Thread: How do I know if i screwed up the edge

Good news and bad news. Went to Art of Shaving (i know, i know) to check out my Thiers-Issard eBay razor and also check on my strop/honing technique. (they do a little hands on demo there). Good news is my techniques are fine. Bad news is, the blade may be too narrow to get a great edge because of the steep angle. I hadn't realized how narrow until i compared it to the 5/8 ones in the shop. Mine is probably closer to 3/8 or between that and 1/2. The manager said the razor doesnt look old enough to have been honed a lot, and the spine is still pretty unhoned. He thinks it probably got a nasty nick that someone ground out with a machine, but it changed the honing angle for the worse. The edge looked good to him but he tested it for sharpness (on his own arm!) and it didnt cut well. I didnt pay a lot for the razor which is good - he says, make this your practice razor! Of course he'd love to sell me a new one.

Originally Posted by jkeane22

How the heck am I supposed to get interested in SR shaving when i need to be an expert in sharpening and edges?

You dont have to know honing to be an expert shaver. I suggest you check the classifieds and see who is available to hone your razor. Even at 3/8 it should still be able to shave IMO.

Originally Posted by jkeane22

Good news and bad news. Went to Art of Shaving (i know, i know) to check out my Thiers-Issard eBay razor and also check on my strop/honing technique. (they do a little hands on demo there). Good news is my techniques are fine. Bad news is, the blade may be too narrow to get a great edge because of the steep angle. I hadn't realized how narrow until i compared it to the 5/8 ones in the shop. Mine is probably closer to 3/8 or between that and 1/2. The manager said the razor doesnt look old enough to have been honed a lot, and the spine is still pretty unhoned. He thinks it probably got a nasty nick that someone ground out with a machine, but it changed the honing angle for the worse. The edge looked good to him but he tested it for sharpness (on his own arm!) and it didnt cut well. I didnt pay a lot for the razor which is good - he says, make this your practice razor! Of course he'd love to sell me a new one.

What's most surprising to me is that the AoS dude actually seems so have known a little bit about straight razors and wasn't just a salesman.

Originally Posted by jkeane22

Thanks! Where did you learn to hone?

Actually, [though I'm an attorney] I was brought up in an "outdoorsey" sort of family. Also, in my past life (before I was an lawyer), I worked on a cod-fish boat out of Montauk, Long Island, as a commercial fisherman. In addition, I'm a hunter too. So basically, I've been doing butchering in some form or another since I was young. The bottom line is (I think, anyway) that I just understand how to hone a blade. Which, while I've never given it much thought, has kind of made me [naive] fearless as to the whole process. But, I always understand honing this way: if you screw it up, by and large, it is (almost) always reparable.

Originally Posted by jkeane22

Thanks! Where did you learn to hone?

Actually, [though I'm an attorney] I was brought up in an "outdoorsey" sort of family. Also, in my past life (before I was an lawyer), I worked on a cod-fish boat out of Montauk, Long Island, as a commercial fisherman. In addition, I'm a hunter too. So basically, I've been doing butchering in some form or another since I was young. The bottom line is (I think, anyway) that I just understand how to hone a blade. Which, while I've never given it much thought, has kind of made me [naive] fearless as to the whole process. But, I always understand honing this way: if you screw it up, by and large, it is (almost) always reparable.

Though - after pondering for a few minutes - I think my "carefree" attitude has limited me to some degree. For example, I have two razors that just refuse to hone up for me. One is a post 1891 W&B and the other is a F.R. And it's not that they aren't shaveable, they are, but not really ever as sharp as I thought they should be or could be. Basically, it's probably (or absolutely) related to my laissez faire attitude.