Thread: Straight Razors Dull Despite Little Use

I had no master to teach me. I learned the simple X-stroke from my boyscout hand book. A security cop taught me about using the rocks under my feet, though I never made a hone till recently, from a chunk of slate that I'd found in a garden.

Now.! By putting steel to stone, the true learning begins. Test all the theory's....nothing adds up.!!? Well it shouldn't, just because. Science is a theory, till proven factual. It is what it is.

Another way to explain...

You spent 12 yrs in school learning ABC, and 123. I'm assuming u went to college, I didn't, I went to work. But once you were thrown into real life/work, you were totally lost, and the guy who started working at that same job you have 4 years prior, who doesn't have your degree, is making you look foolish.

Your scientific proof.. He's been there done that, and has a more intimate understanding of how it really works, beyond what's learned from a book.

Hone on, brother. Glory comes with sacrifice. Let the class begin.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Well, I think you could argue some of those points in your first paragraph but...I'm not gonna.

Look, if you like what he does and it works for you then more power to you.

Now would be a perfectly good time to peruse ebay and buy a lot of two and you will have a bunch to play with before you know it. To learn it you have to do it...plain and simple.

Like this one for instance. Nothing fancy but a couple you could buy cheap and play around with.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/25574120909...mis&media=COPY

Sounds like a plan. Any idea why they come in lots of 2?

Also, any idea of what I should generally be looking for, given the well known unreliability of used antique straight razors?

I bet my knife guy is sitting on at least a dozen of them, I'll give him a shout and see. I suppose if I'm going to bother doing this I might as well get decent at it.

Originally Posted by outback

I had no master to teach me. I learned the simple X-stroke from my boyscout hand book. A security cop taught me about using the rocks under my feet, though I never made a hone till recently, from a chunk of slate that I'd found in a garden.

Now.! By putting steel to stone, the true learning begins. Test all the theory's....nothing adds up.!!? Well it shouldn't, just because. Science is a theory, till proven factual. It is what it is.

Another way to explain...

You spent 12 yrs in school learning ABC, and 123. I'm assuming u went to college, I didn't, I went to work. But once you were thrown into real life/work, you were totally lost, and the guy who started working at that same job you have 4 years prior, who doesn't have your degree, is making you look foolish.

Your scientific proof.. He's been there done that, and has a more intimate understanding of how it really works, beyond what's learned from a book.

Hone on, brother. Glory comes with sacrifice. Let the class begin.

They come in all kinds and sizes of lots. I just scrolled through until I saw a small lot that seemed to be straight, free from cracks, chips and excessive hone wear for a fair price from a seller with 100% positive feedback in a buy it now listing. I am not endorsing it not do I have a stake in it. I also make no claims about the seller or the product other than what you can tell from the pictures. These look better than a number of razors I have bought to restore and shave with today, again, from what I can see from the pictures. There may be better ones for less expensive. I am not a broker, just a guy who saw a listing. I would strongly advise examining it thoroughly for yourself since they are not new and not perfect.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

They come in all kinds and sizes of lots. I just scrolled through until I saw a small lot that seemed to be straight, free from cracks, chips and excessive hone wear for a fair price from a seller with 100% positive feedback in a buy it now listing. I am not endorsing it not do I have a stake in it. I also make no claims about the seller or the product other than what you can tell from the pictures. These look better than a number of razors I have bought to restore and shave with today, again, from what I can see from the pictures. There may be better ones for less expensive. I am not a broker, just a guy who saw a listing. I would strongly advise examining it thoroughly for yourself since they are not new and not perfect.

Does it make more sense to get a bunch of different ones or just get one with decent geometry / steel and repeatedly kill the edge, sharpen it back up until I can do it reliably?

I suppose getting some different shapes would keep things interesting, but I don't see why you couldn't do it with one razor. IIRC you lose about 1/50 of a mm of width in the blade every time you set a bevel, should be enough for many many attempts.

At this point I would recommend getting them one or two at a time until you get to where you know what to look for which entails knowing what you are looking AT.

Try watching this video. He goes over a lot of different things including this question.

https://youtu.be/63cNUU206-0

Everyone is a bit right. Todd Simpson (the SOS guy) is showing pictures of what really is. That’s fine and useful, but there’s also a good bit of art and practice to razor honing. Just because you can build a Steinway (or something equally pretty) doesn’t mean that you can play one.

I'll document my attempts because why not. Tonight:

* Observation of edge reveals that this razor no longer has a double bevel (it did last time I took pictures of it, I don't remember honing it out but I guess I did.)
* I'm not going to reset the bevel, instead I am just going to do 20 edge trailing strokes on the 4k side then the same thing on the 8k side, with a very small pressure.
* Afterward 20 laps on the pasted canvas.
* Then 30 laps on the leather strop.

edit:

After finishing on the 8k, it appears there actually is a double bevel, my eyes are really not calibrated for this yet. In any case, I finished with the pasted strop and leather, the edge was completely unusable, no part of the edge will cut hair. 0/10

Following this, I assumed that the issue was with the double bevel, taped the spine, and repeated the entire process. I did notice this time that the heel of the blade was sitting way further off the stone than I remembered, I can wobble it back and forth easily. I painted the bevel with permanent marker, did a few strokes on 4k, confirmed that about 40% of the blade was not even slightly touching the stone with my default strokes. Switched to rolling x strokes (my attempt at them, of course.) The marker wore away nice and evenly this time. I finished the back up to the leather strop, and unfortunately still had a totally unusable edge that will not cut hair at any part of the blade.

Note: It seems very challenging to maintain light pressure with rolling x strokes, as it requires more pressure than I would normally use just to make the heel touch the stone at all.

I'm not sure if I can draw any conclusions off of this. I suppose it's possible that I butchered the rolling X strokes, but I didn't use those at all for the first run, and the toe, which always makes good contact, was very dull then too.

Can I ask, why trailering. That's how to create a burr, or at least a wire edge. From my experience.

Originally Posted by outback

Can I ask, why trailering. That's how to create a burr, or at least a wire edge. From my experience.

I'm trying out the scienceofsharp method. It seems that back and forth strokes are a bad idea with an uneven spine like this one, as it would be difficult to get the right amount of rolling pressure on the back and forth.

I suppose just to see if I get different results I'll try it the way my guy showed me how to do it, just rubbing it back and forth in a linear motion.

I'm probably going to have to reset the bevel just so I know where I am with it.

edit: Tried it both ways, useless edge either way. Bevel must be in bad shape IMO. I'm really not sure how I would have managed to dull it this badly, I've only used it a handful of times since it was sharpened. Maybe I dropped it edge-down on a towel and assumed that was no big deal. This edge will not cut a hair to save its life.

If you were drop a razor on a pile of towels, would you just assume the edge needs to be totally redone? I'm really not sure of how damaging I should expect that to be.

Tried re-doing the Dovo from scratch this morning twice, got nowhere, blade is useless. I have no idea what the problem is.

The blade will cut somewhat in the center, but not cut at all on heel or toe.