Thread: First attempt at vintage straight razor honing

If, during the honing proces, the tape wears out, or comes off, just replace it with a fresh piece of tape. It can take time and pressure to set the bevel, so it's not unusual that the tape doesn't last from bevel setting to finishing. Excessive pressure speeds up the wear for sure though.

As for tape falling off, some brands of cheaper black electrical tape falls off. 3M tape is the best I've found and never falls off

When doing repairs like heavy grinding, using 2 layers of tape is a good idea, then if you burn through one layer the spine is still protected. Once you get the bevel sorted and meeting, you can drop down to one layer and quickly re-set the bevel angle.

Judging by the wear on the spine, I would put 2 layers of tape to approximate the original spine thickness and proper bevel angle. You most probably have a bit of work removing all the 220 grit stria from the bevel, and you will have to remove it all.

Joint the edge straight on the corner of the 1200 and reset the bevel doing circles, until they meet. Then do X strokes, to get an even stria pattern.

Do you have any other stones between the 1200 and 12K stone? You really need at least a 3,4, or 5k and possibly an 8k.

Buy a quality stone, especially if your 1k (1,200 grit stone) is questionable. You cannot go wrong with a 4/8k Norton or 3/8k Naniwia combo stones, they are relatively inexpensive and will last a lifetime. The 8k edge is a very comfortable shaving edge. C12K’s are hit and miss, some finish, some don’t. The Norton and Naniwia 8k’s are pretty foolproof.

I would skip the C12k until you are able to consistently get a 8k shaving edge, then experiment with natural finishers.

You should probably wait until you get your magnification, before continuing and risk more damage. As said the razor can still be made to shave well with some patients and better tools.

Read the first 3 post in the honing forum for a good overview on razor honing.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Highly appreciated. I will probably need to order the Norton 4/8 from the states as its not available here. The only honing stone carried by my local Ace Hardware store is the smith's honing set which consists of one Arkansas and a another stone. Is this Smith's set capable of doing the SR?

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Originally Posted by rodb

As for tape falling off, some brands of cheaper black electrical tape falls off. 3M tape is the best I've found and never falls off

Great to know that. I will try to obtain some 3m.

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You can hone on a 3 stone Ark progression; it has been done for hundreds of years. It is more difficult and slower, but the edge is a very nice shaving edge that does have a following.

Arks in the larger size, 8X3 that are best for honing razors can get pricy, especially for the hard stones.

You will need a soft Washita, a hard stone and a hard finishing, Black or Translucent stone.

Learning to hone on synthetic stones is much easier and quicker. All natural stones are unique and can be somewhat un-predictable as far as performance. All synthetic stones of a given manufacturer, are identical and perform, equally well. All Norton 1k’s perform like all other Norton 1k’s.

There are many great, extensive, Ark threads, packed with great information. The process for using an Ark, is exactly the same as synthetics, set the bevel on a low grit stone, then polish out the stria from each previous stone. The trick is the amount of and when to use pressure and a few other techniques.