Thoughts on Honing Wackers (moved from Die Wackerfans)

greenhosh, what hones do you have? Glen recommended to me to start at the 4000 grit and give it several good strokes then move up the ladder. Even though I did that, it still did not shave as well as some of my Revisors or GOTTA nor the Imperial. So, tonight, I went back to 1000 grit and worked on it all the way back up to 12K. At the 12 K top end I was loosing tiny "TINY" bits of wire from the edge so I backed off the pressure a bit. I don't like it going under the blade and contributing to scratching the bevel. Honed as 12K then stropped on the wool felt, then back to the 12K for some more laps, then back to the strops, ending up, eventually, at the leather side. When I figured I had it well, I stropped it up about 70 round strokes and popped some hairs with it that any of the Revisors or GOTTA would do. If kit wouldn't pop a hair and then the GOTTA would on the same hair, it was an indication that it needed more work. Wackers could be so hardened that they take a bit longer to hone out right as well. Perhaps Glen might chime in here on his experiences and take as well.

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Originally Posted by greenjosh

I really don't want to send it out and pay an extra $30 to get it honed either after spending $280 on the thing.

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Originally Posted by Gibbs

Wackers could be so hardened that they take a bit longer to hone out right as well. Perhaps Glen might chime in here on his experiences and take as well.

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I blissed out again this morn w/ the 6/8 1/4 grind. 9 mo. w/ this blade and it still makes me giddy about the shave. I have 2 hollow, 2 1/4 grinds, and the stosser wedge. They ARE hard steel, sometimes chip, and they've taken more fussing than other blades. That said, when you get them dialed in, we'll understand if we see you rubbing your face saying 'grow, dammit, grow'.

There are numerous places you can get your lovely blade honed for free. Coticule.be does it, and it would likely be a lovely edge. If you're in the States & would like a hand, pm me. I finished my 147th blade tonight, w/ 2 waiting, and 2 inbound.

I currently have a 1200 Diasharp, 5k Naniwa and diamond spray. I just tried the hair arm test and I get nothing. As a business person you would think you would send that out as sharp as possible. The user gets it and uses it and says "Shit!" that's sharp and wonderful! I think I will order some more!.... No, send it out dull and disappoint the customer after spending $280. Sorry just frustrated. I wish SRD would get other razors besides Dovo and Boker. Anyways I will try my current honing equip and see what I come up with. If not I will have to send it out. Pinklather what you charging for honing?

You might call John on the phone an discuss it with him. He recently got back into employed from unemployed and may have not done anything to it before shipping. He probably would make it right with you. I have heard others speak well of his honing skills.

Here is how I did mine I got from John. I told him to ship un-honed, so it was my choice. This is not a recommendation on the best honing technique, just on how "I" did it. I actually started way back at the bevel setting stage. When I got to the 8K and 12K Chinese, I had to be careful not to put too much downward pressure on the edge or I'd end up with a small VERY small fine wire hair on the hone I could feel. I actually started all over back at 1000 grit as one side had a nice size bevel width on it and the other side barely had any bevel size at all. Probably was attributed to the amount of honing done on just the one side. So... I honed the dickens out of the one side that had nearly no bevel (no tape) as I wanted to increase the size of the bevel and decrease the amount of thickness of the spine on that side. Kind of counter of what people use tape for, to protect the spine, but, there was an unevenness there, as there was on a GOTTA 120 I have, that I corrected in the same fashion. My bevel setter is actually the green DMT Extra Fine diamond hone, an 8 micron diamond hone that cuts pretty fast. Once I got the bevels more evened out, I went to 1K to polish the bevel and spine where the diamond DMT had been and then a lot of time on the 4K white hone I have for the same reason... to polish out the bevel/spine. I even found a wire "whisker" at that point on the razor edge and removed it and continued. Last 2 hones were a Franz Swaty with water and soap and the Chinese 12K, same with water and dish soap. Many strokes on the 12K, starting out with circular motion going from one end of the hone to the other. It is the LARGER of the the 2 sizes of Chinese 12K hones. I count the circles and at 20, I reverse sides and go in circles back the other way to the count of 20. Then it's 15 for a couples of up-down, then 10 circles for up-down and finally 5 circles on both sides before moving to straight up and down strokes on the hone..... very very lightly. Stropped it and it pops hairs same as the GOTTA 120 and Imperial that are the sharpest razors I have.

Well I just gave it go on the hones. It seems allot better. It was popping hairs off my arm really nice. Just like my Dovo Fritz 7/8 that was recently honed by Lynn. We will see after my beard grows in a little bit more. Fingers crossed!

This is nothing I haven't written before, but I 'll post it here too...

Wackers, Revisors, the Big 7/8 & 8/8 Friodurs and newest Filarmonicas, and the TI LeGerlot's and "Z" are just some off the top of my head that I consider "Chippy" or "Finicky" razors, they can have a tendency to get a harsh feel or develop wires like Gibbs found or hone fine then give up chips after a stropping...

I take these straight to the Naniwas 1-3-5-8-10-12 starting each stone except the 12k with a light slurry, you can see this system done on my Naniwa honing videos... Now I am by no means going to tell you this is the only way to do them -but- I will tell you that it gets me smooth comfortable and SHARP edges pretty much 100% of the time on these razors..

If you don't use this system and you have natural stones try 1 drop of Dish soap on top of your finishing stone for the last 10-20 laps see if that helps...
Another trick I used in the past is to jump high faster, in other words like I told Gibbs, try starting at the 4k level instead of lower, or if it needs 1k work, get to the higher stone and work a little harder there then normal...
It is very hard for newer honers to work a 4k stone for a bevel set, but trust me here on this, only 3-4 short years ago that was the norm :)

Hope that helps some...

Seems the best are hard to deal with. How long should it take aprox. to hone a razor? It didn't seem like it took me long at all. I also don't know how well I did either until I give it a try.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

This is nothing I haven't written before, but I 'll post it here too...

Wackers, Revisors, the Big 7/8 & 8/8 Friodurs and newest Filarmonicas, and the TI LeGerlot's and "Z" are just some off the top of my head that I consider "Chippy" or "Finicky" razors, they can have a tendency to get a harsh feel or develop wires like Gibbs found or hone fine then give up chips after a stropping...

I take these straight to the Naniwas 1-3-5-8-10-12 starting each stone except the 12k with a light slurry, you can see this system done on my Naniwa honing videos... Now I am by no means going to tell you this is the only way to do them -but- I will tell you that it gets me smooth comfortable and SHARP edges pretty much 100% of the time on these razors..

If you don't use this system and you have natural stones try 1 drop of Dish soap on top of your finishing stone for the last 10-20 laps see if that helps...
Another trick I used in the past is to jump high faster, in other words like I told Gibbs, try starting at the 4k level instead of lower, or if it needs 1k work, get to the higher stone and work a little harder there then normal...
It is very hard for newer honers to work a 4k stone for a bevel set, but trust me here on this, only 3-4 short years ago that was the norm :)

Hope that helps some...

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Great info Glen, as I somehow seem to have a big bad Friodur coming my way soon :)
I take it that strategy works decently with the Shapton glass stones as well?
Not that I will touch that razor until I can handle the hones decently of course.

Yes it does !!! BUT watch the high end on the Shaptons be gentle on the 16k and I would approach the 30k only after I was sure of that stone and had used it a ton...

Please understand this is what I have found for me, everyone hones a bit different so ya gotta ease into them all :)

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Yes it does !!! BUT watch the high end on the Shaptons be gentle on the 16k and I would approach the 30k only after I was sure of that stone and had used it a ton...

Please understand this is what I have found for me, everyone hones a bit different so ya gotta ease into them all :)

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Thank you yet again. I did stop at 16k on my shopping spree, I will maybe consider the 30k some time in the future, when I hopefully know what I'm doing :)

Guys we are going way way OT here, if all the Wacker Fans want I can break this thread off at post #139 and start it as a new one, just let me know...

Well, it's sharp now.. REALLY sharp. I did something I haven't done in quite a while, I sliced my skin on the jawline next to my right earlobe. Not paying enough attention as I thought.. "Wow, this is going really smooth....look how the blade glides along, maybe juat a bit more....cut. Wife put that dermatological super-glue on it after we got it toned down a bit. Didn't hurt that bad but I bleed pretty easily with my high blood pressure meds so it was a little while (10 minutes or so) before I manged to finish the shave. Washed off the old soap, put on new and boy is it a shaver now!! Still feeling my face and smooth and I didn't go against the grain either. It now has that certain "ping" I hear on my strop that I only hear with some of the sharpest razors. So I, and Glen (and others) can give you "rest assured" that your Wacker will be a Prima sharp razor once it gets dialed in right.