Thread: long-winded intro, first honing, first shave

ahem

I first came to SRP from much googling for info on extremely fine grit natural hones. I wanted to find out about these for my main hobby, knives. I've been sharpening my knives to unnecessary levels for a few years now-splitting hairs, cutting arm hair above the skin, slicing TP and rolling papers, acquiring loupes, pocket scopes, and a microscope with digital camera to inspect edges, etc. Anyway, once I had accumulated what I felt was enough info on the hone, I kept looking through this place.

That led to an interest in getting some old razors off ebay and trying to clean/sharpen them up. So, I did, buying 7 of them. The first, a Black King/G De Rosa came in, and without even polishing the patina off, I started to grind on the edge. I had to 'breadknife' it because it was uneven and chipped, but after that, a run through all my stones, and then again with two layers of electrical tape on the spine with my King 4K, 8K, chinese 12K, leather strop block with chromium oxide, and 0.3 micron alox lapping film over smooth leather. It was tree topping arm hair and performing the hanging hair test with my girlfriend's fine follicles fairly well, in my uneducated estimation.

But, was it actually shaving sharp, and what was I going to do with the other five razors that showed up today? (still waiting on one) After taking a break from sanding on the Genco that appears to have more pitting in the hollow than I think I should try to remove, I went ahead and decided to have a go at my 36 hour old stubble. It was unceremonious, a few dozen laps against a plain home made strop block, and canned shave gel on the face. Oh, and a bit of sweat and apprehension.

Anywho, it was an interesting experience. I mainly stick to a Mach 3, though did pick up a couple Feather travels and a Weishi DE last year. I find with a little attention, I can get a relatively smooth shave with the overpriced cartridge in 3 passes with touch ups. I did a WTG and ATG with the straight, and a lot of touching up after. I went veeeeery slowly, and the gel couldn't hang, so it ended up a rather irritating experience, which I expected anyway from it being the first time my face met a straight razor. Still, I only bled in 3 spots, barely a drop each, and where I sometimes end up with it from the DEs anyway (corners of mouth and on the neck). Did a lot of touch up work, since my technique was extremely sloppy, and that's really when the burn started. The alum block of course helped that along, then a glob of Corn Huskers to quiet things down.

I still don't know how to evaluate the edge. It cut hair, and not all too painfully; it may have been as much my sloppiness as any issue with the honing. It was a bit noisy plowing trough the hair, but only somewhat grabby. I will try it again, and with some of the other razors I now have, in between cleaning them up and putting on new scales. I'll give a little more time for the hair to come in, as I find 2-3 days to be the most comfortable time frame, and I will use my boar bristle brush and shave soap as well.

So yeah, hi there

Noisy is normal (at least in my brief experience) and I think real shave soap will help.

HardHeart, I would be interested in some details about the microscope with digital camera...

Glad to see you here hardheart! Straight razors give the closest, most irritation-free shaves so you won't regret it if you continue on your journey. Plus I strongly beleive that for a sharpening nut, the only way to tell the difference between super-sharp and ultra-sharp is shaving the face with the blade, short of using an electron microscope.

I would recommend some 1 micron diamond paste in between the Chinese 12k and CrOx. The Chinese 12k is actually more like 8-10k grit and jumping from that to CrOx is too much in my experience, would take too many laps to be effective. Both are already considered very slow compared to Japanese waterstones and diamonds.

Those canned shaving creams don't work well with straight razors, instead try some Tabac shaving soap. It glides much more smoothly and is more moist. I've found even Vaselin lotion to work better than the canned shaving creams. Then again, you know that the razor is sharp if it can shave dry, without any pull.

Nice going. When I started I used a Norton set and I did have a background in pocket knife sharpening but not to the extent that you've taken it to. One thing that helped me greatly was having a dubl duck goldedge honed by an expert. It gave me a benchmark to shoot for.

Having the pro honed razor let me know what a shave ready razor would feel like. So I would suggest that you send the best one you have out to Lynn or one of the other fellows who advertise in member services in the classifieds.

Send one of those razors out to a honemeister. Then you will have a benchmark for your other blades and it will get rid of one variable in your shaving problems.

I would also invest in a cheap brush and some shaving soap. But razor first.

Also, can you give more details on this strop you made? Improper stropping can also cause problems.

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

HardHeart, I would be interested in some details about the microscope with digital camera...

well, it's cheap. a celestron from amazon, camera is 640x480. the plastic lenses do a decent enough job for me to see the edge, but nothing amazing.

Originally Posted by cotdt

I would recommend some 1 micron diamond paste in between the Chinese 12k and CrOx. The Chinese 12k is actually more like 8-10k grit and jumping from that to CrOx is too much in my experience, would take too many laps to be effective. Both are already considered very slow compared to Japanese waterstones and diamonds.

Those canned shaving creams don't work well with straight razors, instead try some Tabac shaving soap. It glides much more smoothly and is more moist. I've found even Vaselin lotion to work better than the canned shaving creams. Then again, you know that the razor is sharp if it can shave dry, without any pull.

I am planning on getting some diamond lapping film, but I really don't mind the extra strokes on the 12K. The jump really shouldn't be all that bad, JIS 8K is 1.2 micron, and the chromium oxide is some old 0.5 Hand American in liquid suspension from a luthier's kit I used to have. I actually wouldn't think the chinese was all that necessary. I'm also gettin' myself some naturals, that's what kicked this off

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I would also invest in a cheap brush and some shaving soap. But razor first.

Also, can you give more details on this strop you made? Improper stropping can also cause problems.

I do have a cheap brush and soap, the van der Hagen stuff, which is all I can find locally. The strop is made from remnant leather, smooth and kind of a cordovan color. It's narrow, about an 1 1/2", and mounted on 1/4" wood. It's just what I had around for this impromptu shave.

I guess the next step is to send one off for honing, though it pains my ego to have someone else make my tools sharp.

seems all I needed to do was rehone the edge. I reset the bevel (excuse to use the new Norton ceramic stone I bought), added slurry steps to the 4K & 8K and did twice as many passes on the 12K. Also used an old belt to strop with. Night and day difference in sharpness. Now I just need to stop slicing my chin...

Welcome to SRP.

Hey, are you the Hardheart at BladeForums? If so, I've been reading your posts for several years over there.

The cool thing about sharpening razors for me (rather than knives) is that I actually get to use use the new edge every day for a real chore. All I ever did with my sport knives was test the edges. I can carry a Spyderco or Benchmade around for months without needing to use one. But I shave every day, sometimes twice! So that is a chance for daily edge sharpening gratification.

Also, those obsessively sharp knife edges are mostly for bragging rights. They're not really pratical for daily use unless you are a Japanese chef. But a razor sharp razor is just the norm.

Originally Posted by matt321

Welcome to SRP.

Hey, are you the Hardheart at BladeForums? If so, I've been reading your posts for several years over there.

The cool thing about sharpening razors for me (rather than knives) is that I actually get to use use the new edge every day for a real chore. All I ever did with my sport knives was test the edges. I can carry a Spyderco or Benchmade around for months without needing to use one. But I shave every day, sometimes twice! So that is a chance for daily edge sharpening gratification.

Also, those obsessively sharp knife edges are mostly for bragging rights. They're not really pratical for daily use unless you are a Japanese chef. But a razor sharp razor is just the norm.

You can also use your Spydercos and Benchmades for shaving. They just need a 15-18 degree bevel (included). It takes some good technique to get them as sharp as a straight razor though, since they lack the angle-setting spine.