Thread: Advice needed

I have been sharpening an old razor I bought at a car boot sale with an oil stone I bought when I was a kid using the fine side then a strop I can get it sharp enough to shave hair off my arm but not sharp enough to shave with so the question is what grit Waterstones to get? Will a 8000 or 10000 grit be fine enough or what would people recommend? Thanks

First send it to one of the pros like gssixgun to get a proper edge so you know what a shaving edge should be.
Next watch the videos from him to see how to hone.
The videos will discuss the stones and what grits to buy.

Typically, people use the following:

1000
3000
8000
12000

there are many variations of stones and grits. It takes practice and patience to learn.

We stand by to help

Get it sent to a pro, and in the meantime get a 12k naniwa or the like. Learn to refresh an edge before you try to go from the ground up. Just my 2 cents.

-Laramie-

Originally Posted by yondermountain91

Get it sent to a pro, and in the meantime get a 12k naniwa or the like. Learn to refresh an edge before you try to go from the ground up. Just my 2 cents.

-Laramie-

I second that motion.

Where do you live? There may be a member near you that honed.

You said boot sale, which makes me think you are in the UK. There are some,embers in the UK. In fact there was one that was trying to arrange a meet. Meets are the best place to learn to hone. Also the easiest aide to us is a loupe. Looking at the very point of the apex is really the best read as to if you apex is properly formed. The entire edge depends on the initial creation of the apex and then the refinement of it. You should watch gssixgun videos to get a further understanding of what I’m talking about. Learning to hone and shave at the same time is a substantial uphill battle. Starting with a well hone, quality blade makes the learning focused first on the shaving. They are two separate skill sets that are interrelated.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Learning to hone and shave at the same time is a substantial uphill battle.

I'll say that is true in spades. Been there, done that and it wasn't pretty.

Bob

Me too!
Sure made for a long battle. I bet i could have learned each seporately in half the time learning at the same time.

I hate to be the voice of dissent here but I learned both at the same time with no difficulty. I learned to refresh first on a guangxi hone and then learned to hone on the same stone with slurry and then full honing on a 1k and then guangxi. Maybe it was luck but I feel if I would have waited to learn how to hone I would have become bored and dropped out. Everyone is different so I am not saying everyone should learn to hone right away but for me it was key to staying in this hobby and I didn’t find it very difficult at all. Learning curve? Yup. A horrible experience? Far from it. YMMV.

Yup. That happens. When I started honing I handed probably twenty razors and it was super simple. I was on fire. Then I think I fell off my bike or something. Honing became much more challenging. The root of the challenging razors was they had all had no remaining bevel from previous honing, and I had to actually learn to set the bevel and get that perfect apex. I have a firm understanding of how it works now and it is typically not super challenging. I however tend to be very good with my hands. I suspect you are as well. I have seen so many threads of people struggling with both learning to shave with a straight and learning to hone. I’d hone razors for new guys for free to relieve their challenges, (and many others here do as well) unfortunately my mail is crazy slow, even for Canada.