using a "razor stone" and powered strop for honing

[dinosilone]

Hi, I'm new here but have been shaving with a straight razor for about 35 years now. I've been reading some of the honing threads, and just wanted to share a method that's worked really well for me - it may be a little less fussy than what some folks use.

I do hand-tool woodworking and wood carving, so sharpening is a subject near and dear to my heart (my test for sharpness on my plane irons, chisels and gouges is to dry shave hairs off my arm - not the most scientific test, but lots of fun...)

I use an "Imperial Russia" strop that hangs on a hook next to the sink before each shave, but for the touch-ups (maybe once a month or so), I use a "razor stone" followed by a powered leather stropping wheel charged with ""yellowstone" strop compound (my first carving teacher recommended it, and I've used it for years - great stuff).

The razor stones I have are those composite stones they used to sell - some are champion, and are dark greenish-brown, another is a cream-colored stone that was my grandfather's - I think he may have brought it with him from Italy back in the 1930s. I got the champions at a flea market a number of years ago. These stones are also great to put a final polish on chisels and carving tools. Here's a pic of the champion stone:



Note - this isn't one of my stones - I just found this image on the web. Mine aren't chipped.

The powered strop is something I made myself - a powered sharpening station for carving, based on "The Burke System". It lives right behind me when I'm working at my carving bench. Here's a pic:



(Note - this one is a picture of mine, taken in my shop.)

The part that I use for razors is the large leather-covered wheel on the left, and the buffing wheel on the right. The whole honing process takes about two minutes - about a minute on the stone (with a honing oil that I mix with equal parts mineral oil and lamp oil), and then about a minute on the leather wheel, followed by a quick de-burring on the buffing wheel.

There isn't as much mystique to this as collecting the finest waterstones, etc. But it's incredibly effective. My razors range from one that belonged to my grandfather (it's been sharpened so many times, it's probably lost at least 1/4" of it's width), and a couple that I bought probably 20 - 30 years ago. They're very sharp. The hairs pretty much just surrender and jump off my face when they see the razor coming.

Hope this helps.

[JimmyHAD]

Welcome to SRP. Quite a setup you have there. Shows there's more than one way to hone a razor. Thanks for the pics and the post.

[Lesslemming]

If you are skilled using this kind of method, there is no reason why not to "buff" and "leatherwheel" a razor.
It just takes very, very much skill.
I would not recommend trying it, but you obviously mastered it.

Verhoeven in his knife sharpening essay mentioned leather wheels as being very effective, as well.

A similar system would be something like a tormek sharpening wheel,
with differend watercooled grinding wheels up to 4.000
and two leather wheels, one with a stropping compound, one without.
Works extremely efective, but it is very easy to mess up with it

[dinosilone]

If you are skilled using this kind of method, there is no reason why not to "buff" and "leatherwheel" a razor.
It just takes very, very much skill.
I would not recommend trying it, but you obviously mastered it.

Verhoeven in his knife sharpening essay mentioned leather wheels as being very effective, as well.

A similar system would be something like a tormek sharpening wheel,
with differend watercooled grinding wheels up to 4.000
and two leather wheels, one with a stropping compound, one without.
Works extremely efective, but it is very easy to mess up with it

I had to master sharpening for woodworking and carving - I actually built the powered setup for woodcarving tools, (not razors), to touch up edges while actually carving. I have slightly different routines I use for knives, chisels, carving gouges, turning tools, plane irons - even axes, etc. But the equipment is mostly the same. For razors, the trick is to hold them flat against the wheel - holding firmly (you don't want the razor to go flying across the shop!) - but not pushing too hard. I guess I didn't know it was supposed to be hard, so it seemed pretty easy. But that was after years of practice on other tools.

This is a pretty low-speed setup. The motor was a 1750 RPM washing machine motor, stepped down with pulleys so the wheels turn at between 300-400 RPM. I think the total cost was about $100, including the motor.

I don't use the sandpaper wheels anymore - for serious edge repair of tools, I use a standard low-speed grinder (1750 RPM) with medium and fine white wheels mounted on it to grind to shape (for real shaping of tools, I use a belt sander first). The drill for most tools is to shape the edge, remove nicks,etc with the low-speed grinder. Then I move to stones. I like oil stones, mostly because that's what my grandfather and uncle used (they were old-school furniture makers, trained in Italy in the first two decades of the twentieth century - I inherited a lot of their tools).

I first use a medium India stone, then follow with an ultra-fine Arkansas stone. The Champion razor stone (or the cream-colored Belgian stone that was my grandfather's) are a final step in polishing. For my razors, the Champion stone followed by the power strop + buffer is usually all I need for touch-ups, once a month or so. Regular stropping on the Imperial Russia every day takes care of the rest.

I used to get into discussions about sharpening on forums dedicated to hand-tools for woodworking, and I would make the same point I'm going to make now. People used these tools every day until the disposable and/or electric options came along. If it had been really hard to do, or really time-consuming, nobody would have done it. My grandfather - the one who taught me to shave 40 years ago, and whose razor I still use today (along with a couple of others) - didn't spend hours going through grits and obsessing about his sharpening setup. He did pretty much what I do, minus the powered wheels - he used his India and Arkansas stones when he needed to, but mostly just used the Belgian stone and stropped regularly. He was clean shaven every day of his life (and he lived to be 86).

[hi_bud_gl]

Welcome SRP and thank you for showing us pic's. That is great machine you made in there.
In my opinion as long as it does work and satisfies you that is all matter.
what makes me think a little what you do is almost backhoning?
That makes your edge sharp enough and you have been using this method for 35 years.
Thank you again.

[dinosilone]

I haven't used the power method for 35 years - I just started using that a few years ago. Before that, I'd just use the Belgian stone and hand strop. It took longer and wasn't as good.

I had to google "back honing" to find out what it was - it's not a term used in woodworking, or, if it is, I never heard it. I sharpen razors pretty much the same way I sharpen knives or chisels - I hone in both directions on the stone, until I've produced a wire edge. I then remove that with the next higher grit, or, after the polishing stone, with the strop. Each stage produces a finer wire edge. The final one is removed by the buffer.

In any case, the description I read of back honing said that it "reverses any sharpening" - that's certainly not the case here - the razor comes out very sharp. Hmmm.

Thanks for the welcome to the forum. I found it while looking for any inspirations for making new scales - my favorite razor's scales finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago. I found some really neat stuff in the workshop forum. I guess I'd better get busy

[randydance062449]

Welcome to the SRP and thanks a bunch for your post!
I envy you having and working with your grandfathers tools.

The normal honing stroke we use is "edge leading".
"Back honing" as used here means to hone with the "spine leading", just like stropping on a plain leather hanging strop.

Hope this helps,

[dinosilone]

Thanks - I found that when I googled "backhoning". I've never used either stroke exclusively when I use a stone - I sharpen razors the same way I'd sharpen a knife or a chisel, stroking both ways. It seems to work I guess there's more than one way to skin a cat...

[dgstr8]

I am curious about your leather covered wooden stone... what did you do at the point where the leather ends meet? Is it a butt joint or is it scarfed? I have been playing a bit with power stropping a few old razors on a buffing wheel chucked in a drill with greeat success (using brown tripoli polishing compound and green honing compound).

[dinosilone]

I am curious about your leather covered wooden stone... what did you do at the point where the leather ends meet? Is it a butt joint or is it scarfed? I have been playing a bit with power stropping a few old razors on a buffing wheel chucked in a drill with greeat success (using brown tripoli polishing compound and green honing compound).

I just checked (I made this thing many years ago), and the edges are butted, but fit really closely. I think I initially was going to scarf them (if scarfing is cutting them at an angle), but decided it wasn't worth the trouble. There's no noticeable bumping at the seam.

I've used tripoli and the green compound on the buffing wheel in the past. I like the green stuff best. For the leather, as I said, I really like Yellowstone. I've recently taken to using it on my hanging strop (the Imperial Russia). It works REALLY well.

I still need to find the time to make some scales... sigh.