Thread: New member - challenged honing

Guys I am a new member. I have been making my way from a Gillette Sensor. I started using safety razors about two years ago. I tried a Gillette superspeed and liked it. I then went to the Gillette fat boy. Made my way to a Gem single edged -Micromatic. I called that the butcher could never shave regularly without cuts. Next tried a Gem JR. I have been using that with a lot of success for over a year.

I always liked the idea of a straight razor but never made the jump. Recently I decided to give it a try. I order an old razor from Ebay. I got a B J Eyre for about $10. I ordered a Norton 1000/8000 combo stone. The razor did not look too bad on arrival. I cleaned it with steel wool, disinfected it, and then polished it. I used a buffing wheel on my drill press and some white compound - looked pretty decent.

I moved on to honing on the Norton stone. Took a bit of work. I started with the 1000 side and worked through some of the surface corrosion. I kept honing until the edge looked pretty smooth. I used a microscope at 100 power to check on my progress. I then moved to the 8000 side. I kept honing until I no longer see progress. Blade feels sharp on nail and thumb. I cannot seem to make any more progress but cannot get close to passing the hanging hair test. Any ideas as to what I could be doing wrong?

I will try to post images of the edge.

Thanks for any help.

Ed

These images are at 150X

This is after the 1000 grit side.


This is after the 8000 grit side.