Thread: Honing method I'd never heard of before

Hey guys

I'd been needing to get my razors honed for a while but was having trouble finding someone to do it for me (I wouldn't trust myself). I became acquained with a guy who is a saw doctor and all-round expert with blades who offered to hone my razors.

I took him up on the offer and the result was outstanding. I've just used one of the blades today and it's probably the best shave I've had in the year or so I've been using straights. I asked him how he honed the blades and he told me he soaked a piece of MDF with Brasso and used that the same way as a hone before stropping the blades and cleaning them with alcohol.

As I say, the results were spectacular. I just wondered if anyone else has ever used this method, and, if so, their experiences with it. When i need to hone my razors again this method would certainly be cheaper than buying honing stones, and since the razors felt better than when I first got them it seems to be a no-brainer...

Well, to be honest no I have not used this exact method, although I have put some autosol on a left over piece of leather once with good results. However, the principle has and is used all the time - anything that polishes contains abrasive, and brasso is no different. The trick is then to embed that abrasive in something benign so that you can hone on it. You see people using pasted balsa as strops, pasted strops, why not pasted MDF?

Glad to hear it gives a good result. Your razors must have just needed a touch up - I cannot imagine starting from scratch with Brasso! :eek

James.

It actually is a stropping method, I am pretty sure you cannot hone on MDF because it's way too soft and the edge will dig into it.
Other than that stropping on wood coated with some abrasive is at least 150 years old - I have a two sided strop that old, or may be it was a little bit newer, and the paperwork was referring to when it was first designed... I haven't used it for a while, even though it works really well.

Though if you want the cheapest option for touching up a razor that's stropping on newspaper over a hard surface.

Well using MDF as a stropping surface is interesting in itself.

It's not the MDF, it's the abrasive on it in this case brasso.
At one of the meetings I was Ed/quicknicker had a simple piece of wood that he sprayed with .1u diamond spray - as long as the surface isn't contaminated with coarser abrasive particles than the abrasive medium one wants to use, it works.

Please pardon my ignorance , but what is MDF ?

Originally Posted by dave5225

Please pardon my ignorance , but what is MDF ?

Medium Density Fiberboard.