Antique store Boker cuts like a dream now
I picked up an old Boker razor from an antique store a few weeks ago, and I've been in the process of trying to bring it back to a state of shave-readiness. I've been working on a set of scales for it, and in lieu of them being finished in the next few days I decided to pull out my waterstones and see what kind of edge I could produce. Given that this would only be the second razor that I've honed, I wasn't too optimistic about the results but I wanted to try anyway.
Spent some time on the Norton 1k trying to even the bevel out. The toe and heels of the razor looked like they'd never been properly honed, and it took a while to make them better. Once I had the bevel relatively even, I went up to the Norton 4k. I did about 40 circles on each side with medium pressure followed by 40 on each side with light pressure. Then followed up with 15 or so x strokes. Checked the bevel under magnification and it looked consistent so I moved on to the 8k. I didn't spend a lot of time on the 8k. Probably only did 20 or 25 x strokes. Checked again under magnification, and it looked like it was ready for finishing. 40 laps on water on my coticule and then it was off to the strop. I did 40 laps on linen and then 60 on leather, tried an HHT with my wife's hair (far finer than mine) and it was almost to what my other razors will do. Did another 40/60 and tested again and its HHT test performance was similar to my other razors. Time for a test shave!
Did a test shave with it this morning, and it cut like a dream. I was really surprised by how the razor sang as it cut through my whiskers. My other razors just have the "buttering toast" scraping sound; this one was almost musical. Two passes and a little touch up on my neck, and I couldn't be happier with the results. Only the slightest of stings from the alum block, and best of all, no razor burn!
Just want to say thanks to everyone here. I couldn't have done this without all this great info that's available on this site (JaNorton thread is like the honers bible IMHO). Glen and Lynn's videos are an invaluable resource, and a special thanks to Glen for answering some questions for me via PM a few weeks ago.
