Thread: My first sharpening

I decided that after about 6 weeks of use, it was time to attempt to sharpen my blade.

A little background on how I came to this conclusion. I bought the blade for the classifieds here and it was shave ready. I have always had problems shaving with it on the right side of my neck and chocked it up to being a newbie. I also noticed when I strop that one side would "sing", I don't believe that it is a singing blade.

I figure what happened is that I improperly stropped it when I first got it, so I sharpened today and it seemed a bit better. I still didn't get a close shave in some areas like the chin, but that will all come with time.

Here are some pics and steps that I followed to sharpen

1) I used my Norton 4/8k stone with about 25 passes on each side.

2) I stropped on the good side of my strop for about 60 passes. This strop was my great grandfathers, It has two sides, a sharpen and a fine. I only uses the one side because of a huge gash on in the leather on the other side of the strop.

3) I cut a piece of cardboard, mixed up some Chrom Ox paste and did about 25 passes on it. I think I will use a piece of balsa wood next time for more stability.

4) I then re-stropped for about 60 more passes.


Here are the pics (I don't know anything about the blade, it only says made in the USA on it)

-Quick Note: The One side of my strop is in horrible condition. The other side works great...There are two pieces of leather sewn together at the top. I use the thinner piece to sharpen as the thicker piece is all chewed up.

--The blade does cut hair, I believe my poor technique is what caused the blade to pull more on one side. After a few passes on the hone, it seems to not pull as much. I believe I have my stropping technique down a little better now.

--Anyone know of a decent strop for about 35 bucks?