Thread: My First Razor - Need Opinions

Hint: To the OP I highly suggest putting your local in your info, if we know your general location we can direct you even better ..

SRP also has multiple Meets and Mentors across the world, and honestly there is nothing more informative then a Meet or a meet up with a Mentor to boost your Razor honing skills.. It really shouldn't take you much at all to go from Sword polishing to Razor honing you have the general principles and touch down you just need a bit of direction...


Good Luck

Thanks for all the replies and help! I will update my info today.

For the record, i'm in Sonoma, California... wine country. Any members around north bay?

One thing makes me wonder: Why spend hundreds of dollars on honing equipment and then buy a rusty old razor for a few bucks?

@OldSalt

I've spent basically nothing on honing equipment. And the Razor is near immaculate, no rust at all.

So far only 1 stone has been bought for my razors. An 18$ welsh slate. That and a 20$ razor hardly equals hundreds.

99% of my gear is for japanese swords or knives(any style), and isn't anything new.

So what the hell are you talking about? Everything listed I had already owned before even thinking of a straight. My only new stuff geared towards razors is the cheapo welsh mini hones, and a bigger strop(wanted one for jap sword sharpening anyway)

Originally Posted by OldSalt

One thing makes me wonder: Why spend hundreds of dollars on honing equipment and then buy a rusty old razor for a few bucks?

I have spent hundreds of euros on honing equipment and have bought a small pile of rusty old razors. I like restoring them and beneath the rust is usually good steel. A razor can only give a good shave with a good edge, and a good edge comes from good honing equipment. Rusty razors can be made to work just as well as new ones

If there were more people selling second hand Shapton Glass Stones, I would have bought those to save some money, but seeing as there are so few, I bought mine new.

Originally Posted by HunterHagan

So what the hell are you talking about?

I asked a simple question. How about giving a simple answer without cursing? People are so easily offended these days........

Do what ever you want.

Best wishes,
OldSalt

It was somewhat presumptuous and more than a little rude - at least the structure and content of your, admittedly terse, post left such an impression. That's the problem with writing in general: it departs from you, the master author and is then reconstructed by readers who might come to very different conclusions in regards to the meaning of your message. Sometimes a sapient author's writing will be left to the interpretation of senseless simians and sometimes vice versa.

Originally Posted by OldSalt

I asked a simple question. How about giving a simple answer without cursing? People are so easily offended these days........

Do what ever you want.

Best wishes,
OldSalt

At least i'm straight forward, instead of acting all passive aggressive and making false assumptions. The question you asked being far from simple when you consider how incorrect your view of me is.

Also, if I were cursing there would be much stronger words than "hell" being used.

Finally, I emailed nun2sharp, I hope he is still around to hone. If not I guess I will have to deal with the waiting period for Lynn.

Originally Posted by HunterHagan

At least i'm straight forward, instead of acting all passive aggressive and making false assumptions. The question you asked being far from simple when you consider how incorrect your view of me is.

Also, if I were cursing there would be much stronger words than "hell" being used.

Please, if in doubt assume that the poster is not attacking you and do not escalate things. This is international forum and you can notice the member is from Germany, so there may be a language barrier.

Originally Posted by HunterHagan

I ordered my first straight, a GD 66 for 6$ shipped. But after reading around I decided to get a vintage one also.
Vintage Columbia Cutlery Co Extra Hollow Ground Straight Razor 11 16 | eBay

That razor is heavily sanded and not done well at all (the pitting, the rounding of the spine, the sandpaper scratches are all there). I don't know how much polishing goes on a sword, but if you have extensive experience you should be able to do a lot better than what the previous owner did.
At least it looks like he hand sanded it and din't use power tools, the incompetent use of which could destroy the temper of the razor.

For future reference natural hones tend to be slow, so the jump from your 3k to a natural may be quite challenging. Normally one would use a slurry to speed up the cutting, but even with that what would be 20 strokes on a norton 8k may be hundreds and even more on a natural hone.

Originally Posted by HunterHagan

At least i'm straight forward

If you were, you would just tell me that you like to restore razors or whatever..... The view I got of you assembled after you shot at me...... Before that, I was just wondering and asked my question. Sorry I was interested.

I thank gugi for his assistance, but I'm completely bilingual.

Enough said. Good Luck with your honing and don't forget: It's not a matter of life and death here. We're here to have fun and gain and spread knowledge.

OldSalt