Thread: Just Don't Know

I got a razor as a present (I know) and I've sharpened and honed it. I was always told that you could tell whether your blade was sharp enough be shaving the hair on your arm. Well, it shaved, but I can't seem to get it to work completely on my face (only a few hairs here and there)... Is it a lost blade? Or what do you think? Advise is GREATLY appreciated!

10 thousand questions come to my mind. Have you honed a razor before or looked at the "how to " videos ? What did you hone it on? Your question raises a lot more questions.

Can we see a pic of the Blade or at least give us the brand, condition when you got it, and method that you used to hone it

It is a Levering & Co. I couldn't saw when it was bought or where (it was a present), but it is used. I have seen the "how to" videos and I'm using a leather hanging strop. I have a little knife collection, so I consider it to be good sharp, though it did have a few nicks I had to get out.

Honing a razor and honing a knife are very separate things! Sharp isn't all you want either. You want sharp and smooth which is very difficult and requires higher grit hones than a knife would... Post a picture with a close up of the bevel (sharp part) if your razor. If you truly want to feel a sharp razor I suggest letting someone familiar with razors hone it once to help you set the standard you are looking for!

Originally Posted by carpedm

If you truly want to feel a sharp razor I suggest letting someone familiar with razors hone it once to help you set the standard you are looking for!

+1

-Allen M.

For me a combination of having an actual shave ready razor for reference, watching Lynn's honing videos on utube and practice practice practice. I am finding stepping harder to get the hang of, so many nicks in my first strop

Russell

I agree with everything above. I hone knives almost daily at my job and honing a razor is a completely different animal. It took me a good solid month before I was able to get a shaveable edge. Id does takes lots of practice and trial and error. I found having a professionally honed edge to compare my edges to was imperative. I would love to see a picture of this razor. Could be that the blade is simply not salvageable but we can't tell without looking at it.

Originally Posted by zsramsey

It is a Levering & Co. I couldn't saw when it was bought or where (it was a present), but it is used. I have seen the "how to" videos and I'm using a leather hanging strop. I have a little knife collection, so I consider it to be good sharp, though it did have a few nicks I had to get out.

Ok you have a Vintage razor, so at least that tells us that you are at least working on a razor that had good steel...

Here is what we dont' know

The condition of the Edge and Spine
Which tells us the Geometry of the razor so we don't know that either
What stones you used and how you used them
"Good Sharp" coming from a knife sharpener basically means that you are at about what we consider a "Bevel Set" maybe

Also a even bigger help might come by putting in your Location for your profile there might be a Honiong Mnetor near you that can stit down across the table and really show you how to hone a SR


If you give us the info we can try and help but without it we are all just tossing out some General BS about SR honing

Sorry I've been out. I'm trying to figure out how to post pictures for you.