

first off, Happy Chrismahanukwanzaka to all.

i just started shaving with a straight blade this month. Picked up a vintage razor from Ebay, a Union Cutlery "Spike" read all the noob info even before starting, and had my first REAL shave. now i've got a strop being shipped, and i have a few questions before taking care of the blade.

First off is will i need to re-paste the strop? it's new, so i think i know the answer already...

i'm also looking at picking up a King #6000 grit and maybe a kitayama #12000 polishing stone, is that overkill?
or should i just stick with the 6000?

thanks in advance

at first welcome srp and enjoy.
Your hone chooses a little strange to me.
Katayama 12000 is ok choose
don't know about king 6000 it is in the middle of the way.
will better choose norton 4k/8k + katayama.
king 6000 +belgian +katayama
or
king 6000+Belgian + green paste chr02.
i think 1 of these combination will do the work.
hope this helps.

Welcome to SRP. Sounds like you already know about the SRP Wiki and the info available on the forums. You may have noticed that a large percentage of forum members are familiar with the Norton 4/8 and the Shapton 16K glass stone.

Those and a DMT D8C for lapping and removing serious chips are my recommendations. Add a DMT D8E for setting bevels and removing minor chips on ebay specials and you have a combination of tools that leave you ready for anything.

Not knocking the King or the Kitiyama but I have never had any hands on experience with them. I haven't seen very many members mention them. It is an advantage to have hones that many members are familiar with if you need feedback down the road. As far as the strop, I wouldn't paste my only strop. I would leave it as is and have another for paste or a flatbed hone for paste. Just IMHO.

Welcome to the SRP!

If your strop is a vintage one from Ebay then yes, it will need to be repasted with the yellow, non abrasive paste, mink oil, hand lotion etc.

For a hone the most popular here on the SRP is the Norton 4/8, the Shapton glasshone series and the Belgians, yellow and blue.

Hope this helps,

Since it looks as though you are heading down the restore /vintage razor road you might want to check this thread out....

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...torations.html

A 6000 grit stone is too fine to do chip removal or serious edge enhancement, unless you really have a lot of time to kill. It is also not really fine enough to put a shave ready edge on your blade. It is a perfect for a stepping level between roughing out a blade and closing in on a shaving edge.

The 12000 grit stone is only needed to polish the edge left ‘almost there’ by a coarser stone. You will want one eventually. At this point you may not even see or feel what it is doing. STOP THE PRESSES!!!!! I just Googled kitayama #12000. We are looking at a stone in the $80 range. I thought you were talking super tight budget since you were talking King. Spend your money on a Norton 4000/8000 and eliminate all of the above issues. Useable enough for most blades that need less than catastrophic work, close enough to a shave ready edge by itself. Easily had for $80. I got mine for $65.

If the strop is new, I am assuming there is no paste or any sort of abrasive on it. I’d leave it that way, you need a leather only strop for every shave no matter what.

To address the edge polishing issue. Get or make yourself a paddle strop. Paste it with .5 micron Chromium Oxide, this is the green stuff. Compared to buying another stone like the Kitayama, it will be a very cheap and much easier way for you to get a killer edge on your blades. Yes, you still need the unpasted strop you have on the way.

Thanks for the helpfull information all!

when Kahunamoose mentioned the CrO paste i remembered seeing an estore selling paste and powder. as well as what looks to be a very interesting benchstrop setup.. JapaneseKnifeSharpening.com

i'm thinking that, combined with a Norton 4/8, and maybe a dremel with the polishing pads will bring any ebay special back to "scary sharp"

i can't wait....

Originally Posted by Liam2112

Thanks for the helpfull information all!

when Kahunamoose mentioned the CrO paste i remembered seeing an estore selling paste and powder. as well as what looks to be a very interesting benchstrop setup.. JapaneseKnifeSharpening.com

i'm thinking that, combined with a Norton 4/8, and maybe a dremel with the polishing pads will bring any ebay special back to "scary sharp"

i can't wait....

That is precisely the stuff you want. It used to be offered direct from Hand American but now is distributed by this company.
The chrome ox that is being sold here is the good stuff, 0.5 micron in size. I use chrome ox on all my razors. It makes the edge sharper and smoother.