Wapi NOS question

I am a noob and I am thinking about getting a NOS Wapienica off of eBay that isn't advertised as shave ready. I know it will need some work and I am wondering what it will take to get it ready. From reading all the guides and a bunch of posts I gather that you can keep an already sharp razor good by stropping with a leather strop before each shave and touching it up every now and then with a Chinese 12k wet stone (or some other finishing stone). Will I be able to get a Wapi in factory condition into a shave ready edge with just a Chinese 12k wet stone or will I need to hone it with a more abrasive stone? I was also considering a Pennacle Arkansas hard black/soft white stone from Woodcraft either alone or in combination with the Chinese 12k (both of these are fairly inexpensive). Does anyone have any advice or thoughts on the minimum I need? Is $38.50 shipped a good price for a new Wapi? I am trying to minimize costs and the other option I am considering is buying a vintage shave ready razor from the classifieds section.

If you are new at this, it might be better to buy a "shave ready" from one of the members in the "classified" section...Only because it does take some time to get your honing skills down....And if you are starting on a blade that hasn't been sharpened yet, you could get discouraged quickly...So....get a blade off the classifieds forum (shave ready), and shave with that one....Then get an ebay cheaper vintage blade (one or two), of decent quality....AN old morley for 15$ or so..Then....My preference (I am sure you will her many versions of this set of hones, but the take away is 1 for setting bevel, 1 for sharpening , 1 for polishing....that will get you started)..Hones: 1000; 4000; 8000-12000...Or to dwell down even further..One 1000 grit & a nortons4000-8000..And practice away! After watching some You Tubes examples of course..

+1 on the previous post. Buy a shave ready razor from here. Have a standard by which to achieve when honing those ebay finds while you learn how to hone. Hopefully you have practiced stropping beforehand so you wont damage your new strop and blade during the pre-shave process.

Enjoy the experience.

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Originally Posted by bettis211

I am a noob and I am thinking about getting a NOS Wapienica off of eBay that isn't advertised as shave ready. I know it will need some work and I am wondering what it will take to get it ready. From reading all the guides and a bunch of posts I gather that you can keep an already sharp razor good by stropping with a leather strop before each shave and touching it up every now and then with a Chinese 12k wet stone (or some other finishing stone). Will I be able to get a Wapi in factory condition into a shave ready edge with just a Chinese 12k wet stone or will I need to hone it with a more abrasive stone? I was also considering a Pennacle Arkansas hard black/soft white stone from Woodcraft either alone or in combination with the Chinese 12k (both of these are fairly inexpensive). Does anyone have any advice or thoughts on the minimum I need? Is $38.50 shipped a good price for a new Wapi? I am trying to minimize costs and the other option I am considering is buying a vintage shave ready razor from the classifieds section.

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The Chinese stone is very hard and not suitable for the work you have described. Most folks use it as a finish stone, meaning that this stone basically polishes the bevel. Also these stones are known to be slow cutters. Around 100 laps will start to show some results.

I started out with one of these stones and I can honestly say that I am not a big fan. It sits on the shelf and collects dust.

As far as the Arkansas stones go, I have no direct experience with them.

A Norton 4/8k combo stone is always a good starter stone. The new(er) naniwa superstones are supposed to be very good as well. Both are synthetic stones.

If you purchase a razor that needs to be honed, just add $20 to the price for honing.

If the razor still lands within your monetary comfort zone, go for it !

Be Warned !!

Buying razors wont save you too much money.

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Originally Posted by bettis211

Is $38.50 shipped a good price for a new Wapi?

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No it isn't. Mainly because:

1. It isn't shaveready
2. It hasn't been troubleshooted by someone who knows what they're doing
3. It's not one of those crazy collector razors that are worth tons of money in any condition. It's just a Wapi

You can do a lot better for $38.50

good luck :)

I gotta agree with Lee here

Shave ready is a big deal, also the balance on the original SS scales are sorta a pain in the butt especially for a beginner, many of the Wapis were rather off on the spine or the heel too...

Here are some pics of a "fixed" Wapi with new acrylic scales and the blade is shave ready and proven...

Attachment 39367

Attachment 39368

Attachment 39369

Now if you could find one like that :)
You could take advantage of the one great thing about the Wapis, which is that fact that they were rather easy to shave with, they are a 1/4 hollow so they pretty much just plow through your beard...

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Now if you could find one like that :)

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Yeah, this one's probably junk since you don't even charge money and simply throw them away at new guys :p

flylot,
I'm convinced that I should just get a shave ready razor but your advice that "Hopefully you have practiced stropping beforehand" confuses me. I don't have a razor and I wasn't planning on buying more that one (at least at first) so I won't have a second to practice stropping on. How are you suggesting that I practice stropping beforehand? Do I need to buy two razors (one to practice with and one to use)?

You can practice stropping with the back of a butter/table knife. The basic idea is to get comfortable keeping the spine of the razor (knife) in contact with the strop at all times so you can't roll the edge over and damage it. Use your wrist to turn the razor over at the end of each stroke using a rotary motion not a flipping motion.

A new shaver can damage the edge before they even get a chance to shave with it. This is why some of the Honing Pros send their razors out pre-stropped and ready to go (after cleaning the oil of of it).

Bettis, your missing the fun we're having here brother...

Gugi and I are messing around, the Wapi is your's for $38.50 less then the one you found, so that is FREE !!!!

Send me a pm if ya want to take her home...

I built two of them some time back, one went to the monthly giveaway and this one went to another new guy who just like you needed a razor, he not only sent this one back to me to pass forward, again but sent a few more with it for some others...

Just promise to "Pass it Forward" when your are in the position to, and it's yers...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Bettis, your missing the fun we're having here brother...

Gugi and I are messing around, the Wapi is your's for $38.50 less then the one you found, so that is FREE !!!!

Send me a pm if ya want to take her home...

I built two of them some time back, one went to the monthly giveaway and this one went to another new guy who just like you needed a razor, he not only sent this one back to me to pass forward, again but sent a few more with it for some others...

Just promise to "Pass it Forward" when your are in the position to, and it's yers...

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See...isn't this a great place?!

Yes! This is a great place. I sent a pm to gssixgun and he is going to send it to me. I can't believe how helpful this place is.
-Brent

I got the Wapi that Glen offered me and so far I've got two shaves out of it. It wasn't as hard to do as I expected after reading some of the other posts from beginners. I've suffered a couple of nicks but overall it was relatively comfortable. Plus I'm already getting a better shave out of it than I used to with my Mach 3. I want to thank everyone for all the help!