Thread: Can't keep an edge

Most likely bevel but since you mentioned e-Bay...

Was it highly polished? I'm afraid that many sellers overheat the blades trying to get the mirror finishes. This can overheat the edge, possibly causing a loss of temper and cause it to break down repeatedly until you hone it back to the 'good stuff'.

Just my opinion after several dissatisfying e-Bay buys. Much honing usually cured it.

Seems like every time I run into a "won't shave" issue with my razors, it circles back to the bevel. I've stopped relying on thumb nail, thumb pad, and arm hair tests. The magnification doesn't lie, and will not hide issues that other tests might fail to reveal. I've learned the hard way that it IS possible to have a razor that

1) feels incredibly sharp on the thumb pad.

2) feels smooth across the thumb nail.

3) pops arm hair at skin level with unparalleled ease

4) tree tops arm hair

But will nearly bring a tear to your eye yanking hair out of your face. And magnification reveals the cause, the bevel is close enough to be able to pop hair but it isn't completely set. Until both planes of the bevel meet it won't shave for squat, but it may pass every other test you throw at it.

Marshall,
You mention 1000 grit. What brand, and where do you buy it with confidence. I would appreciate knowing this. Currently I have three sets of hones, Diamond, Water stones up to 8000 and Arkansas (soft, black and translucent). I bought the Arkansas from "Best Sharpening Stones. Com".
Thank you for your perspective.

Originally Posted by Glock27

Marshall,
You mention 1000 grit. What brand, and where do you buy it with confidence. I would appreciate knowing this. Currently I have three sets of hones, Diamond, Water stones up to 8000 and Arkansas (soft, black and translucent). I bought the Arkansas from "Best Sharpening Stones. Com".
Thank you for your perspective.

You mention having water stones already, what brand are they?

The four commonly recommended hone brands are Norton, King, Naniwa, and Shapton. Lynn at "Straight Razor Designs.com" has quite a few 1000 grit water stone options, and all of them should work for straight razors. Look at the left side of the screen under categories, and click the "Sharpening Center" tab. Every water stone on that page will work with straight razors.

The cheapest option will be either the Naniwa Traditional 1000, or the King 1000. Everyone here seems to ignore the the Traditional but it got a pretty good Review from Lynn, and if it's good enough for him it would be more than good enough for me. Unfortunately Lynn doesn't carry King water stones so you'll have to find that elsewhere. My go-to is Amazon. As for myself, I went with the Norton 1000 because I started off with their 4000/8000 combination hone and wanted to keep it all in the same line start to finish. When it came time to replace those, I stayed with the same hones because they work and I didn't want to learn a new system. Only difference was I went with single grit stones rather than combination stones.

Edit/Bonus:

Originally Posted by Glock27

Hi Utopian,
You say it is pretty much o.k. to start a new thread. How do you do that?

If you're in a section of the forums where that is allowed, toward the top of the page on the left you'll see a "Start New Thread" button.

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it more than you could recognize. The water stones I have are Norton, and one Chinese water stone listed as 15,000 grit. I primarily stay with the Arkansas stones; it just takes so much time to set the water stones up, soaking them for 30 minutes, having a water tub to set the stones over and keeping them wet. I feel about the same with the diamond hones I have. Problem there is that the water will not stay evenly spread across the hones--the water beads up.
I have a 10x loop and when I check the edge of the Joseph Allen I can see tiny nicks and the edge looks rugged. I have contemplated taping the spine and going at it. I have been reading the library page, but so far I have come across nothing that seems revelatory for me, or strikes me "Ah Ha!".
It is odd that I have been using a straight razor for at least or close to 40 years and don't know squat. I have just thought, sharpen and shave, however it seems to take me for ever to get the blade right. The reason for that is that I have recognized I know nothing about straight razors.
I am blabbing now so I will stop.
With All Due Respect
Glock 27(Tom)

+1 to Euclid with his expert advice. Also, I agree with the 1k stone if you are buying ebay razors. I have found that alot of old razors have the edge of the steel that is corroded. These razors will get sharp but the bevel will stay hazy and won't polish out. So you think you have a great edge and then sometimes during the first shave it will 'crumble' away for want of a better description. You won't be able to maintain an edge until you get back into 'good' steel. Its much easier to get the bevel set with a 1k also, just my thoughts, hopefully some more senior members will chime in. VR Joe

Do you have any other hones? You are using advanced hones that are temperamental at best and very picky about slurry, pressure etc. Like any natural.
Many failures will get you to a success.

Thanks to all who replied. The razor actually came from a vendor in Germany, who was selling on the French Ebay site, go figure. It wasn't really cleaned up much; it looked like it had been sitting in a box in a drawer for a long time. No rust, no pitting, just years of patina. Flitz and a few qtips cleaned it up. I have a DMT325 and EZELap600 diamond stones, but try to avoid using them on razors unless I'm working out some edge chips. I have an old King1200 that I have not had much success with; perhaps I should dig it out of the garage and try again. I see Lynn has the Naniwa 1K SS for around $37 at SRD. I need to buy some soap in the near future, should I splurge? Or will the King do the job. It's not like I set a bevel every week...

I have the same King stone, try it with slurry, it really sped it up. I didn't have much luck either with it until I tried that.

Originally Posted by cau

Thanks to all who replied. The razor actually came from a vendor in Germany, who was selling on the French Ebay site, go figure. It wasn't really cleaned up much; it looked like it had been sitting in a box in a drawer for a long time. No rust, no pitting, just years of patina. Flitz and a few qtips cleaned it up. I have a DMT325 and EZELap600 diamond stones, but try to avoid using them on razors unless I'm working out some edge chips. I have an old King1200 that I have not had much success with; perhaps I should dig it out of the garage and try again. I see Lynn has the Naniwa 1K SS for around $37 at SRD. I need to buy some soap in the near future, should I splurge? Or will the King do the job. It's not like I set a bevel every week...

Originally Posted by rodb

I have the same King stone, try it with slurry, it really sped it up. I didn't have much luck either with it until I tried that.

What do you use to raise the slurry? Coticule, diamond stone? On the 1K stone, do I want King slurry, or a finer coticule slurry? Do I need to worry about contaminating my coticule slurry stone with 1K grit?