Thread: Almost gave up honing, went to a cutlery store

It doesn't take hours and hours of honing to sharpen a razor, unless you're taking nicks out or using a very slow hone. Your first few razors take a lot longer because you're trying to figure out what works, but after that things go a lot faster.

I'm not sure silicon carbide is available in a fine enough grit for razors, and jewelers rouge is very soft, I don't think it would do much to a hard razor blade (well maybe a zeepk).

I use a pasted hanging strop for my knives, one of handamerican's roughout strops with flexcut gold on it. It's a pretty fast abrasive and still makes a very keen edge by knife standards. The strength of the edge is still better than straights because the angle of the bevel is larger so there's more metal supporting the cutting edge. You're not gonna slice much cardboard with it without dulling it, but it won't be any duller than any other knife after such treatment.

As for your pasted strop, keep using it as long as it still works. Once it stops working then just smear some more abrasive on it and keep going. The color doesn't matter.

It sounds like your razors have a wire edge. THey sharpen knives by producing a burr and then honing through it. I think in your case they just didn't hone enough on a fine stone.

Do a thumbnail test and see if you have a wire edge (or what?). Co to classicshaving.com, "how to ... and why", section on honing, for details about the thumbnail test.

I'd think that it would be nearly impossible to maintain the correct very fine bevel angle you need to get your razors shave sharp on the wheel. Though it is an intriguing idea and the work saving is appealing.

Just a question....is there any discoloration along the edge? such as a blue type of color? If so then the temper has been drawn from the edge of the razor, that makes the steel to soft to use.

I agree with Joe Lerch, perform the thumbnail test to check for a wire edge. Next, it is probable that the angle put on by the Pro is now way off and a new bevel will have to be established as a first step.
BTW, it should take 1-2 hours to hone an Ebay razor.

I think you have your work cut out for you.

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses as promised, here are the pictures. Some of them may be kind of hard to see, but the matte looking parts are the areas where I'm not too keen about. I've been meaning to sand out the spots on the straights but wasn't expecting to do so for the Benchmade. I guess hard lesson learned...


Let me know what you guys think about the pics.


Thanks in advance.

-kelly

It might just be your pictures, but I don't see an edge on your razors. Go to the gallery and look at some of the razors. You'll see that there is a very shiny bevel at the edge. I don't see that in your pictures. In fact, the edge looks a little rough, like when it's been worked on a stone that too coarse.

Another option on you BM knife is to buy a new blade from the factory. I have an older used/abused Stryker with a serrated blade. I was quoted around $30 for a new blade. A very good deal. Then you can order a different finish or grade of steel if you want, if they make it in your blade style. That price was the installed price.

I thought I would finish off this thread for fun.

Kelly sent me his two razors to work on. One of them I'm thinking isn't worth saving--it tapers significantly from heel to toe, and it has really, really heavy spine wear.

The other has some nifty scales and an unusual blade shape, and the hone wear wasn't too bad.

The cutlery store really did a number on the blade. Joe was right--it didn't have a bevel to speak of. It looked like they'd tried to sharpen it with a belt sander and the belt had a lot of slack in it. It was a coarse, rounded edge.

So I taped the spine and did about 50 laps on the wet-dry sandpaper to rough in the bevel, then moved to my 1000-grit water stone. The spine wear isn't bad on this one, and the bevel shaped up nicely.

I jumped over to the 4K hone for about 40 strokes, and holy cow, this thing took an edge. It's the sharpest I've seen a razor come off the 4K--popping hairs effortlessly. I followed that with 25 strokes on the 8K, easing up the pressure. Again, coming off the 8K this was possibly the sharpest razor I've seen yet.

Then it was 20 strokes on the .5 diamond paste and a test shave. Very nice. The razor is a 4/8 half-hollow, which is a nice combination. The small blade was very manueverable, but the grind was stiff and gave it some heft.

It's going in the mail today. Kelly will be happy, I hope.

Josh