Thread: Razor sharpening

Hi hopefully someone can help me out, just recently took the plunge and trying to sharpen a Wapi. The only problem I have is that I can get the razor so that one side of the blade cuts a treat but the otherside wont cut anything. If I hold the razor in my right hand and shave away from myself its very sharp however if i shave towards myself its very blunt.

Using a Belgian Blue Stone. Just need to get the other side sharp and Ive cracked it.

Thanks for your help.

John

Belgian Blue Stones are slow cutters while Belgian Coticules are quicker with slurry. If you are just starting to hone the blue won't offer the results very quickly. Another hone choice might be the answer. This includes artificial and natural.

Did you mean that you've cracked the blade or that you just need the other side sharpened.

If you need help honing it I'm sure I can get you a great shaving edge on both sides. I don't post a lot on the site but I do follow it daily and have since the yahoo group in 2003.

PM me if you would like a bevel correction. free of charge. I'm sure you'll recieve many offers for this from the plethora of skilled honers.

This site has all the support you will need in order to learn honing and straight shaving very efficiently. Straight Razor Designs, The Perfect Edge , Classic Shaving and many more offer allyou witll ever need to get an excellent edge. All have excellent customer service.
Best of luck
MikeB

Let me know if I can help.

Originally Posted by sdsquarepoint

PM me if you would like a bevel correction. free of charge.
Let me know if I can help.

This is great help accept it and you will be a lot happy.

Thanks for the help and the offer, I havent cracked the blade or damaged it in any way all I want to do is to have both sides of the blade as sharp as the right hand side.

There is only one condition, as far as I 'm aware of, that can make an edge shave well on one side and not when you flip it over. That's if you accidentally lifted the spine, either during as little as one stroke on the hone, but more likely while stropping the razor. That would bend the edge in a j-shape, which causes the phenomenon you describe.

It's the only plausible explanation, because there is only 1 edge.

Below you'll find a video, where you can see me honing a razor on only a BBW. I use Chromium Oxide (CrO) on top of it, at the end of the procedure to boost the keenness to ultimate levels, but you could easily replace that part by 10-20 laps on a paddle strop with CrO. It won't be exactly the same, but you would get an excellent edge anyway. As long as you first hit already very decent keenness on the BBW. If not, CrO will not yield the desired effect.

The idea is to create a decent slurry for the bulk of the work. Stay on one side of the blade for 20 laps, rubbing back and forth, one finger on the middle of the blade to apply a bit of pressure. (use the muscles of that finger, and not your wrist to apply the pressure, that 'll keep pressure within acceptable limits.) Next, flip the razor and repeat at the other side. You need to keep doing this for a while, probing the edge regularly for progress. You could use a "shave armhair test", a Thumbnail test (TNT), or a thumb pad test (TPT). If you want to use the arm hair test, don't make the slurry too thick, for thick slurry prevents the edge from reaching enough keenness to shave arm hair.
You can see in the video that I am not afraid of putting the finger on a part of the edge that stays behind a bit, in order to give that part of the blade some special attention.

Once the blade starts to show good responsiveness along its entire length, it's time to adopt a regular X-stroke, and refresh the slurry with a thiner one. Add a drop of water every now and then, making the slurry thinner as you go along. Don't let it become thicker, because that will work backwards. Don't use the BBW with water only, because that may be counterproductive as well. Do your final laps on very thin, misty slurry.

The razor should now shave arm hair extremely well, possibly able to grab hairs above skin level too.

Time to strop 10 - 20 laps on a CrO paddle strop.
After that 20 on linen and 60 on clean leather before your test shave.

This is my way to hone a razor on just a BBW. Surely there are other ways to do it, and easier ways that include faster hones. Sending it out is the easiest of all. But it can be done.


Kind regards,
Bart.

YouTube - Belgian Blue Whetstone honing