Thread: What did I do?

I am on a budget at the moment so I bought vintage razors (two) and a Chinese 12K stone. At first I counted round trip laps with two layers of painter's tape on the spine (couldn't find my electrical tape) and inspected the edge with a small pocket microscope after every 100 laps. I continued 'till I reached 1,000. The edge was so much sharper than it had ever been since I purchased this one. I actually passed the hanging hair test. I stropped every day and after three weeks I touched up the edge with 25-30 laps. Again, extremely sharp. This last time I repeated the same procedure but I couldn't get it sharp enough to shave with. No scraping sound; the razor seemed to slide over the whiskers without cutting. Do I need to reset the bevel or what? I haven't been able to straight shave since the middle of last week. I have tried re-honing with the 12K, but to no avail. I tried the stone dry and that seemed to help, some. Still no BBS shave like I had up until this honing touch-up.

Also, do I need to clean the stone after each use and how do I clean it. I read on another thread that not cleaning can make the stone more difficult to use but there was no explanation re: cleaning.

Any help you guys can offer to this neophyte straight shaver.

I expect that you may have rolled the edge when you were stropping? You say that the blade just glided over the whiskers, does this mean that it didn't catch at all? If so then it's truly dull. Even if it's just kinda dull it should catch a bit on the whiskers. I'm pretty new at all this as well though, so wait for one of the experts to answer.

As far as cleaning the stone, I'd try just an old toothbrush for starters. If that doesn't seem to help get a fine wire brush from the hardware store and lightly scrub with that. Do both with the stone submerged.

I had seen a wire edge on the blade so I stropped it on the hone five or six laps and then tried to shave with it without stropping first. You are correct, the blade did not catch the whiskers. I went out of town over the weekend so I didn't get a chance to try more on the hone until this morning. I did try a couple of mornings (Friday and Monday) after stropping for 50 laps on the strop. I tried to re-hone this morning before I shaved with a dry stone and it was sharp enough after stropping to catch on the whiskers, but not enough to get anything near a close shave.

Do I just need to strop more? Is not cleaning the stone the issue (I didn't clean it after the first or second time touching up, but still got a BBS shave each morning). Do I need to keep honing? I thought it is possible to over hone...despite my first foray into honing.

12k stone does not hone it just smoothens the edge.
If your edge has gotten dull beyond the point of refreshing on polishing stone only then you need to go to lower grit and go up from there.
The very standard stone to use is 4/8k Norton, or if you have the money buy a full line 1k-10k
It is also possible that your technique needs refining, more consistent strokes etc. As far as I know, from reading threads here, and my experience the 12k Chinese is slow finisher, but to me 1000 laps seems way too much, you can cut all this work by going to lower grit stone first.

OK I'm sorry but both of you need to stop ,just stop...

DO NOT use a wire brush on the stone...

If you had a wire edge that you could see, just stop, you need real honing...
More laps does not fix a wire edge 1000 laps on anything is not good...

There is a great feature on SRP it is called a WIKI please look up and hit the link... Go to the honing section, read how to lap and clean a hone, read how to fix over honing and what it is...

And after you do all that, send me a pm and send me that razor I'll fix it for Ya and get you back on the right track... oh yeah, Free, no charge, you pick up shipping, OK??


I don't mean to sound rude here honest, and I apologize in advance if it came off that way... sorry Stefan this was not meant to you, you were posting when I was..

Sounds like your razor may need a trip to a more coarse stone to re-establish the bevel. You shouldn't ever need 1,000 laps on a stone unless you are polishing a wakizashi or katana (swords) & even then I check my work & stone at about 50 strokes. Razors are rather dilicate instruments.

I'm not a honemeister, so keep this in mind. I personally establish the edge/bevel with a stone in the 4k range. Then I "hone" it with stone's in the 6-8k range. From there, I consider the higher grits "polishing" the edge. This is my mindset & works well for me...but then again, I'm not a honemeister. BTW, all of my stones are Japanese stones. Typically, an Asian stone in any grit is finer than an American grit.

I knew the 12K was for finishing/touching up but felt I have time on the weekend to spend some time on it and perhaps 1,000 laps was too much, but it seemed to greatly improve the shaves I was getting with it for about three weeks. Then I touched the edge up with the 12K and was good for about three more weeks. Then, this last time honing made the edge duller.

I have to wonder if I set the bevel with the tape and stone that didn't match the work I get with my strop and resulted in a dull edge. I am certain that the blade is dull. I have used my Fusion until I could try and straighten out the dull edge issue and after using the strop for 100 laps I tried to shave and was getting very little whisker catching. I stropped for another 100 laps and got some cutting of the whiskers and finished up with my Fusion. Truly, I miss my straight razor shaves each morning.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

sorry Stefan this was not meant to you, you were posting when I was..

I figured Glen, I do not use tooth brush to clean the glaze off a stone .
there are naguras and other things for that.
@ Op take up Glen's offer

I plan to accept Glen's offer (Glen, I will PM you to get the mailing info).

I would like to learn to be self-sufficient when it comes to all areas of straight shaving. In that vein, would the 1.000/6,000 combo here Buy Combination Waterstone, 8" x 2" x 1" 1000/6000 at Woodcraft.com be an acceptable addition to the 12K? If not, where would I get a Norton combo? I have looked at both The Home Depot and Lowe's and they only have small stones for pocket knives and tools for other less delicate honing.

Originally Posted by mainaman

I figured Glen, I do not use tooth brush to clean the glaze off a stone .
there are naguras and other things for that.
@ Op take up Glen's offer

With the Japanese stones it's recommended to rub two stones of a close grit, say a 6k & 8K, face to face, both stones would be wet of course. Has worked well for me...