Glass showerd door hone!

[gingahippy]

I'm new to all this so willing to try anything.

Ii have a scottish hone and a chinese 12k in the post but was fed up with not getting a good enough edge from teh Norton 8k and then to linen /leather strop.

So I found myself eyeing up the smoothly sanded edge of the glass shower door and thinkning "Hoe different can that be from one of those Shapton hones they keep singing about?"

Well it worked a treat. I was pretty rough on the skin and needed a few good passes on linen and leather to smooth it out but it gave me pergaps the best edge I have found yet.

So my question is this:

Why all the fuss about wide, flat hones, why not just a thin strip of one about 1/4 inch wide that will touch the entire edge of the blade regardless of smile?

I'll be making a thin strip of glass hone for travelling with.

Well I'm sure I will answer my own question when teh finishing stones arrive, but until then, it's teh shower door for me, and then raid my fathers ashtray for some cigar ash.

necessity is the mother of invention!

[Ditch Doc]

My dad always used a halogen (back then I guess it was a sodium light) light bulb rod thing. You know, the one that is frosted? Well, as a matter of fact they make them with varying levels of frostedness, which translates to grit for us. Man, he used to have some sharp knives. For free! Of course he was a lineman and had access to all kinds of blown light bulbs. Your post made me think of him.

[gssixgun]

Now I haven't tried this, but I read in one of those old newspaer links you have to search for hours for... That in a pinch straight razors could be honed by placing them in a tall drinking glass and rubbing it back and forth inside the glass.....

[Russel Baldridge]

As far as thin hones go, the edge can be damaged by sharp corners (or at least honed unevenly) so a width of an inch or so is about the practical minimum (for me) that a blade can lay perfectly flat on. Over long periods of honing with as small a width as glass has, the blade might develop some irregular curves as well.

There are lots of hones for DE blades that are pieces of curved frosted glass, no reason something similar couldn't work for straights in a pinch, except for the altered bevel angle thing.

[Utopian]

Now I haven't tried this, but I read in one of those old newspaer links you have to search for hours for... That in a pinch straight razors could be honed by placing them in a tall drinking glass and rubbing it back and forth inside the glass.....

Are you sure that was for a straight and not a DE blade? I can't picture how it would be done with a straight.

[holli4pirating]

I remember reading somewhere on this site that someone either honed or was advised to hone a razor on the top edge or a car window. Sounds quite similar, with the advantage that the windows are ususally rounded, so that's one potential drawback out of the way.

[gingahippy]

A car window would be good, a thicker window would be perfect, you could even grind it to be smoother and just carry a 6 inch nail file size peice of glass to use as your travel hone.

i hear what is said about needing 1" min. but if you were really careful and the glass was totally smooth I'm sure it would be great for just touching up the good bevel you already have.

I was highly impressed with what it did to my edge, I nealry had my first BBS shave

[xman]

Are you sure that was for a straight and not a DE blade? I can't picture how it would be done with a straight.

I remember that this was done for DE blades as well. A flat surface is what we need to sharpen straights, not a curved one.

X

[gingahippy]

Well, now that my coticule has arrived and been tested I seem to have lost interest in all other hones.



But I'm sure I will come around to the idea of frosted glass as a travel hone.

So where exactly do I get the hydraflouric acid?

In the UK now you can only buy a limited number of iron tablets (only from the pharmacy, not from the supermarket any more) and it has to be over the counter, not off the shelf.

That's how restricted we are on 'dangerous' substances.

The chemist seemes a little threatened when I told her that if I wanted to kill myself then I'd use some of those razor blades they had stocked on the shelves.

[ezpz]

Now I haven't tried this, but I read in one of those old newspaer links you have to search for hours for... That in a pinch straight razors could be honed by placing them in a tall drinking glass and rubbing it back and forth inside the glass.....

i think that refers to a variously successful and unsuccessful technique for safety razors