Thread: Honing on glass

Would doing this take the place of a leather strop?

Originally Posted by RARamirez

Would doing this take the place of a leather strop?

IMO, there is no replacement for the leather to align the edge. If men and barbers did it before every shave so many years ago, then that's good enough for me

Originally Posted by RARamirez

Would doing this take the place of a leather strop?

I don't think so.

Lillicrap hones have been around for a while to resharpen DE blades. I don't think straights have ever been honed on glass on a large scale.

So kind of on the line of this thread... I found this... Would this be something to use my razor on??

Try it and see. I don't think it's going to hurt anything.

When I was a machinist we called it Lapping, here is this forum they use the term different. When I was a Mechanic withe Diesel engines the old hydraulic injectors like on the Detroit Diesel engines the cones and the tip of the injector had to be Lapped. We would lay out a big glass sheet on a flate surface sometimes we would use a layout block, made of granite. I would use a perscibed medium that felt like a paste and work out any scratches on what we called matted surfaces. When I was a machinist we would use a machine. Look up Lapping on Wekipedia.

Originally Posted by Murmle

So kind of on the line of this thread... I found this... Would this be something to use my razor on??

Sure, spray it with 1 micron abrasive or 0.5 micron abrasive and hone away.
Diamond or Cubic Boron Nitride. It does not take much. As far as grit goes because of the solid glass
almost double the micron size before converting to a grit number to compare to a hone. Also twice as fast.

Use a light touch and let a glass slurry build up before giving up on the charge.

I had trouble finding value in the ceramic DMT ultra fine hone until I began giving it a gentle tune up
with 0.5 CBN.

Clean with water, glass will not act as an abrasive on hard razor steel but will straighten and
improve an edge.

You may find that a 2 micron, 1 micron, 0.5 micron spray sequence and a good wash with clear
water will work for some razors.

The cost of these sprays is such that hones are a better long term purchase. Sprays can also
be used on a leather or canvas/fabric strop. 0.5 micron spray on a strop or canvas does not hurt
and for me helps smooth the shave. Abrasive spray reduces the draw on leather for me which can
be a negative if it goes too far. A little goes a long way.

I mention this because glass with CBN could result in a harsh shave that a lightly pasted/sprayed
strop can calm. Never spray your better strop with anything coarser than 0.5 or 0.25 micron and then only
a little.

Try it on a second razor... and let us know.

So, when I started shaving I did what my grandfather did.. He honed on a old razor hone and then finished on a glass bottle. I did it this way until I joined this site and found Shaptons and coticules. I find that coticules work much beter. The bottle worked at the time, but learning the newer techniques definitely improved my shaves. To each their own though.. It is definitely cheaper to go with a bottle.

Barbers' manual ; and, Text book on taxidermy
by T.J. McConnaughay.
You can find this text at the openlibrary.org.

He gives detailed instructions on making and using glass hones on page 30.
I made one with double strength glass and used an escher for slurry.
Very nice finished edge.

Taxidermy and barbering... amazing read.