Thread: Problem child needs fixing

This is my problem child. First, it won't stay honed, or sharp. Bought it from John Crowley at The Shaveing Shop. Even he admitted it was very hard to hone. Second, it stains super easy. Glenn (gssixgun) wrote some where he's honed razors that rusted while looking at them. This razor first stained with Coticule slurry on it. I wiped the slurry off and there were spots. Contrast the two pictures. Anyway, I ramble. This really is a thread about honing this razor.





I read with much interest a recent thread dealing with heat tempering and how some blades, if over tempered, can overly harden at the edge. The suggested remedy was to joint the edge several times at the 1k level before progressing on to get down to some good metal.

This was the first time I used magnification to aid me at each progression...And I got pictures too. Here's my sequence of progression: Shapton Glass series 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, Coticule, my new Dan's Whetstone True Hard Arkansas novaculite (featured in another thread), and dozens of strokes on a dry Zulu Grey. Some of the pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, so I don't have pictures at each stage.

Here are the pictures.

Shapton Glass 1k



SG 1k



SG 2k



SG 4k



SG 4I



SG 8k



Arkansas True Hard



Zulu Grey



The ultimate test, and only reliable test, is the shave test. My problem child wasn't a problem today. For what ever reason the edge has been failing after the first or second shave. Hopefully with mounting I was able to get down into some good metal for a lasting edge.