Thread: Stainless steel razors on Shapton Pros.

I just tried to finish removing the smile on my Titan TH-70, which I started months ago but never finished due to the effort required. So I removed the smile and set the bevel on 1K diamond plate, then all the way up from 2K to 30K on my Shapton Pros, I did HHT etc. as I what I did with other razors. It was all good until the 30K. With all other carbon steel razors, 10 laps on the 30K would usually be too much. But with TH-70, nothing happened after 10 laps. Tried to shave with it, no happy at all, So did another 50 laps, improved a little bit but still not good enough. So had to finish the shave with another razor. I remember last time I got it shave ready was stropping on 0.1micron diamond. Thoughts?

My first thought was why remove the smile from a razor?

I don't like the smile, and it's simply too much... And most importantly I don't like the ground. I most likely have reduced the lifespan by 5 year, maybe 10 years, silly isn't it?

Probably why it won't hone up, now. U ruined the geometry.

Originally Posted by outback

Probably why it won't hone up, now. U ruined the geometry.

I'm pretty sure the geometry is right, I know what I'm doing. The edge is still popping my finest hair on my hand easily but not as good as I would expect it to be. It looks like the Shapton Pro 30K cannot handle the hard stainless steel(Titan claimed it to be HRC 70, I would say even if it's not 70, it would still be in the high 60s, it skids a bit even on diamond plates) as I see much less swarfs than carbon steels.

I suspect if I strop on 0.1micron diamonds, I can bring it up with more or less 10 strokes. Have to pull out the strop though, haven't use it for quite a while.

I think you have that backwards. Not all steels can go s fine as 30K grit. Also geometry aside, as you go up into the very high grits one can thin the edge down very fine and it becomes very fragile.

Originally Posted by mrjin

I'm pretty sure the geometry is right, I know what I'm doing. The edge is still popping my finest hair on my hand easily but not as good as I would expect it to be. It looks like the Shapton Pro 30K cannot handle the hard stainless steel(Titan claimed it to be HRC 70, I would say even if it's not 70, it would still be in the high 60s, it skids a bit even on diamond plates) as I see much less swarfs than carbon steels.

I suspect if I strop on 0.1micron diamonds, I can bring it up with more or less 10 strokes. Have to pull out the strop though, haven't use it for quite a while.

The Shapton 30K glass is a polisher. I have to have a pretty much finished edge to notice any improvement from it. I find that my coticules can put a really nice edge on even the hardest steel and then if I go to a Vermio or Pierre la Lune it gets better. There is no question the bevel gets its best polish from the Shapton, but quite frankly, I don’t notice any improvement in the shave I get from the other finishers.

Haven't ever heard of a Titan straight razor. Hope you figure it out.

Most people look for a smiling blade. Removing it seems wrong especially with the amont of work it took to make it take a good enough edge to leave the factory. I haven't seen it but just for comparison I did this on purpose.


Here's another in the works.


A lot of work to go on that tang but getting that thing ground to where it will hone to shave ready is work. I can't imagine why you'd try to undo all that.

Edit: Have you ever shaved with a blade that smiles like that first pic? It's a great shave. You have to know how to do a scything stroke but if you do it's heavenly.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

A lot of work to go on that tang but getting that thing ground to where it will hone to shave ready is work. I can't imagine why you'd try to undo all that.

My skin is super sensitive, 3 passes would be too many. So I would always try to reduce the passes to the least and as light as possible, straight edge would be better this case. I have tried the Titan's smile edge but I did not like most of its aspects. It's probably a combination of multiple factors, but you know, I have only tried that many times. I might eventually prefer a smile edge, but so far, it's not quite there yet.

I do understand it's lots of efforts to get something like what in your pic #1 to shave ready. But with Titan, it wasn't the case. After I get it shave ready, the spine is no better than the KN razor below. Unlike your example, Titan's spine is straight, the smile was just created using something like an EdgePro. The geometry was off quite a bit. I'm sorry that I could not see any craftsmanship in it at all.

Attachment 350930
Attachment 350931

I had to fix the spine, why not straighten the edge at the same time? The only thing was that I under estimated the effort needed. The steel was much harder than any other razors I have, it's probably really HRC 70, if not really that high, it will be very close to it. So it super hard to hone, and I had to press it super hard on the diamond plate to fix the spine or it would just keep skidding.

Anyway, I'm happier with it than before.