Thread: Looking for a little advice..

I am trying to get a good edge on some old Sheffield steel and am able to get a good edge but it doesn't last long. Like half a shave long. So i'm wondering, out of the stones that I have, what would be the best option to give me a nice edge on an old Sheffield without the edge being too keen for the razor to handle?

The stones I have available are the standard 1k, 4k/8k, then a set of three welsh stones from eBay, c12k, Ozuku asagi, Ozaki suita, Nakayama Asagi, and a barber hone. I have been using one layer of tape. Any advice I can get would be great. Thanks.

If the edge only lasts one shave it's not a good edge. Really you have more than what you need. I'd probably check the bevel first and if need be the 1K or 4K should take care of that. Afterwards the 8K. I'm not familiar with the others though the Chinese12 is a very slow stone. I'm sure others will come by with more specifics.

So it's just poor honing on my part then? Certainly not impossible.

Originally Posted by rmalak

So it's just poor honing on my part then? Certainly not impossible.

Not poor honing , just inexperienced honing (IMHO) . I agree with TBS , I don't think you have the bevel completely finished .
I think more time on the 1k is needed . You may want to tape the spine , if you haven't already done so .
I don't know what you mean , when you say you don't want an edge "too keen for the razor , to handle". You want your razor as sharp as it can be . Once the bevel is properly done on the 1k , you smooth the edge with the finer grit hones . After the bevel has been done , the razor doesn't get any sharper . The additional honing on the higher grit hones , just makes it smoother .

Sheffield steel is normaly excellent but could it be that yours is not? Most likely if the edge is breaking down that quick it could have become weak due to micro pitting. If you can look at it under a microscope you would see many small holes in the bevel and this would make it weak and behave that way.

A couple of the sheffield oldies that i've come across don't like synthetics. Try setting the bevel on your 1k, and then moving over to a natural for sharpening and polishing.

Just a thought.

I have a blade that did the same thing. After looking at it under a loupe I could see micro pitting that would make the edge look like swiss cheese. I had to take it to the 1k till I got past the bad steel.

Thank you all for the input. The "too keen" comment was there because it felt like the edge was too thin for how hard the steel was maybe. The loupe that I have is only a 15x so it's hard to be able to tell if there is micro-pitting. I'll try and take it back to the 1k again and go a natural route after that. I'll report back once that's done.

Another possibility is your Sheffield razor has a good bevel but tends to form a bur readily. Burs are sharp but weak. If that's the case you might need to be careful to remove the bur then use only a very few polishing strokes to finish with.

Well I took the razor back to the hones and found that it took a really long time on the 1k to get the edge totally even all the way across. Every time I stopped and looked there were always little chunks missing out of the edge here and there. Also I did see some of the micro-pitting you guys were talking about. So after an hour messing around with it I finally looked at it and it didn't have any pits so I progressed back up the grits and came away with a very nice edge. I hope it will stay that way this time. Also now I know a few more things to look for when I'm honing. Thank you for all your help guys and I will report how it shaves tomorrow.