Thread: Professionally honed but it still pulls

Hi, I made a straight razor and wasn't able to get it sharp enough. I gave it to someone to professionally hone it and he said he took it up to 12k and stropped it. I also stropped the crap out of it on a suede then leather, with chromium oxide but it still isn't comfortable to shave with. It'll clean my leg or arm no problem but it just pulls and hurts on my face, gave me a nasty cut too. Any ideas?

Lots to take in to consideration. Depending on your skills making the razor it may or may not ever take an edge.
The honer you sent it to may have put a nice edge to it but "stropping the crap out of it" could have easily ruined it. Doing a ton of stropping on CroOx isn't the answer too.

You cut your face from using a razor that is not sharp and applying pressure. In future if you feel tugging put the razor down and use something else. Your face will thank you for it.

It happens

I just sent a handmade razor back, that just would not quite get over the top..

The edge would get "Sharp" but the temper would not hold a "Shaving Edge"

I don't know if that is the issue on yours, whoever honed it should have been able to tell you what is going on with it..

A few possibilities;

Bevel angle; Spine thickness/Active width X 57.3 = ...º

Heat treat; I had one where I missed the heat treat. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't hold an edge and finally got frustrated enough to check the hardness with a file. Depending on your grind and luck you may get away with re heat treating. My thin grind potato chipped and now I have a fancy damascus craft knife. Live and learn.

Bevel reveal width; This is not a show stopper, but can test the patients of the person doing the honing IME.

Another possibility is that the professional honer isn't that good.

As mark said you might have rolled the edge with aggressive stropping. If that's the case you might be able to bring it back easily enough. Don't know what kind of honing setup or experience you have but you mentioned that you and tried to sharpen it. If the honer sent you a description of how he honed it, (i.e. 1 layer of tape, 2 layers, no tape) you could possibly refresh with a barber's hone or start at 4k then 8k if you have water stones then strop more lightly. If he was proficient you should still have a good bevel set. There are a lot of unknowns but maybe that will work. It's at least a place to start.

First, post some photos of the razor and edge.

Look straight down on the edge with magnification. If you see any shiny reflections, that is where the bevels are not meeting. It could be that it was honed properly, but improper stropping could have rolled the edge. “I also stropped the crap out of it on a suede then leather, with chromium oxide”, Dollars to Doughnuts, you have a shiny bevel and rolled edge.
It happens all the time. Stropping a razor takes time to learn, about a year for most folks.

Make sure your “Razor Honer” shaves with a straight razor, not the local knife guy down the street that sharpens lawnmower blades and knives on a belt sander.

Or as said heat treat or bevel angle. Post pics and look at the edge.

I am left wondering about your shaving experience. It may not be the razor at all. If you hold a well honed razor at too high of an angle, it will tug and cut every time. There is more at play than the edge, the steel and the hones.

The heat treat is good, about 62 rockwell. Spine is 3/16 and width is 3/4. I can't see any rolling on the edge but it could be so small it's invisible. I've been shaving up til now with a straight that has replaceable blades. I shaved at the same angle I use with that one and also tried different angles but no luck. Here is the razor. Here are some pics.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

First, post some photos of the razor and edge.

Look straight down on the edge with magnification. If you see any shiny reflections, that is where the bevels are not meeting. It could be that it was honed properly, but improper stropping could have rolled the edge. “I also stropped the crap out of it on a suede then leather, with chromium oxide”, Dollars to Doughnuts, you have a shiny bevel and rolled edge.
It happens all the time. Stropping a razor takes time to learn, about a year for most folks.

Make sure your “Razor Honer” shaves with a straight razor, not the local knife guy down the street that sharpens lawnmower blades and knives on a belt sander.

Or as said heat treat or bevel angle. Post pics and look at the edge.

Ok, I probably shouldn't have said it like that. What I meant was I did alot of passes on the strop, I was still gentle with it though. I didn't do it aggressively. I cant see any places where the bevel doesn't meet, but just to double check you mean looking down with the edge facing you, not looking at the edge from the side?

have you looked at the edge with a loupe? with proper lighting that can tell alot that way. Look for sparkly spots or a glow along the edge. I use a 30x loupe. For me it's more usful than a microscope.