Thread: Frown is gone, now what ? :-D

Hey guys,

I've been working on that frowning razor as a little practice project. Thanks to RandyDance I totally got rid of the frown by using sandpaper (!). It took quite a while, but what a joy to see that frown disappear!

Now obviously, the razor is extremely blunt, and I'm wondering what to do. The highest grit sandpaper I can find is 600, the lowest grid stone I have is a coticule with slurry. I'm wondering if setting a bevel with a coticule + slurry will work within lets say 12 hours, or if I should spend those 12 hours looking for sand paper Anyhow, just wanted to give an update on that razor, the frown is gone, go sandpaper go!

They sell 1000 and 2000 grid paper for automotive (painting) use. Drop by your local body shop if they can spare a piece or 2 or check out ebay.

i was going to post a thread on i'm not sure what is a frown?

You can get the wet and dry paper at any automotive parts retailer and most hardware stores, I think even Walmart has it. Find a way to keep the paper flat, like fixed to a 2x4, tape the spine of the razor and set your bevel. once the bevel has been established continue on to the coticule.

How did you remove the frown, Jan? Have you been honing edge down, to straighten out the edge, or have you been honing in the regular fashion with emphasis on toe and heel to bring them in line with the low middle part?

In the former case, you need to (partially) rebuild te cutting bevel, for which you may drop down to 400 grit wet and dry sandpaper (Tape the spine to protect it form excessive wear).
When done on the 400 grit, go to the 600 grit. After that, remove the tape, raise a milky slurry on your Coticule and hone with light pressure (X-stroke) till you can shave armhair along the entire edge.
At that point the bevel is set. Refine the edge on a Belgian Blue (or some other hone suitable for that job) and finish on your Coticule with water.

About bevel-setting:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...y_and_practice
About honing:
A simple honing method with DMT-E , Belgian Blue Whetstone and Coticule - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Veel plezier!

Bart.

Spend your time looking for sandpaper. Start at 320 grit or so, work up to 1000-2000 grit. Then go to the coticule with slurry.


Hope this helps,

Small update again:

Further honed it on the 600 grit paper, but quite wet. Went through two sheets of that paper as it got used up extremely fast (ridiculous almost) and I used no pressure.

Anyhow, there was now what looked like a bevel. I'm not talking sticking/sharp or anything, but you could cut a steak or something with it I guess.

Looking to the reflections of the light, you could see it was reflecting unevenly, so I prepared for some hours on the coticule with slurry :-)

After about 15 minutes, the razor started to respond to TPT in the middle and a little at the heel. The tip however seems to be forged out of some hard #@& material, can't seem to get that to respond so well. I did some circles at the start, then moved to regular X strokes.

Looking forward to honing some more this evening.

Oh yes, when you look at the edge you can really see an almost mirror-like reflection of the light on it, so am quite happy!

If you removed the frown with the "breadknifing" method, (which is a good approach, imo) then the tip and heel will need the most work (since it was a frown, you removed the least part of the bevel in the middle and more at both ends of the edge). If you don't complete a new bevel on a lower grit, you are going to need A LOT of honing on the coticule with slurry.
I have never used sand paper myself, for honing, but I'm pretty sure it makes a lot of difference whether you use dedicated sandpaper for metal or for wood. Going as fast, as you experienced, through a sheet of sandpaper, suggests that you are using sandpaper for wood only. I'm not sure.

If you decide to try to finish the job on your Coticule with slurry, I advice to add 3 layers of tape to the spine. Let the glue on the tape settle for 15 minutes, otherwise it will come off pretty quickly. Then hone with some pressure, 20 diagonal back and forth motions on one side of the blade. (Count the strokes). Flip the blade and copy those 20 strokes, same pressure, on the other side. Flip again and repeat. Check with the Thumb Nail Test (TNT) regularly. No need to so X-strokes, till the TNT starts to catch along the entire edge. Always pay equal attention to the entire edge, also the parts that are already responding well to the TNT.
At the end, remove the tape, back off on the pressure and start doing regular X's till the razors shaves arm hair. At that point bevel formation is finished...

Bart.

Thanks Bart for the explanation!

The sandpaper I used was not for wood, it was for metal indeed. Taking out the frown took a long time though, don't get me wrong, I just expected it to take a day, and it only took a few hours :-)

Wet armhair gets shaved for the moment, except at the tip still, but dry hair does not get cut at all and I'm sure the blade is far from being sharp. I'll do the strokes you suggest tomorrow evening. Thanks again for the info!

By the way, when you say back and forth strokes... are we talking about those little circles you showed me (which I have used, but not too much) or do you really mean 'back and forth' as in across the entire length of the hone? Kinda like how Mastro Livi does that on one of the videos where he tortures the razor on a hone?

What the heck... I couldn't wait to try this out so I went to hone real quickly with those strokes I think I did them correctly at least. I do a TPT and when I get to the middle I just sliced my finger, ouch! it's ok I still have my thumb, but damn I was not expecting such fast results. Anyhow, the tip is getting some life aswell, which is just wonderful! It's definately not 'sucking' yet when doing a TPT but it's definately doing something already. Should I switch to X strokes now or continue with these back and forth ones untill it' clearly sucking/stucking to the finger?

Thanks!!