Thread: EdgePro for straight razor sharpening

I have an edgepro that I use for sharpening knives, scissors, and chisels. It's a waterstone mounted on a rod that is push/pulled back across the blade. It finally dawned on me a few nights ago that it might be good for straights. I emailed the guy that makes the sharpener and he sent back some suggestions for straight sharpening. I've sharpened up 2 straights this way so far and am very pleased with the results.

The first straight sharpened was a "best quality" made in solingen. My wife got it for me about 15 years ago from the now defunct Cutlery World after I butchered my face a few times with some of my grandfather's old straights. At the time I had no idea new razors were not shave ready. You can guess how that went! This razor honed up easily in about 20 minutes with the rod based system. I used the 800, 2000, and 6000 grits. These are American grit numbers. The Japanese equivalents to these (like those used on the Norton waterstones) would be something around 2,000, 5,000 and 12,000 but this whole grit conversion stuff is messy. Anyway, it gave me a nice shave following morning.

The second straight was one of two ebay wapis (the more recent wapis people have some doubts about) that I got mainly to practice honing with. The wapi took about 45 minutes. I behaved and went slowly, monitoring the edge closely as I progressed through the grits. I played around a little at the end and added a two bevel hone as the last step. It was something I read about on Tim Zowada's web page and perhaps here in the forums. The two bevel produced a remarkably sharp edge to the touch that was smooth and polished under the microscope. The shave with it was a little scary. Reminded me of shaving with a DE razor. Very close and smooth but also unforgiving. The styptic pencil saw some action.

Under the microscope, the scratch marks, polish and uniformity of the bevel looked similar to those on razors I have that were honed by respected members of this forum. They all shave pretty nice although I doubt I will be doing the two bevel hone for awhile.

I have not given up on hand honing. In fact, I have barely even started learning how to hand hone. I'm planning on honing the other new wapi with the more traditional 4K/8K norton, yellow corticule route and comparing them. The rod based system should keep me up and shaving while I learn how to hand hone. Anyone else try something like this?

No, but it's interesting and I'd like to test a blade honed that way for comparison.

You are a brave man to volunteer to test a newbie's sharpening!

I'm curious as well. Feedback from someone with a clue would be great . Are you interested in rod system sharpened or the rod with double bevel? I can send either or both. Alternatively, I could sharpen up the other new wapi with the rod but without the double bevel. You could try out the wapis with and without the double bevel. I would really appreciate the feedback but don't want to impose. Any or all of these options are cool with me.

Let's see...
What were the tips that Ben offered?
How did you set the EdgePro angle to match the razor grind?
What is a 2 bevel hone?
Did you use back-and-forth strokes with the polishing tapes or just stropping strokes?
Did you use a strop after the EdgePro?

Thanks John. I'll dig into the project bin, sterilize a couple of pieces and send'em your way. If you send me one of yours back, I can hone it for you so it's up to my standards for a 2-ended comparison.

Originally Posted by matt321

Let's see...
What were the tips that Ben offered?
How did you set the EdgePro angle to match the razor grind?
What is a 2 bevel hone?
Did you use back-and-forth strokes with the polishing tapes or just stropping strokes?
Did you use a strop after the EdgePro?

Ben was very helpful. His advice was "Yes you can do straight razors. If the razor is in bad shape you can start with a 320, if it is in good shape start with the 800. Then progress through the 2000 and 6000 tapes. You set the angle so the stone just clears the sharpeng guide on the back of the razor. We just discovered a new way to keep the 800 and the polish tapes clean. We are using glass cleaner without ammonia. We have Glass Plus. Just wet them with glass cleaner sharpen and wipe the tape or 800 with a clean paper towel. This will replace the soap in the stone water. Then let the 800 dry out and make several very light passes before you switch to the tapes." Ben also gave me the info on the grit equivalency which helped a bunch. I was having lots of trouble with the thought of putting an 800 grit waterstone to one of my straights.

I set the initial angle using magic marker just like is done with knives accept the spine got some magic marker as well as the edge. You can get pretty close by eye (or in my case eye + reading glasses) and then do the last small angle adjustment by when the stone just takes the marker off the edge but not the spine.

The two bevel hone is just doing a regular hone and then at the end putting the angle up a couple of degrees (I did 2 degrees or one dots worth) and making a few passes with the highest grit you have. I didn't keep count but it was somewhere around 10 laps. Zawada talks about 2 bevel here http://www.tzknives.com/twobevel.html and it is probably discussed in the SRP forums. I doubt I happened upon the web page by chance. The two bevel puts a narrow strip of pretty high finish right on the edge that may be mimicking razor blades. There is a nice picture on the web site. I did not use any pressure on the arm for the second bevel. It was just the weight of the pivot arm.

I did back and forth with the polishing tapes for all the steps. No rationale behind this. I guess it just carried over from knives. Putting the second bevel on I did put a few cuts in the 6000 tape so maybe one direction would save the tape there. I could make out the bevel at 100X on the microscope. It was pretty thin, something around 10 to 15% of the first bevel.

I stropped afterwards. It seemed like the civil thing to do!

The only other thing that comes to mind is that I lapped the 800 stone before using it on the straights. Turned out it was not in too bad a shape but I figured it was worthwhile after having done knives etc with it.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Thanks John. I'll dig into the project bin, sterilize a couple of pieces and send'em your way. If you send me one of yours back, I can hone it for you so it's up to my standards for a 2-ended comparison.

That'll work. I PM'd my address to you.

Originally Posted by jlb3141

The two bevel hone is just doing a regular hone and then at the end putting the angle up a couple of degrees (I did 2 degrees or one dots worth) and making a few passes with the highest grit you have. I didn't keep count but it was somewhere around 10 laps. Zawada talks about 2 bevel here http://www.tzknives.com/twobevel.html and it is probably discussed in the SRP forums. I doubt I happened upon the web page by chance. The two bevel puts a narrow strip of pretty high finish right on the edge that may be mimicking razor blades. There is a nice picture on the web site. I did not use any pressure on the arm for the second bevel. It was just the weight of the pivot arm.

.

Sounds like a micro bevel, a second bevel ground right on the edge. I do this on a few of my super thin kitchen knives to help against chipping.

Not something I would worry about on a straight. I'll have to read that link...

Read the link, yup its a micro bevel. However I think a regular straight would not need such work. He mentions that this final bevel may be burnished in. Sounds about right and I can see what with a machined blade, not a hand worked edge. Just my 2cents...

Thanks for the details jlb. I may have to give that a try.

What equivalency advice did Ben provide on the grits?
Also, did you have any trouble holding the razor stable while sharpening?

Originally Posted by matt321

Thanks for the details jlb. I may have to give that a try.

What equivalency advice did Ben provide on the grits?
Also, did you have any trouble holding the razor stable while sharpening?

Ben gave me the following numbers. The 800, 2000, and 6000 on the edgepro are roughly 2,000, 5,000 and 12,000 in the Japanese grit numbers used by Norton.


No problems with keeping the razor stable.

Let me know how it goes if you give it a try.