Thread: Newsprint on Glass

I've been using my razor for about 2 months now --just stropping before and after each shave. The shaves have been very good but the razor seemed to need a touchup on a paddle strop , maybe with some chromium oxide. Well I own neither, so having heard that newsprint has a slight abrasive action, I taped some newsprint to a pane of glass and started to work on the razor. I used the typical stropping motion and put about 1000+ strokes on the razor. I could tell that the edge of razor was more polished and uniform. So I stropped it up on a hanging strop and tested out the shave ---the shave was definately better. It usually would take me two passes on the cheeks to get a smooth result but this time only one was needed. Overall. it was probably the best shave I've had yet. So, if all you have is some glass and newsprint, then try it out and see how it works for you.

Justin

It's substantially faster if you stretch the newspaper tight and use a honing (edge-first action), but you've got to get the paper nice and flat...

Originally Posted by mparker762

It's substantially faster if you stretch the newspaper tight and use a honing (edge-first action), but you've got to get the paper nice and flat...

thanks--I'll try that next time ---


Justin

Wow - never heard that one before. Thanks guys. Kind of puts into perspective honing on a stone: if newsprint can sharpen up an edge, imagine what's going on on a hone! No wonder a light touch is required!

James.

I read about using newspaper for just this reason on the forum of straightedgerazor.com I wasn't sure if it would actually work or not - nice to know that it should work. I know you did ~1000 roundtrips...do you think you actually have to do that many? How long did that take you?

As with everything else, YMMV. The better the initial edge, the fewer laps you need. It also helps to make sure there's a big photo on the section of newsprint you're using.

Originally Posted by Razorburne

I read about using newspaper for just this reason on the forum of straightedgerazor.com I wasn't sure if it would actually work or not - nice to know that it should work. I know you did ~1000 roundtrips...do you think you actually have to do that many? How long did that take you?

I'm new to this so I don't even know how many strokes you would use on a pasted paddle strop. I used a pane of glass that was about 8" x 12" --so each stroke was about 10". I guess it took me about 1 hour . Before I started, I could see slight irregular reflections on the blade edge when it was held in light ---I kept checking the blade this way -and the blade edge seemed very uniform at around 1000 round trips. Evidently this can be improved if you use the edge first method as in honing. The results weren't dramatic but noticeable. I think it is worth a go if you don't have the full gear available to you.

Justin

That's an interesting point. There are quite a few things out there with abrasive properties that may not be very obvious.

One case in point. I built (copied an existing unit that they supplied to me) some machines used to grind styrofoam into a smaller dust like state. This dust is then added to a binder liquid which is sprayed on building beams and girders to protect them from heat annealing during a fire. The company I built them for had an away team buying up lots of styrofoam all over the world to grind for this purpose. Some areas gave it to them for free, as they had no other good use for it. Anyway, back to the point. The grinders consisted of 250 carbide tipped skil-saw blades modified with a D3" keyed center hole mounted on a 3" shaft driven by a 15HP synchronous motor. Effectively, it was a 2 1/2' wide array of saw blades (very scary). There was an adjustable block of consumable aluminum that could be forced into the blade. The blades would cut a round into the aluminum, then the block would be backed off to maintain a gap of ~0.050-0.075". The styrofoam was then fed by conveyor into this gap and was ground by the blades against the aluminum.

The interesting point is that the blades would wear down and have to be replaced far more often than expected. The reason? It wasn't the carbide cutting into the aluminum (that's like a hot blade through butter), it was the extremely abrasive nature of styrofoam. Turns out, it's one of the most abrasive materials going. It isn't known for this at all, mainly because it crumbles and compresses under normal use. But, in our grinder, the carbide was forced to come into contact with it constantly, and it really wore it down.

Just my $0.02, on something that I found very interesting.

Take care- John

Damn interesting, John. I guess everything has an abrasive action --makes me want to take a closer look at things.


Justin

Think of all the beer coolers I've wasted