Thread: Newbie - made a major mistake... Major!

Well call me Dusty, I would never have believed it is common practice to use a belt sander to sharpen knives let alone SRs but I stand corrected thanks to unit's post. OTH I don't think I will be trying it any time soon myself, at least not on SRs. So I apologize for doubting anyone would ever try it on an SR. That said, glad to hear you were able to get an edge the conventional way with no apparent damage to your razor. You might find this section in the Library here of some use to you Category:Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki . Be sure and ask for clarification if you need to.

Bob

Originally Posted by RezDog

The expression that I see here a lot is pics or it didn't really happen.

There might have been a bit of that, but pics would have helped the experienced guys to assess the damage. Not that I am one of them.

Originally Posted by BobH

Well call me Dusty, I would never have believed it is common practice to use a belt sander to sharpen knives let alone SRs but I stand corrected thanks to unit's post.

Let me clarify, it is NOT common practice to hone straights on a belt. I do know of one veteran sharpening guru that used to hone razors with paper wheels. (It shocked the hell out of me, but he reported that he did this for more than a few straight shavers over the past 30 years with excellent feedback).

I was just attempting to illustrate how easy it is to make the step from knives on belts to razors. It's not a great idea, but its not that shocking to me that someone (lacking razor honing experience) would try it.

What is more, I have at least one razor in my collection that I'm pretty sure was placed on a belt in a failed honing attempt (many years before I received it).

I still recommend you send it out to a pro. Not to get it fix, it looks like you did a fairly good job at it (by the way congratulation), but to have an idea of what a well sharpen razor should feel like. If you have never shave with a straight before, and sharpen your own, you will wonder if the edge you have is all the razors got or is there is more to it. I can tell you that the razor hone by a pro like Lynn, Glenn, and many others on the classified here can do a better job than many of us commoners!

I've been honing knifes since I was in Boy Scouts, then in high school (1977) I learned a little on planners and chisels. With more reading, practice and new tools I got better with planers, chisels and knifes.

When I started with straight razors, I started by just retouching an already good razor. Had success, but when I tried a full bevel set, it took me about a week of going at it, to get an edge I could call shave ready. Even then, it wasn't close to the pro honed edge.

Double O

Unit

I worded that poorly, certainly never heard of or seen recommended using a belt sander on an SR to sharpen it. That is why I found it incredible that it is common practice to do so with knives. Live and learn, they are truly different beasts.

Bob

The belt sander that I use for knife sharpening look nothing like the belt sander that I use for woodwork. I think that the name of the tool may be misleading. Mine is a knife sharpener that runs sanding belts. I cut a 1" strip off of a 4" wide sanding belt. I think that is what others use as well.

I don't know about the mistake but... I have seen knives sharpened on belt Sanders for years at gun shows. One guy you could pay a certain price and have it resharpened up to four times a year. We have allot of gun shows here in Texas!

Originally Posted by RezDog

The belt sander that I use for knife sharpening look nothing like the belt sander that I use for woodwork. I think that the name of the tool may be misleading. Mine is a knife sharpener that runs sanding belts. I cut a 1" strip off of a 4" wide sanding belt. I think that is what others use as well.

The 1 inch belt sander I have is a professional model made exclusively for sharpening knives - almost all high end kitchen knives are honed on 1 inch belt sanders. They even have a 1 inch leather stropping belt. The edge you get is convex and holds up better than a pointed or triangular edge with daily steeling of the knife.

My razor shaves well - maybe not as good as the day it was new but acceptable - I get my 12k stone today so hopefully I can improve the edge a little more...

Thanks for all the advice and entertaining pics of sparks flying!

-john

The term belt sander is just the best way to describe it. By the way when I had that done at the gun show... I could shave arm hair... But I would never consider trying to shave my face with it.

Is this what everyone's talking about??

Sander/Grinder - Lee Valley Tools

Sharpening/Sanding Belts - Lee Valley Tools

3M Trizact™ Sharpening Belts - Lee Valley Tools

I think something like this could be very handy for a lot of jobs. But like we've established, i'm not sure it has a place for sharpening razors, at least to a shaving edge. Some of the guys do use these for hollow grinding when fabricating custom razors, and doing regrinds. But they have a special, "custom" setup with different wheel sizes, and different setups for different jobs.

Heres one of Charle Lewis's setups for grinding his blades.
Double-Wheel Hollow Grinder - YouTube