Thread: Honing Razors With A Jig and Stationary Blade

Good points.

It does depend on what you want and the application. Frankly how much you like designing and building jigs too. I've free hand sharpened my own pocket knife and got great results. Years ago in the hospital I was asked to repair and re-sharpen a surgical amputation knife. I set up a jig and got the edge precisely to specifications.

Same thing, I've free hand machined metal parts on old manual milling machines. But with a need for many parts, I've designed complex jigs and run the lot on a CNC milling machine. There is a certain satisfaction in both approaches. But I agree if you need precision, a lot of repeatability, or higher throughput a jig is nice.

I'm still stuck on how flexible the blade is on a hollow ground straight razor. I really think by hand is going to get the best result at the lowest cost. If it didn't? One of the higher volume straight razor producers would have figured out a way to automate 'shave ready' for real and use it as a competitive advantage. My guess is it just costs to much to take the human out of this process and the volume of production doesn't justify the expense.

Best,

Ed

Originally Posted by bladeon

Alright, thanks for the quick feedback! I should have phrased my question in terms of: are there any recommended jigs? You answered that. I have experience sharpening lots of different ways, just not something as delicate as a razor yet. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I think you are missing something: razors are not sharpened freehand or with a jig. The spine is the thing determining the angle. That's it. The spine is on the stone and the edge is on the stone. There is no jig required.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Not that it matters but ...... my father taught me to sharpen pocket knives when I was 14 or so. To the point where I could shave hair on my leg. Using Arkansas stones and I have been doing that all of my life since. When I first read about these apparatuses for sharpening I looked into it and found they were expensive. So I never even considered buying one. I have no doubt that my pocket knife, kitchen knives, what have you, would be sharper and more consistent with the jig, but there is a certain reward I get from doing them freehand, that I just don't think I would feel with the gizmo. Even if the edge was better.

Dad taught me to sharpen about the same age and also using Arkansas stones I used them until 6 or 7 years ago. Then I decided I wanted to get the edges as sharp as possible. I always loved a sharp edge and now wanted to explore the sharper edges. I got a few things including an Edge Pro. I got really good at using it as can get edges REALLY sharp. I can whittle a hair and all that. Then about 2 years ago I decided I wanted to develop a high skill level at free hand sharpening. Now I can get the same sharpness free hand. I don't know exactly what angle the edge is like you do with the "systems" but that's not real important. It seems to me about all of these systems or free hand are as good as the amount of effort you put into them. I have to say I get more personal satisfaction from free hand sharpening than using the EP. The EP does require some experience (like any tool) to get the really supurb results but for the most part a person brand new to sharpening will have far better results much faster by using a system that controls the edge or bevel angle.

Anyway, I doubt your results would be better using a system. Just a different way to do the same thing. Some pros, some cons. The biggest differnce IMO is the learning curve for new people. Systems are faster to give good results. But for straight razors??? Not the best tool or method IMO.

Jack

Originally Posted by mike1011

I would be interested to know if you have used it yet to hone a razor and if you have, what were the results like ? I can see where the difficulty would be on a full hollow ground blade where the edge flexes allot. Keeping a light enough pressure i could see been a real problem here. I am struggling to understand why it would not work on a wedge type razor though.

I just wonder how important the bevel angle actually is. Allot of people use tape on the spine while honing which increases the angle (granted not by much) anyway. I have also seen numerous posts regarding "thin bevels", which often appear to require a significant deviation from the natural angle provided by the blade geometry, yet the users report great shaves.

So how important is the bevel angle (within reason, i don't mean put a 45 degree bevel on it) in real world practical terms ?

You can probably give or take a couple of degrees. However, Too shallow, and you get big bevels very quickly. This is ugly, but also makes the razor hard to hone, because wide bevel -> need to remove a lot of steel -> takes a lot of time. Too steep, and the razors becomes thick and lumpy and difficult to shave with.

A layer of tape changes things less than a degree, so that is not significant, and is usually done to avoid honewear on the spine.

No matter how solid a jig you make, it is always going to flex and move more than the simple method of a spine resting on the stone.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I think you are missing something: razors are not sharpened freehand or with a jig. The spine is the thing determining the angle. That's it. The spine is on the stone and the edge is on the stone. There is no jig required.

I'm new to honing razors so I'd like to amplify what Bruno just said. For knives and most edged tools the angle is the most difficult thing to master. The razor's design takes care of this for us. Still, I wanted to bring my knife sharpening experience or knowledge into the razor honing task. BIG mistake. Just keep it simple, let the razor control the angle, use a light tough and practice. It took me a lot of practice to develope the "touch" but now after almost a year my edges are really doing a good job. Stropping is the main thing to learn though since you do that much more often.

It seems we humans (I mean me ) seem to think we are so smart we always want to re-invent the wheel. Keeping it simple is the easiest when it comes to razors I think and FAR less expensive. Just watch Lynn's videos, get his DVD and do what he does. After some time practicing the good results just start happening. IMO the razor honing wheel is already round.

Here's how Dovo's are made and sharpened. It looks like the bevel is set on a wheel and the edge is finished by hand on a stone

In all honesty, regardless of what is been sharpened, chisels, plane blades, a knife etc etc IMO keeping a consistent angle over the full length of the blade is much more important than the angle itself. I wasn't to sure about razors but from reading here that seems to hold true.

WorkSharp has been kickin' it for me:



Sheffields luuuuv it. Not razors. Cutlery. lol.

Have any of you tried to shave with a edge straight from Dovo? Even if you haven't, take your pocked knife out of your pocket and shave with it...

Why do you think Lynn hones every Dovo that goes through his and Don's shop...

The difference between knife sharpening and razor honing is you have to shave your face with the razor.

You can cut hand held hairs, paper or silk scarves with a knife but you are not going to shave with it every day.

It’s like putting a race car on the dyno and say OMG it produces X horsepower to the wheels.

It is what it does on the track… in the race that counts.