Thread: Newspaper and a sheet of glass....

A while ago I was talking to an old Barber who started telling me about a time during the war when he used to sharpen his razors on a sheet of newspaper wrapped around a flat plate of glass. Before he told me anything about it he got called away to a customer and i didnt get to hear the rest of the story! Anyone ever done anything similar? I'd be interested to know how its done.

I've stropped on newspaper before, it seems to work pretty well. This has been discussed before, try a search for 'newspaper'.

you can strop even finer with certain types of papers.
a very good base for the paper is a granite plate, that is right now on sale @ Woodcraft.
The plate can also be used for scary sharp method of sharpening knives, flattening knives etc. The plate, unlike any common glass plate, has micrometer accuracy of flatness.

Cool...so presumably its used for stropping as opposed to honing then?

Yes, stropping not honing. Newsprint is a good substance to finish an already sharp razor and get it to 'scary sharp'. mparker has posted about this and I think ChrisL, among others. I tried it and it definitely works. I just took a section out of the paper and laid it on a counter top. Use enough to give some cushion, IOW, not just one sheet.

When I got my first razor - and before I had a hone or strop - I used that method with a three-sheet layer of newspaper taped to a piece of polished granite slab. Whipped a fairly dull razor into shape with it, but it did require several hundred strokes.

Yes, newspaper is great. People say it's "slow", but I enjoy doing a hundred or a few hundred laps on it knowing the razor is going to have a great edge to it. As a plus, I don't think you can overhone on newspaper. I agree with Jimmy; newspaper works on an edge that is already in the shaving sharp range.

A piece of glass, a piece of polished marble floor tile, a lapped stone like a Chinese 12k....those all work well to tape the newspaper down to. I use two sheets. Go for the comics section, the ink is the abrasive so the more ink and solid blocks of print the better.

Chris L

a couple of hundred strokes with the spine leading? As in stropping?

Yes spine leading as in stropping. Try 50 passes first then test shave. Then if needed, go back for 100 passes and test shave.

Chris L

This sounds great, I'll give it a try.