New to SRP and looking for some personal help!

Hello all.

I'm a longtime, and I mean longtime lurker on the SRP forums. I've been following Lynn Abrams since I got my first shaving brush and safety razor about six years ago. I need a little help.

I've been shaving with straight razors for about four years, but I've always had someone else hone for me. I recently bought a Norton 4K/8K to rehabilitate some nicer vintage razors I've picked up here and there. I've been practicing on a Robeson ShurEdge which was in reasonable condition before I began, just didn't have a cutting edge.

My technique is obviously entirely unpracticed - I must have done a hundred passes on each side or more. After viewing some videos and reading some forums, I settled on the pyramid method - first an aggressive regimen, then a much more relaxed one. I've gone back to the conservative pyramid about five times, each with a good stropping, and every time the final shave test is uncomfortable. So I bought a Chinese 12K. Still no dice.

What I'm left with is a razor that's sharp enough to inconsistently cut off my arm hair. It's got about 1/8" flattening on the spine, which really bums me out because I feel like I've ruined an incredibly nice piece. I've never gotten it to feel as smooth on the thumb pad as my disposable blade straight razor that I'm using in the interim. I'm scared to mess up the Heljestrand, which I love.

I've read through pages and pages of advice, but I think that what I really need is some personal mentoring. Is there anyone here from central Pennsylvania who would be willing to meet up and help me out?

With my wife's blessing, I will provide one fine home-cooked meal, a couple drams of scotch, and a nice cigar (or a decent pipe-smoke!) to anyone who's willing to help me out. Heck, I'll gladly pay someone for the help if I have to.

Sorry to sound like a beggar. I've simply had no luck finding anyone in the area who can help me and I'm sort of at the end of my rope!

I am not close enough to help, but some thoughts.

1. Try taping the spine while you are getting the hang of this.
   
2. If the edge is not there off the 8k, adding a finer stone will not help
   
3. The bevel is not properly set.
   
   • If it is in the budget, do yourself a favor and get some type of 1k stone(dmt 1200, naniwa 1k, norton 1k, king 1k)
   • If it is not in the budget, you can set a bevel on a 4k. It just takes a long time. It can be sped up by generating a slurry.
   
   
4. Stay on your bevel setter until you can cut arm hair across the entire blade. I am assuming this test will work based on information in your post.
   
5. Have you lapped your nortons and if so what are you using?

Thanks for your reply!

I'm not entirely sure whether the bevel is set, but it seems to be: light reflects evenly along the bevel, and it does cut arm hair across the blade - but not always cleanly or with a single pass. In fact, shaving around the cheeks can be achieved with some minimal discomfort; the painful pulling is only particularly apparent on areas like my chin.

Having just spent over $100 on stones, I'd prefer not to go the 1K route. When I purchased the stones, I drew a grid on each and lapped them with 800-grit sandpaper until the grin was worn away.

Once again, I did at least 100 passes on the 4K before even attempting to move forward in the process, even returning to the 4K many subsequent times. I've done it to the point that the constant honing has left a fair amount of wear on the spine. Is it possible that after all that, particularly given the fact that the ShurEdge does provide a shave (albeit an uncomfortable one), the culprit is a poorly set bevel?

EDIT: When I say shaving around the cheeks can be achieved with minimal discomfort, the discomfort is still palpable. It's not like the razor needs a few good passes on the 12K and a nice stropping before being shave-ready. There's clearly some part of the process, be it setting the bevel or any subsequent step, that I'm doing wrong.

I think the advice to get a 800 or 1,000 is good. I have been learning to hone from a local guy who reset the bevel on my Wonderedge. He started with an Naniwa 800 and worked it hard, then went to the 3K then the 8K. He strops with a strop he makes and sells. He takes a piece of leather (suede of some type) and mounts a plate on the back then mounts a flat magnet to a wooden base that he makes. He went through 20 different types of leather before settling on the current set up. He puts Chro on the leather then strops. It took him about 15 minutes and I was not just shaving hair off the arm but tree topping the hairs. I have since tried this with an older razor at home. I have 1K, 3K & 8K and one of his strops. It works pretty good for me. I also strop on my Big Daddy black Latigo then shave. His technique for setting the bevel surprised me. He really worked that blade hard. He said sometimes you have to show the blade who's boss. The trick is when your working the 800 or 1K you want to raise a burr, then use the finer stuff to remove the burr then polish. Hope this helps.

Shave On!:medvl:

Chip

Thanks, Chip. That's exactly what I think I need, someone to show me the ropes in person so that I can learn first-hand how to bring a fine edge to a razor.

The nature of straight razor shaving is that in almost every aspect, from the soaps we use to the way we lather, everyone does things a little bit differently. Each individual achieves a perfect shave differently, and I assume that a obtaining keen edge might be somewhat subjective as well. Whatever I'm doing, it's certain that I'm not doing it correctly; but I feel as though it'd take someone over my shoulder for me to get the honing down pat.

I have a couple of older razors I'm going to work on tonight, If I can raise a good burr, I will see if I can get a pic of it. You have to think about what is happening to the metal and visualize. Maybe it's time to make a youtube vid or something.
Talk to you soon.

Shave On!:medvl:

Chip

Have you tried the member map?
http://straightrazorpalace.com/vbgooglemapme.php

You might find someone close that way. It's a great tool to use here.

Wow, Rodb; that is extremely helpful! Many thanks - I'll let you know if I find someone who can help me out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KeatsandYeats

Wow, Rodb; that is extremely helpful! Many thanks - I'll let you know if I find someone who can help me out.

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It's a super nice feature on this forum, I wish more people used or knew about it. It's great for organizing get togethers and getting one on one help.