Thread: need help on sharpening

Hi everyone, It's my first post on these forums!

Basically I'm just looking for some advice on getting a razor to be sharp enough to shave with, had a birthday earlier this month and one of the things friends got me was a straight razor except it has no brand name on it, and the grind was all wrong and dodgy, and I don't know what the metal is as there's no markings anywhere on it.

So I fixed the grind so now its at the angle where you can lay it flat on the stone to sharpen it so that the points of contact are the side of the spine and the cutting edge.(im using a combination stone and I don't know what the grits are, I think it's just as good as any $10 stone from the hardware store)

I don't have any other stones that are finer, so I moved onto sandpaper, 800 -> 1200 -> 2000 grits.

With those I am able to get an edge that shaves hair off my arm but not my face,

then I stropped for a long time(till my arm got tired) on my leather belt (I know I know I must sound so cheap by now) and now the razor can shave my face except it hurts because (I believe) it's not sharp enough and I have to apply a bit of pressure.

Basically all my knowledge on sharpening and stropping and everything razor related I got off the internet, forums like this and youtube videos.

So now you know my history I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. I need advice on whether I should have used higher grit stones like 4000 and 8000 before i moved to leather and do away with the sandpaper, or should I also get something with some abrasive paste like what they rub into balsa wood or the fabric side of strops and strop on that before stropping on leather? I also want to buy a new strop and I found one on an online store called ''Black Beauty'' which is Australian made, should I buy that? or should I buy a combination one where one side has abrasive paste and the other doesn't? What would be better for a learner.

Or should I also buy a proper straight razor. I know the one I'm using would probably not even be considered a real shaving straight razor by you guys but I figured if someone can sharpen an axe sharp enough to shave their face with then it should be possible to sharpen this straight of mine.

I want to feel confident that I can make this razor shave worthy before investing in a proper straight razor.

Thanks for your time I know I wrote a lot..

Yes. My God, yes. You need a higher grit than 2000 to shave off of! My typical progression is 1000 grit to set a bevel, 4000 to finish sharpening, 8000 for polish, 12000 for finish, and then strop. I should note, though, that the 12k isn't completely necessary--you can shave off an 8k.

EDIT: Oh, and I've heard of sandpaper working, but I've also heard they tend to give razors a rough edge. You'd be better off with a set of waterstones, glass shaptons, or a coticule. I'm personally using Norton Waterstones.

I'm also fairly new to this, so you may have someone else chime in with more advice...This is all my .02

Can you post a pic of the blade you're talking about? Do you know if it's a new production blade or a vintage one?

Your first shave with a straight should be with a razor honed by a professional. That will give you a benchmark to judge your own sharpening endeavors.

You should at least get through an 8k stone before trying to shave. The wiki has some great information regarding honing and what type of setup you should be looking at to do it yourself.

If you do take to straight razor shaving, you will undoubtedly purchase more razors and you'll definitely acquire more appropriate hones.

Being fairly new to the game, you will be much better off finding someone who can hone your razor for you, provided that it is a razor worth honing at all.

Once you have a shave-ready razor, you can keep it that way for a while with regular stropping, that will buy you some time to accumulate better equipment and start learning how to use and maintain a straight razor. You'll find many friendly people here who are always willing to help.

Thanks heaps everyone for your quick replies

guess I'll go get myself some proper stones :P

I don't believe this razor is anything vintage, just literally a no-name brand...

Also thanks for your offers to help me out with honing, but I'd really rather buy the stuff to maintain the razor myself and learn it myself with this razor I have before trying with a proper one. Once I get the equipment to put an edge on it and get it shave worthy I'm sure it won't be long before I buy a decent 'shave ready' one out of the classifieds you guys run, that way I'll be able to compare the feel of a professional honed razor to my own efforts.

Thanks heaps again!

It looks like the brand name Master. A new production, not vintage. Not the highest quality. I'm going only by how it LOOKS in the photos. Perhaps the Master brand has copied this design?

You find them time to time at flea markets and such with people that sell $5 knives.

But, the Master brand has it written on there, from what I have seen.

So, not saying that's what you have...just it looks like those that I have seen. But that's neither here nor there....

When it's 5 am and I'm posting I say random things that are irrelevant. For sure send this to a honemeister and have them evaluate and put a good edge on it for you. If it is a razor or metal that won't hold up, they will tell you that.

[QUOTE=a1boy;601856]
I want to feel confident that I can make this razor shave worthy before investing in a proper straight razor.QUOTE]

G'day & welcome to SRP

You sound like a keen DIY guy & I respect that but my suggestion is you get a shave ready razor "first"... Then you can compare your honing efforts to a known benchmark. At this point you have too many variables & doing it the other way round assumes you know what to do, how to do it & what the final result should look & feel like.

Originally Posted by commiecat

Your first shave with a straight should be with a razor honed by a professional. That will give you a benchmark to judge your own sharpening endeavors.

What he said.

Originally Posted by a1boy

Hi everyone, It's my first post on these forums!

Basically I'm just looking for some advice on getting a razor to be sharp enough to shave with, had a birthday earlier this month and one of the things friends got me was a straight razor except it has no brand name on it, and the grind was all wrong and dodgy, and I don't know what the metal is as there's no markings anywhere on it.

So I fixed the grind so now its at the angle where you can lay it flat on the stone to sharpen it so that the points of contact are the side of the spine and the cutting edge.(im using a combination stone and I don't know what the grits are, I think it's just as good as any $10 stone from the hardware store)

I don't have any other stones that are finer, so I moved onto sandpaper, 800 -> 1200 -> 2000 grits.

With those I am able to get an edge that shaves hair off my arm but not my face,

then I stropped for a long time(till my arm got tired) on my leather belt (I know I know I must sound so cheap by now) and now the razor can shave my face except it hurts because (I believe) it's not sharp enough and I have to apply a bit of pressure.

Basically all my knowledge on sharpening and stropping and everything razor related I got off the internet, forums like this and youtube videos.

So now you know my history I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. I need advice on whether I should have used higher grit stones like 4000 and 8000 before i moved to leather and do away with the sandpaper, or should I also get something with some abrasive paste like what they rub into balsa wood or the fabric side of strops and strop on that before stropping on leather? I also want to buy a new strop and I found one on an online store called ''Black Beauty'' which is Australian made, should I buy that? or should I buy a combination one where one side has abrasive paste and the other doesn't? What would be better for a learner.

Or should I also buy a proper straight razor. I know the one I'm using would probably not even be considered a real shaving straight razor by you guys but I figured if someone can sharpen an axe sharp enough to shave their face with then it should be possible to sharpen this straight of mine.

I want to feel confident that I can make this razor shave worthy before investing in a proper straight razor.

Thanks for your time I know I wrote a lot..

Can you tell me why your friend gave you a razor for your birthday? I mean do you really want to shave with one?

Can you afford a set of quality hones and strop -look at the stuff the vendors here offer.

Ok well it seems to be majority consensus that I buy a properly sharpened one first so I'll make one my next purchase. I just don't see anything wrong with going the other direction and getting all the equipment needed to hone a razor to be shaveable first and then getting the razor that would be my first proper straight once I've learned a decent amount on the one that I don't care if I scratch and scuff here and there.

Also although I realise I could probly get away with just stropping to maintain the edge of a professionally honed razor for a long time. I feel like it's unsustainable to an extent because when it gets dull enough to need to be rehoned then I won't have the skill or equipment. We can assume that by the time stropping doesn't bring it back I will have collected a bunch of equipment, and by that order I'm able to get into actual shaving sooner, but I don't know why I'd just really rather learn the maintenance side first for some reason, It probably stems from my experience with pocket knives and how I see no point to buying an expensive ''from the factory sharp'' pocket knife when I don't possess the know how to maintain that sharpness, and the best way I found to learn was to practice with knives I didn't care about. That's the best explanation I can think of as to what angle I was coming from by trying to learn how to sharpen before I learned how to shave haha!

But sure any excuse to buy another razor is good enough for me!

Friends know I love knives haha! I probly mentioned that I wanted one at one stage. But yes I do really want to shave with one, apart from the initial expense it seems to beat disposables as far as I've read, I don't like the idea of all those plastic razors ending up in landfill.

Yeah I'll be looking around at the for sales that's for sure

Thanks all