New member, first shaves

Hello all,

First post here.

And, I would say my first shave, but really second. I tried it first with a sharp Case Sodbuster pocketknife and somewhat non-existent liquid hand soap lather... which surprisingly worked! No nicks, only a bit of razor burn from the 30 degree included bevel knife, and poor lather. (Why I did this, I don't have a clue, I had an eBay razor and hone waiting to be shipped...)

But now I do have a proper razor, and the hone is on its way. I bought a double grit "Winner" hone for $10 +5 shipping for my hone, and a somewhat beat up Griffon 60 "Carbo Magnetic" for my razor. I Paid $3.25 +2.58 shipping for it. It wasn't perfect, but I knew I could fix it up with an evening of fun work honing and cleaning it. It came in the mail yesterday afternoon, and I thought I would post some pictures of it.

It took thirty minutes to clean and polish it, I used some 2000 grit wet/dry to remove the rust, then Simichrome to polish it.
Then I set the bevel on the fine side of a dual grit Carborundum bench stone. Took thirty minutes to do so, but it was my first time doing so to a razor, so I took my time.

After that it was on to my just lapped soft Arkansas stone to sharpen and polish the edge further. Took ten minutes for that.

Then I poured more oil on the Arkansas and stuck a sheet of 2000 grit wet/dry to it, then further honed, took about ten minutes.
To get the final polish on the edge, I peeled off the wet/dry paper, and stuck on a clean sheet of plain paper and applied Simichrome to it, then honed. Took around five or ten minutes, and I changed the paper sheet out once, putting more polish on as needed.

I then stropped it on an old leather belt around twenty strokes. (A good strop is the next thing on the list, along with a shaving brush.)

So, an hour and a half or so, and my $6 razor was sharp, clean, and shining again, and I had fun doing it. The edge passed the "Hanging Hair" test easily after honing. Not bad for the first time I honed a straight! (I have honed quite a few axes, hatchets, knives, and other similar tools, though.)

It still isn't perfect, I need to make it some new scales or fix the ones that are on it eventually, as although they work to cover the edge and don't hit it, they are warped inward and one side is cracked at the pin from shrinking, but it'll be a thirty minute job, just need to find some wood to use for it I like.

It also has a three nicks, two are very small and on the point, about 0.008" in size. The second is visible in the pictures, and about 1/16" long and 1/64" deep. The reason I did not hone these out is that for now, the big one is not really on the portion of blade I will be using, and the two small ones should not cause problems right now, as long as I avoid the big one. (There is also one more 0.005" one 1/8" or so in front of the big one, if that makes a difference.)

I would also like some advise on how I should hone out the big nick. Keep the edge flat and hone it as normal, make it have a "smile", or something else? I also would like to know the idea behind taping the spine or "bread knifing", it seems that doing so would increase the angle of the bevel, is it just not enough to be an issue?

I picked up some Williams Mug Soap for $0.99 a puck at Kroger yesterday, too, and today I found a Van Der Hagen brush and soap at Walgreens. First shave went pretty well, only a couple very light nicks, and I got most of my face done. I then tried it again later, and did much better, all of my face shaved close, and no nicks. So far I like shaving this way a lot, and I will enjoy it much more as I get good at doing it. So far so good, though!

Thanks,
Chaz

Welcome to SRP.

That's some rather non mainstream honing, and from the description I think it's best to prepare for some rough shaves ahead of you.
I'm sure if you keep at it you'll figure it out eventually though.


If you're interested in shortcuts Straight Razor Place Wiki:Books/Beginners Guide - Straight Razor Place Wiki is a good read.

Have fun.

Congrats on the cleanup and honing!

Shhh....don't tell anyone, but this is almost exactly how I started out. I was honing on 2k wet/dry and then doing about two hundred on the pasted strop....that first razor was SHARP. :)

Welcome!

I must admit, I agree with Gugi about the smoothness of the shave. From what you've said it sounds like the highest grit you've used is 2k? Thats still within the bevel setting range, and a lot of guys here finish on a paste or hone that can be around 30k grit level. You'll really notice the difference in the smoothness of the shave if you send your razor to one of the honemeisters in the classifieds to be honed.

Dont get me wrong, 2k will be sharp enough to shave with, my test off the 1k stone is that I can shave arm hair, but it wont be a smooth edge. And thats really what you want when you're putting that razor on your face..! :)

I would also definately say dont shave with that razor until you've got the chips out of it. You'll be amazed what your skin notices. The reason I got my magnifying loupe is that I honed and shaved with an eBay razor that had a chip so small that I missed it with my naked eye, but boy did I feel it on my skin when I test shaved!

So now I have the loupe to make sure that there are no small chips in the edge. You can get them pretty cheaply from most department stores, and 30x magnification is enough.

To be honest, if you need major edge repair work doing, you'd be better off sending it out to pro to be honed. JMHO of course but I wouldnt have wanted to tackle a chipped razor for my first honing attempt. But if you do want to work it out yourself, heres a couple of thoughts.

Dont breadknife the razor. Theres no point it taking something thats got a bevel established and intentionally dulling it. The standard bevel setting honing strokes will eventually take those chips out.

Taping the spine is a bit of debate on this site! Some people (including me) do tape as it protects against spine wear and keeps the bevels narrow. Other guys dont do it, and they have their reasons for that as well. I would recommend taping if you are doing major edge repair work on an aggressive stone, or if you have spine work that you want to preserve.

Just for the sake of completeness, my personal method for working out chips is to put three layers of tape on the spine and get all the chips out on a 325 grit DMT. You can actually shave arm hair right off this stone, even with all that tape, so make sure you can do that before you move on to the next steps.

Once thats done I go to one layer of tape and quickly establish a true bevel on the 325. This is literally about 20 strokes or so, thats all it takes, as the loss of two layers of tape doesnt really change the bevel that much and 20 strokes is enough to correct for the removal of the tape IME. Then I just move on to the 1k and go from there.

Nice job on the clean up as well, and good luck with your honing efforts! :tu

Thanks guys!

Also, Gugi and Stubear, I didn't stop at 2000 and shave like that! I honed it like Red described. I realize now that to someone reading, it seems like the sandpaper was the final step.

First, bevel setting on Carborundum stone, somewhat similar to diamond.

Then, I honed on the Arkansas to smooth out the edge.

After that I stuck the 2000 wet/dry to the Arkansas stone and honed a bit more. Still not nearly sharp enough at this stage.

Then, the final step. I pulled off the sandpaper, and put a clean sheet of clean copy paper on the stone. (Newspaper works better.) Then, I applied the Simichrome polish to the paper and used a stropping motion. -So, I used the newspaper on the stone to provide what is like a pasted wood strop, but less harsh on the edge. The stone was used as a flat surface, the newspaper a strop, and the Simichrome was the honing compound. I was left with a mirror polished edge, that did not seem to pull, and would pass the HHT well.

So, my honing technique was like the coarse stone-med stone-fine stone-pasted strop-unpasted strop route, just with different abrasives. I am going to find some more good hones in the future, but for now this works for me, so I am taking my time to find good ones I like.

And thanks for the advise on honing out the chip, Stu. Although this is my first straight, honing those nicks out won't be a big thing at all for me. I have done lots of honing and reprofiling on other tools, just not straights. I'll have to get a loupe soon, I've been wanting one for a while.

I also won a real strop on eBay today! Leather tool sharpening strop and stropping block - eBay (item 170513109739 end time Jul-16-10 10:12:03 PDT)

Regards,
Chaz