Thread: Honing Razors With A Jig and Stationary Blade

I have just gotten into SR shaving in the last few months. I currently use a shavette-type (Parker SR1). My technique has improved to where I hardly see any nicks. To prep for a "real" razor I built a sharpening jig, and just finished it today. It sharpens knives well. It's the kind that clamps a blade of any sort vertically, and there are rods with pivots to ensure my angles are precise while moving the sharpening film against the blade, which is fixed. I have wet/dry paper up to 1.5K and 3M lapping film up to 60K. My question is, for those of you with experience, is this a viable approach? Being an engineer I like this method, which I also learned off videos. My home-made jig will allow me to make contact from the spine to the edge. Thanks!

Although we stress learning how shave with a straight first since a shavette is a different horse, so to speak, before approaching honing a razor it would be good for us to see photos of your set up. Stationary blade and moving abrasive sounds too much like sharpening with an abrasive wheel.

Ok, not sure how this will play from my phone, but here's a pic or two, with a knife clamped in the jig today for practice.

What you don't see are the flat pieces that ride on those rods and hold the film against the blade. There is a commercial product called Wicked Edge, but I built my own to have more options.

My opinion is emphatically no, Tex. Those contraptions work well-enough for knives, but razors are all too different. They all need something different, more, or less. Hit that search box at top right. Put in any make/type of sharpening jig. Lots of threads in the past about it. I know for a fact men have contrived everything to make honing easy and automated since way before the industrial age. It is a hand operation, IMO.

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 your use of 'delicate' is key. You will preservere!

Maybe in contrast to Lynn's preference, I learned to hone (mostly through the generous help of a couple Sr members here who were kind enough to help me) but I don't think I'll ever offer honing services. To me, if you decide to do that, you have to be confident enough to grind away on a 1k hone with someone else's razor. That razor may be an eBay special or a Max custom. It might also be a severely screwed up wedge from a very different point in our history. But you have to be confident enough to take on all problems and enthused to take on the challenge. I've done a few for others but I'm always overly nervous when tha razor is not mine. I am not an authority on honing. I don't care if I'm recognized as an authority on honing. And I really don't want to hone razors for anyone else for my own profit or ego. But all that being said, the community can get a new guy up and running if he's willing to take selective advice and listen to instruction via email. Face to face is better but it can be achieved in less than optimal circumstances. But before you start, get the best advice offered and trust it even if it's blindly. There's a thousand opportunities to learn from mistakes, don't win any awards for having invented new ones. Later you may want to instruct others, hone razors for others, or simply remain a student the rest of your life and work exclusively on your own. But until then, stick to conventional wisdom and ask questions as they arrive.

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.

Let us know how it goes, so far no one has succeeded to get consistent results with jigs.

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 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.