Thread: Spyderco Pgogression Needed for Vintage Blade

I am trying to get a Clauss I picked up on E-Bay ready to shave. This is the first razor that has not been made shave ready by someone else first, so I am pretty sure my issues are due to my lack of practice with hones.

First I removed the oxidation from the blade with Maas until it looked really shiny and nice. Then I did about 25-30 passes on the Spyderco medium in groups of 5 until it seemed to cut a few arm hairs (or at least tug on them). Then I did 20 passes each on the Fine and Ultrafine until it seemed fairly sharp and cut arm hairs reasonably well (but still not like my sharp razors). I then proceeded to do 15 passes on a .5 pasted strop and then 15 on linen and 40 on leather.

It glided cleanly across my face, but cut nothing still! It still cut arm hairs as well. Obviously I did a lousy job setting the bevel or removing the years of oxidation, but am not really sure how to hone this razor correctly.

Can anyone give me some good tips on using Spyderco hones to get an old blade shave ready?

Go back to the medium, and keep there until it's cleanly cutting arms hairs along its entire length. Remember that the SPyderco hones are fairly slow cutters, so it may take a while. When I think the blade is getting close to done on the medium, I do 10 round-trip passes, then use a TPT to see if it is getting sharper. When another I get two sets that show no improvement, I move on to the fine. Use the same moethodology for progressing to the UF.

I will caveat that I am no honemeister. So, hopefully, one those guys will be around shortly to give you their expert opinion.

I agree with what Chris said about needing more work on the medium. There is no progression that we can give you at that stage because every razor is different. You have to hone the razor on the medium until it is sharp from heal to toe, no more and no less. Then you can move to the fine and ultra fine and remove the scratch pattern left by the former stone. 25-50 passes on the fine and ultra fine should get you there if you do what is needed on the medium. I consider the spyderco medium and fine are fast cutters for their grit.