Thread: Need advice sharpening a dull razor

Good show. Remember to test all parts of the blade (heel, middle and toe) and both sides of the bevel (face and back)

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Good show. Remember to test all parts of the blade (heel, middle and toe) and both sides of the bevel (face and back)

150 laps on the yellow later, followed by 50 on the paste and 30 on the leather, the middle is now HHT sharp.

The heel and the toe not yet.
now, when thinking about the X pattern, it is obvious that the middle part of the razor is almost always on the stone (or strop for that matter), while the heel and the toe are only half the time on the stone.

does this matter?

If your hone is lapped flat, that should not be an issue (if it's not, lap it), but since it is... Use the X-system (the one championed by X, not the x-pattern):
Start off by pressing with the heel and transition into pressing with the toe by the end of the stroke.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

If your hone is lapped flat, that should not be an issue (if it's not, lap it), but since it is... Use the X-system (the one championed by X, not the x-pattern):
Start off by pressing with the heel and transition into pressing with the toe by the end of the stroke.

Even if the hone is flat, if it's between 1.5 and 3" wide, he will form a frown in the long run for exactly the reason he stated. The middle of the blade spends more time on the hone than the ends.

That's not to say that you can't compensate for it, but that means using uneven pressure over a stroke.

When the edge of a razor is truly sharp, you will not see any light reflecting from the edge. That is also true of knives, plane irons, etc. The reason that you'll see a black line instead of light reflecting is that the edge is actually narrower than the light waves, thus no reflection of light waves. Beyond that, use the hanging hair test, the thumb nail test, etc. The post-it test and the thumb nail test will get you to "factory edge" level and hanging hair test will get you perfect results in a shave.

What you need to do is reestablish the edge by removing a fair amount of metal with something like a DMT 1200 grit extra fine stone, then moving to a 4000 grit blue belgian and then an 8000 grit yellow coticule. You could also do the second step after the DMT with a Norton 4000 and then a yellow coticule. Sharpening is a progressive process and honing is the end of that process. The belgian stones are finishing stones and not used to remove lots of steel which is what you have to do.

I cannot recommend highly enough the practice of honing using magnification. Truly one does not know what is going on at the edge without looking at all parts of the blade on both sides and including the heel and the toe. I use an OptiVisor and I also use the RadioShack 100x lighted magnifier. These are small investments to make and will make you an expert honer fairly quickly.

Howard