Thread: Confusion over sharpness

Quick Question:

I had a shave with a new dovo i got yesterday, it was definitely not sharp enough. it was sharp enough to cut my beard hairs off, and not blunt enough to cause cutting, but excessive pressure was required. I'm completely novice to honing, and was just wondering, would a polishing hone help, after I'd lapped the razor a bit on my natural stone (which is a slow around 6-8k) to remove the abrasive feel. if so, i'm massively on a tight budget, so what would you reccomend?

Thanks in advance

Ciao Chaps,
MisterDavid

It might help in coming up with an answer for you (and someone's bound to ask anyway)... what's the natural stone you already have?

Yes, probably. Chances are a finishing stone alone would help. The problem, for me in answering the question, is in knowing how much you know about honing a razor that shaves but needs pressure to cut.

As an aside you should not be shaving yourself with that blade now.

I'm betting your experience with this is low.

The less grit you use to hone and the success you achieve is directly proportional to your skill level . . .

I would suggest a 12K Chinese finishing hone, they are cheap. Perhaps a barber hone off ebay might work too.

You might even want to ask about pastes . . .

The best avenue for success is a finishing hone and sending the razor for professional honing, then simply maintaining that edge. Ask for someone who can hone the blade without using tape.

Originally Posted by northpaw

It might help in coming up with an answer for you (and someone's bound to ask anyway)... what's the natural stone you already have?

it's a tam o'shanter scotch hone "for razors and medical cutting instruments"

thanks.

if this is a one time only honing issue,
why don´t you send the razor to a honemeister,
instead of experimenting with your (only?) razor

I could not follow your process exactly. Let me admit I have no clue what sort of edge The ToS produces. It should be adequate I think.

You could always send your razor out, but you could be in the same position shortly after its return.

Do you have a leather and cloth strop? And, another way to shave?

You could proceed by shave testing your linen stropping technique. Improved= good. If not you would return to the stone and try again.

You can always finish your shave with your old method.

Being new to it the first thing you need is a loupe or mini-microscope. Being able to correlate what you see to what you feel is very important in the beginning.

Rather than a finer finishing hone I believe you would be better served with a synthetic waterstone in the 3-4k range. Slow cutting naturals have a way of messing things up in the beginnings. Being able to return reliably, quickly to a point where the natural can be effective again is a good thing.

Originally Posted by MisterDavid

it's a tam o'shanter scotch hone "for razors and medical cutting instruments"

thanks.

The Tam O'Shanter is a great little hone, and should get your razor shaving very well if you do your part. If you haven't lapped it yet then you must do this before trying to get your razor sharp. Use 400 grit wet/dry until it's flat (you can verify this by drawing a grid on the stone with a pencil). Then polish it with 600 grit sandpaper, then finally 1000 grit. At each step draw a grid with the pencil and sand until it's gone.

Use the TOS with water. It is a slow hone, but a sure one, and puts a really lovely polish on the edge. It isn't discussed much around here anymore, but nonetheless there are several of us that use it.

How about barber hone? do you have any? it will be cheaper solution. hope this helps.

+1 on what mparker762 said. Here is a link to a good tutorial on lapping.

Hone Lapping 101 - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I'm not familiar with your particular barber hone but most are very hard. I recently lapped a no name barber hone, starting with 220 wet/dry, and it was painfully slow. I ended up getting some 80 grit drywall sanding sheets and then worked through the grit progression to 1000. That sped things up a bit but it still will take you a while.

One other option for you is to send your razor to one of our members for a free honing. It will cost you shipping. Utopian is one, who I think, is still offering this. Send him a PM if you choose this route.

Originally Posted by mparker762

The Tam O'Shanter is a great little hone, and should get your razor shaving very well if you do your part. If you haven't lapped it yet then you must do this before trying to get your razor sharp. Use 400 grit wet/dry until it's flat (you can verify this by drawing a grid on the stone with a pencil). Then polish it with 600 grit sandpaper, then finally 1000 grit. At each step draw a grid with the pencil and sand until it's gone.

Use the TOS with water. It is a slow hone, but a sure one, and puts a really lovely polish on the edge. It isn't discussed much around here anymore, but nonetheless there are several of us that use it.

it's quite an old ToS, been used for years with knives, will it still need a lapping do you think?

ciao,
Misterdavid