Thread: Difficulty Honing a TI

I have a Theirs Issard 5/8th. Marked acier c135 ( via art of shaving)

I understand the newer steel formula is supposed to be harder and harder to sharpen.

I think I’ve spent 2x the time on this razor, While it is a passable shave, it is not as sharp at the rest of the razors in my stable.

Did I find the max sharpness for this steel?
Keep on honing?
Any suggestions?

(Finishing on translucent ark)

Most of the razors I've seen from AOS had to have the bevel set. After that they honed up nice and sharp.
And yes, TIs are hard steel.

All the TIs I’ve had shave extremely well. If it isn’t shaving well and you are not experienced at honing, I’d send it out the first time to make sure that the bevel is properly set. The steel is on the hard side, but no big deal really.

I have two TI's that were an absolute bear to hone. Yes, the bevel was the issue initially but I had to rock back and forth between grits to slowly bring it up. It took a lot of effort to get there and I had to keep it on a stone a lot longer than normal to get the same level of sharpness. I get very apprehensive about the 12k. It is a fast cutting stone that can get away from you if you're not careful. But I was doing a lot of laps on it before it did its job. They both shave great now. But getting them there was not easy. What I would advise is not to grind away forever on the 1k if the edge is rejecting it. I found that the 8k was my friend. I did a lot of polishing with slurry on the 8k. The slurry cuts without creating teeth.

I’ve had 3 recent TI’s and all needed a bevel set. All the bevels were a little wider than I would like on a new razor but they all shaved beautifully. They take a long lasting smooth and sharp edge. I don’t remember taking more than a “normal” amount of time to set the bevels. Definitely at the pre polishing and finishing stages it took a little longer than say a Sheffield, more like about a normal run of the mill Torrey or Genco. If your bevel is set you may not have stayed long enough on your next stone in your progression. I lightly joint my edge after the initial bevel set then set it again with a few light strokes to make sure I’ve gotten rid of any burr created. Helps get rid of the teeth from the burr coming off and then you’re not doing anything corrective after coming of the bevel setter, just polishing.

C135 is pretty hard steel. A diamond plate would make the job go much faster as it will cut that steel easily. You only have to do it once.

Check out this thread. TI's seem to have quite a few qualitiy issues. https://sharprazorpalace.com/razors/...rs-issard.html
I have one that I can only get to shave well when I strop it on a pasted strop after the finishing hone.

The C135 steel is quite hard. That makes it harder to hone, but it also means it last longer before refreshing is required, so the overall effort is similar.

For the longest time I wanted and wanted a TI but after get several in to hone the edges are hit and miss, very few factory edges are good enough to shave off of especially production razors and then couple that with the wacky wonky grinds that are on them makes things interesting for honing, my best success with them was one layer of super 88 tape and set a good solid bevel then change tape and finish and it usually yields a decent edge

Synthetics

The C135 TI is rated to be 66RHC I have my doubts that it is that high

I don't mess with them I go straight to either Naniwa SS 1-3-5-8-10-12 or Shapton GS 1-2-4-6-8-16-30

These hones are designed to take that hard steel and tame it nice

The Chosera 1-5-10 into a finisher isn't bad either


Be careful and look for a slight frown on them from the factory, hone toward a smile to correct slowly