Thread: Lurker, finally checking in

Hi,

I have been lurking for quite a while now and decided to take the plunge in early December. I have already picked up 4 razors (2 from an antique store and 2 from friendly people here) and am waiting on a pasted bench strop (1.0 + 0.5) and hanging strop from Tony Miller (what a fantastic man to work with!). The users who sold me their razors claim that the edges are shave-ready, but I have not yet shaved with them because I am waiting for the strops. At the same time I am scared of dulling those blades as soon as my newbie hands put them to leather....ohhh, dilemma.

Thus, my new plan is to work with the 2 antique razors - 1 appears to be a W&B wedge and the other a 4/8 (possibly used to be a 5/8) Boker - and do my best to get them sharp enough that I won't fear damaging the edge on the other 2 razors. But with my student budget quickly catching up to me I cannot afford a Norton 4k/8k. So I was wondering, since the 1.0 micron pasted strop appears to be around 8k grit (at least thats what I understand from reading many posts), could I get away with saving some money and simply buying a cheaper 4k stone for the time being and using the 1.0 micron pasted strop as my 8k?

Would these stones suffice?:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...072,43071&ap=1

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...072,43071&ap=1


Thanks for all that you have taught me so far!

Welcome aboard Shay. If you want to hone blades from scratch you should get both 4k and 8k. The pastes are more for polishing already sharp edges. The 4k and 8k slip stones would be ok for starters (that's how I started). You can always spend a browny on the Norton later.

Welcome Shay,

I find that interesting. The shave ready razors should be fine. I wouldn't worry too much about them. Not one to disagree with posts, especially those on here but I thought 1 m was closer to 15K. I thought 3 m was closer to 8K. Well, I'm probably not remembering correctly.

I think your plan might work for someone a little more skilled, but if your patient it might work still. I would consider the 4K and a barber hone and then use the 1m paddle. Adding the barber hone only if you fail and run into trouble. It would run another $15 on Ebay.

If your feeling the pinch of the "student" economy, maybe you should just use the shave-ready razors for a little bit and jump into semi-restoration a bit later.

Again, welcome aboard, you'll get more responses as this is an unusual question.

Grit sizes aren't standard so according to Shapton people, 8k is about 2 microns. That's why we usually agree on the 2-3 micron range.

Heres a link to some even cheaper slipstones that Firestart turned me on to a while ago. These are still my primary stones and then I finish on a vintage barbers hone. Worked for me so far and I've been able to spend the spare cash for more razors!
I would substitute your pasted strops for the barbers hone spend the $20 on the 4 and 8000 grit slipstones and be set till you feel you want the convenience of the faster norton. Keep in mind that sometimes with the E-bay specials you also need to go to 1000 grit paper or a coarse stone to get a working bevel before you can sharpen them well at all.

http://w-u.com/wucatresults.htm?snum=26375

I also would start using at least one of your shave-readies while you work on your E-bays.

Some blades will require a stone to get you there. Theyll be the ones with badly dulled edges. Pastes will work well for touch ups and smaller jobs.

X

Thanks very much for everybody's input.

I appreciate the link Wildtim, I will give them a call tomorrow since those guys are much more budget friendly by the looks of it. I seem to remember there being posts about these before and having to stack them one atop another to get a flat surface. Hm, I am always up for a challenge

Before I do that though I will head out to Lee Valley tomorrow and just have a look to see what they have. Who knows, maybe they are having a post-boxing-week sale

Well, no luck on the slipstones. I called the Canadian distributor and they claimed to not carry them. So I called the American distributor and talked to a very friendly lady who informed me that the shipping price to Canada (via USPS) for the 2 stones would be 25$!! Thats more than the cost of the stones themselves! Apparently the shipping weight for each stone is 3 pounds which drove the price through the roof.

Anyways, I am open to any and all suggestions...

Sorry to hear that. The very friendly lady is full of it if she thinks these stones weigh three pounds apiece though. The two of them together might go a pound if you add half a pound of lead to the box. At least the ones from Lee valley seemed comparable and the shipping wouldn't be robbery at gunpoint.

Originally Posted by Shay

Well, no luck on the slipstones.

PM FiReSTaRT (Ilija) about them. He uses some and lives in your neighbourhood. He should know where you can find them.

X