Thread: what stone for a king cutter?

hi! everybody I've been trying to hone a king cutter straigth razor, first I use a 1200 king waterstone, later a 4000 norton waterstone and sometimes I try to finish it with a 8000 naniwa or a yellow coticule (no slurry just water). the razor metal seems to be very hard and it is in the final stage either with the naniwa or the coticule that I can not see any metal being taken off. both stones stayed clear without the black powder from the straigth. does any body knows about a harder stone for this kind of razor?
thank you

Should be a fine progression ether way. Both those stones will get the job done even on hard steel. You never mentioned how the edge was shaving durring the process, check to see that the bevels are clean and don't worry to much about how much metal is Not being removed. Finer stones don't remove enough to worry about.

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

Should be a fine progression ether way. Both those stones will get the job done even on hard steel. You never mentioned how the edge was shaving durring the process, check to see that the bevels are clean and don't worry to much about how much metal is Not being removed. Finer stones don't remove enough to worry about.

it pulls sometimes but not as much as at the beggining. How many pass should I do in the final stage? (aproximately)

Unfortunatly there is no spacific number of passes, ether it's enough or it isn't. Part of the ART of straight razors, you have to fiddle with them to learn their querks. You may need to give this razor a few more strokes earlier in the progression if your edge is pooping out early.

Polishing will not make the razor sharper really, if the edge isn't there already the polish will not help. Stropping may give you a few degrees of shaveability but may not last the shave as well.

So keep on testing each step in the precess and see where you can improve, it's all part of the game.