Thread: Sheffield Steel?

My Sheffield does bite a little if I come straight off the hone and shave. Have you tried newsprint, by any chance? It's done very well for me when it comes to smoothing things out. You may also want to consider giving it more laps on the strop.

I thank mparker for the newsprint advice, but interestingly, he's mentioned that it doesn't do much for his Sheffields. That hasn't been my personal experience, though, it's helped mine quite a bit.

Actually... the link posted by Kees on that French book from 1770 said that England steel was good looking and shiny but wasn't on par, shave quality-wise with most other well known brands. But then, that was 1770.

Here's the link La pogonotomie, ou L'art d'apprendre ... - Google Boeken

I'll try to translate that bit soon...

Link to the thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/gener...-soi-meme.html

as far as i can tell not all razors out of sheffield shave the same.
may be you just haven't gotten a good one yet.
if the one i have listed doesn't sell you can borrow it.

Originally Posted by gugi

as far as i can tell not all razors out of sheffield shave the same.
may be you just haven't gotten a good one yet.
if the one i have listed doesn't sell you can borrow it.

Thank you for the generous offer

That would be very helpful

Im new to this but have three Sheffields that I perfer over all my others
they were difficult to hone one a Frameback has a warp that I sent to Ray aka Rayman who was able to place as all ways a beutiful edge on all are very smooth and forgiving you could allway hone one up and if you dont like the results send it off to one of the guys for a critique and rehone just an idea. I use synthetics and paste but an awaiting a combo bout. Id second what Holli4pirating said about paste on news print or sketch paper called newsprint

Originally Posted by medic484

Im new to this but have three Sheffields that I perfer over all my others
they were difficult to hone one a Frameback has a warp that I sent to Ray aka Rayman who was able to place as all ways a beutiful edge on all are very smooth and forgiving you could allway hone one up and if you dont like the results send it off to one of the guys for a critique and rehone just an idea. I use synthetics and paste but an awaiting a combo bout. Id second what Holli4pirating said about paste on news print or sketch paper called newsprint

Thanks for the suggestion, and it certainly may come to that. However, I've been getting tremendous edges on almost all my razors, and I am quite confident in my ability to get a razor where I want it. I've just not been able to do it on the couple of Sheffield Steel razors that I've tried. I'm thinking that Gugi may have the right idea. Obviously, I am open to the possibility that I am in fact to blame. That's why I'm asking for specific techniques and ideas that may help me improve edges specific to Sheffield Steel.

Just trying to rule out something here: since many Sheffield steel razors are wedges or stiff grinds, are you sure the problem is with Sheffield steel and not with the type of grind.

I'm asking this, because from my personal practice, I find that the grind (actually the bevel width) has a much bigger influence on honing challenge than all the different types of steel and hardnesses.

Kind regards,
Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

Just trying to rule out something here: since many Sheffield steel razors are wedges or stiff grinds, are you sure the problem is with Sheffield steel and not with the type of grind.

I'm asking this, because from my personal practice, I find that the grind (actually the bevel width) has a much bigger influence on honing challenge than all the different types of steel and hardnesses.

Kind regards,
Bart.

That's a good question Bart. I've considered this as the possible culprit, but my 1/4 grind Puma achieved the level of keenness and smoothness that I am used to. Similarly, the problem isn't confined to smiling blades (although I freely admit that they are harder for me to get "right") as I have a perfectly straight edged razor that I had similar issues with. I got better results from the sheffield steel razor using my coticule. It was pretty good (significantly better than my previous efforts), but it wasn't quite to the level that I'm used to

Originally Posted by v76

Actually... the link posted by Kees on that French book from 1770 said that England steel was good looking and shiny but wasn't on par, shave quality-wise with most other well known brands. But then, that was 1770.

Here's the link La pogonotomie, ou L'art d'apprendre ... - Google Boeken

I'll try to translate that bit soon...

Link to the thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/gener...-soi-meme.html

Not only was it 1770, but the French weren't over-fond of the English then, either...

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Not only was it 1770, but the French weren't over-fond of the English then, either...

Regards,
Neil

1770 there were not many outside of the empire fond of Britain and a number inside it too actually