Hey all,

I'm a straight razor newbie but am good at sharpening knives by hand (all my work knives can nick the hairs off your arm). I improvised a method which may not be new but I couldn't find it by searching, so I thought I'd put it out there for feedback.

On a whim, I picked up a BudK stainless steel razor. The factory edge was like a butter knife, so I honed it on my silicon carbide stone until the factory grind was no more, then smoothed it on a white Arkansas stone.

At this point it was sharp enough to shave my arm, but not to shave my face. You could see the roughness even without magnification. What I had was a skinning-knife edge, but still not a razor edge.

Next, I took a piece of denim, laid it on a flat surface & smeared auto polishing compound on with a butter knife. Note: I would not do this with carbon steel! But stainless is pretty non-reactive, I've used this polish on knives before. The brand is "No. 7" and it comes in a green & white can.

Now I polished the edge with a motion identical to stropping. Stainless is hard stuff & it took a couple hundred strokes, but when I was done, the cutting edge was like a mirror. I carefully cleaned all the polishing compound off & stropped it on my Harley-Davidson belt, which is made of smooth, hard leather.

I tested it on my face using olive oil and shave gel: now THAT'S a razor!

Mostly I did this because the local hardware store doesn't stock strops or 8000-grit stones & I was eager to get started. I'll get some proper equipment but this method might be useful for someone who doesn't have the $ for an expensive Japanese waterstone. Plus, I also use the polishing compound to polish the butcher steel I use for my kitchen cutlery.

PS: here's another el cheapo tip: the metal rod from an old computer printer makes a GREAT butcher steel! They're extremely hard & highly polished.