Thread: 1/4 Norton Whipped Dog Razor

I think the smaller stone would make sense for the 8k. I do not think it makes sense for the 4k, or below. I would bet that if he is cutting them down already that you could get a deal on stones cut in half, length wise. To me, that might make sense. Then again I might be posting in two weeks asking "How many strokes do I need to get a razor sharp?" and then trying to divine the "root square mean" to compensate.

Originally Posted by barbiesdude

Oh boy......Well, I have looked at the honing articles as well as all the youtube videos. I thought I did state my goal is "to keep my own razors sharp and to restore any treasures I find along the way".

Here's the problem - those are two completely different things. Keeping a razor sharp requires stropping, not honing. And your use of plural means that you can do that for many years without needing a hone.

On the other hand restoring razors that 'you find along the way' is completely different thing. You can do it with a quarter or an 1/8 piece of 8000 norton, and enormous amount of time, or you can use a progression of coarse and fine hones. Nobody can tell you what is worth to you and what isn't. For most people with a job restoring razors is not worth it financially. Only you know how you value your time (since you're trying to save $60 I would guess that your time is much less valuable than your money), but unfortunately nobody, even you, knows how easy honing would come to you, and how much harder would it be for you to use a 1.5"x4" hone instead of a 3"x8".

There are people on the forum with very limited finances who restore junk razors to use with a set of slip stones that costs less than $10. It's only a matter of skills and time. So, again what kind of skills do you want to develop, and how much time and effort are you willing to put into it? Figure that out and you have your answer.

I'm really looking for the middle of the road. I don't want to spend hundreds on stones nor, do I want to go down a road whose end is frustration ( spending hours on something that never would have worked well any ways ). This is the reason for the initial post. It is my understanding from reading numerous posts, articles, etc., that stropping will maintain a razor for a few weeks until your razor starts tugging, then you need a fine hone to touch it up. A vintage razor from ebay or an antique store will need more than stropping or touching up, it needs a bevel set, according to my intel gathering. From the info everyone has given ( which I REALLY appreciate ), It seems I should spend the doe to get the full size stones and not leave anything to chance.

Oh, no, a vintage razor from ebay needs way more than bevel reset. It usually needs honing out about 1/16", sometimes more to get past the chips, frown, evening out the incompetent honing abuse in its past... It's certainly possible to maintain a razor sharp for a year or more with just stropping, though most people don't get that far. In fact few years ago mparker even got a dull razor (after cutting cardboard) back to shaving with just a lot of stropping. My first ever attempt at a touchup was something like 10-20 feather-like strokes on a small piece (1"x4") of thuringian - huge success, but that's nothing like honing.

I'm learning on a full Norton set and find that difficult enough without handicapping myself with a mini-me stone. Hell, I just put some cosmetic scratches on my custom Lewis learning on a full set. I can't imagine the real damage I'd do on a gimped out set. Just my $0.02, from a newbie who's only been shaving with straights since last December.

Good luck!

Well, looks like I've got a long road ahead even with the right equipment. I sure am looking forward to going down it.