Thread: What we have here is a pain in the

I have a nice looking razor that I re scaled. It is a German razor with the The blade marked Luna Deluxe and a German eagle on each side. The tang is marked Emond B & BS Co. Ltd. Ottawa.
I have more than a dozen razors and have sharpened all of them to shave ready but this one will not. It is really hard metal. I have gone to medium to fine to extra fine to a Franz Swaty smooth finishing stone four times already and it feels really sharp to the touch and on the thumbnail but does not pass the HHT and will not shave well. Any suggestions? I am stumped ! Mack

Mack, once you pass the TNT don't use it again. It is an indication that the bevel is set but will not do a more refined edge any good. Just go to the bevel set and then up through the 4/8 level and strop and shave and don't worry about HHT.

I think, as David Polan says in his video series here, that most razors that guys are unable to get sharp turn out to have an inadequate bevel set so pay attention to that. I can't say that is what it is but it may be.

Originally Posted by mackie

It is really hard metal. I have gone to medium to fine to extra fine to a Franz Swaty smooth finishing stone four times already and it feels really sharp to the touch and on the thumbnail but does not pass the HHT and will not shave well. Any suggestions? I am stumped ! Mack

As Jimmy said , this most likely means you still have not established the bevel.
Going back to your bevel setting stone would probably solve the problem.
Do you have a scope or a loupe to inspect the bevel after each grit in your progression?

That is just the thing. I have a loupe and I have inspected the bevel and it is clean and even and the edge looks good. I can not see the edge so it is really thin and should shave but it tugs and pulls. I have stroped it a lot too and I am not rolling the edge. I even laid the strop flat and used it to make sure. It has me baffled. Maybe is is a throwback and just will not take an edge like a pakistan razor or something.

Mack Sometime in the bunch of the blade 1 blade come out which will act a little differently.
I will ask couple questions first.
what grind it is?
what stones do you have available.
Does blade has any color discoloration?
which progression you have used so far?
lets us know please.
for the moment leave it alone for couple hours.

Well as far as grind goes it is about a 3/4 hollow grind. I bought my stones used so I do not know the exact grit but aprox 400-1000-4000-6000-8000 and I use them in that order. I have even gone back to a coarse grit with this razor of about 200 grit. It is not that. I have sharpened many razors with no problem. Also there is no discoloration. It was a little rusty when I got it and without scales but not on the edge, Most all of the rust was in the center of the grind where the logo is. Again, I have no way of knowing the exact grit of the stones but I am pretty good at guessing that since I have about 15 plus about a dozen small ones that are about 1 x 3 that I don't use for razors.

Are these natural stones ? I remember seeing that nice coticule you picked up. If they are synthetics a photo might help someone ID them for you. Not saying you can't figure a progression out by checking out your results but I always like to have a more definite idea of what I'm honing with if possible.

Tried shaving with it again. No good. Had to resort to one of my seven day set. I will post pics of the stones when my wife gets the Christmas pics off the camera so I can use it. Thanks to you all for trying to help. I am not one to ever give up. I will work with this till I get it.Mack

I have honed one of these razors, German steel, blade face etched Luna...
I don't remember anything different about it, seems to me it took a rather good edge...

Just a suggestion, when you get stuck, first step away from it for an hour or two..

Then when you get back to the razor, change something up,
Examples:

Change grit for 10 laps, up or down
Add 1 layer of tape
Subtract 1 layer of tape
Change the stroke from an X to a straight or visa-versa
Do 5 back hone strokes
Do 5 laps with two hands and a touch of pressure
Strop the razor 50 laps

But change something in the dynamic...
See if that helps

You are right. I have not been taping the spine. I am going to do that and see what happens.