Thread: What the heck? Stainless steel honing

I just bought a Wacker stainless razor from Shave Shop and can't hone the thing past the "butter knife" stage. I tried shaving with it out of the box and it left half the whiskers untouched. So I first tried 20 strokes on the Coticule but that didn't do anything. Yesterday I tried a 5/10, 3/7, 1/5 on the Norton 4k/8k, and then 20 strokes on the Coticule, but still it is not "shave ready."

I've been very successful honing my Dovo carbon to the point of passing HTH and shaving extremely well.

Is it my honing, or the new razor?

I'm no expert, but I've found that stainless and even the harder carbon steels simply take more strokes to hone up. Generally, each razor is a little different, so treat it as a learning experience.

Jordan

OK, By my reading of your post, you have 9 strokes on a 4k Norton for a in your words a "butter knife" sharp razor... You could continue at this rate until June before that blade gets sharp...
You need to get the razor sharp, anything above a 4k is polishing not sharpening,,, I am assuming that the blade edge right now is not "sticky sharp"??? If you don't know what this means STOP and get a razor, like a single edge or a double edge razor blade (or your Dovo), wet your thumb and gently rub the edge, that sticky feeling is what you want... From your post, your Dovo probably had a bevel already set, this is the sticky feeling on the blade edge, it has to feel like that, before you leave anything over a 4k stone... Once the edge gets to that stage then, you can hone in whatever fashion you want,( pyramid etc and unless you mess up the stroke you will end up with a sharp edge.....
You also might want to do a little more reading on bevel setting in this forum section, I explained this really fast and there are way better and more detailed threads in here.... Good luck.... and happy honing

This all is just opinion and experience talking..... YMMV

Originally Posted by prhomme

I just bought a Wacker stainless razor from Shave Shop and can't hone the thing past the "butter knife" stage. I tried shaving with it out of the box and it left half the whiskers untouched. So I first tried 20 strokes on the Coticule but that didn't do anything. Yesterday I tried a 5/10, 3/7, 1/5 on the Norton 4k/8k, and then 20 strokes on the Coticule, but still it is not "shave ready."

I've been very successful honing my Dovo carbon to the point of passing HTH and shaving extremely well.

Is it my honing, or the new razor?

I'm so glad you brought this up as I too bought a Wacker several months ago. When I got it - pre-honed too - it was not at all shave ready. I tried honing - several hundred strokes on my Swaty. I'm able to get my other razors quite sharp with very comfortable shaves but not so the Wacker. I sent it back to John for re-honing but it still would not shave. I tried re-setting the bevel on a Norton 4k, lots and lots of strokes and that helped a bit but still not shave ready. If anyone has successfully honed an Inox Wacker, what's the secret, a DMT?

You might want to give the Norton a 3-3, 1-5, 1-7 followed by 10-12 strokes on the Coticule and see what happens. If close then try 5 on the 8K side of the Norton and 10 on the Coticule. I find that the stainless razors need a few extra polishing strokes.

Good Luck,

Lynn

I've managed to get a Wacker shaving sharp. It took many strokes on the 4K. When it started cutting arm hairs, I moved to the blue Belgian, and finally the coticule. It's taken a couple of hundred stroppings on .5 diamond paste for that final edge.

I've kinda impressed myself.

Joel

I was not able to get it sticky sharp at all, but didn't realize that you need to do that prior to moving on from the 4k side. I thought that would come later. Will give it another go on the 4k side until sticky. Thanks for the heads up - I'm new at this, obviously. That's the hardest thing about learning to shave with a straight....not the shaving but the honing!

Originally Posted by gssixgun

OK, By my reading of your post, you have 9 strokes on a 4k Norton for a in your words a "butter knife" sharp razor... You could continue at this rate until June before that blade gets sharp...
You need to get the razor sharp, anything above a 4k is polishing not sharpening,,, I am assuming that the blade edge right now is not "sticky sharp"??? If you don't know what this means STOP and get a razor, like a single edge or a double edge razor blade (or your Dovo), wet your thumb and gently rub the edge, that sticky feeling is what you want... From your post, your Dovo probably had a bevel already set, this is the sticky feeling on the blade edge, it has to feel like that, before you leave anything over a 4k stone... Once the edge gets to that stage then, you can hone in whatever fashion you want,( pyramid etc and unless you mess up the stroke you will end up with a sharp edge.....
You also might want to do a little more reading on bevel setting in this forum section, I explained this really fast and there are way better and more detailed threads in here.... Good luck.... and happy honing

This all is just opinion and experience talking..... YMMV

I completely agree with gssixgun.

I agree with gssixgun also. The foundation of a great edge is the bevel/edge formed with a 4K stone. 9 laps on the 4K is simply not enough, it might be if the razor had been shaving sharp before. You will need to stay on the 4K until it feels "sticky" and passes the TNT. Perform the various sharpness tests frequently, that will give you a sense of the progress.

It is not necessary to use a very light pressure at this stage. A bit of pressure for 25 laps followed by 10-25 with a light touch, then test, would be my approach. I would also have a bit of torque on the blade edge, that is the weight distribution would not be even but would have less on the spine and more on the edge.


Just my two cents,

Yea, you need more work no doubt. Don't think of it as more difficult, think of it as more work.

I think stainless is a smaller target to hit too. Don't overhone or underhone. You need to hit the target just right. That is the trick to stainless blades, I think.

Big +1 on the extra finishing strokes . . .