Thread: I have no experience with straight razors. Need help.

Jack

I would try and keep things simple when learning to shave and not have too elaborate a routine. To me shaving should be as simple as lather up and shave. Post shave alum block rub will tell you quickly if you have done it right. If you haven't then you know it is either your shaving/lathering technique or the blade is not sharp enough. That is just me though.

If you get that high mag PC connected microscope I can almost guarantee you will drive yourself crazy chasing a perfect edge. Personally I think it can be more of a hindrance at the start but useful later when you do start getting good edges and want to see what they look like. I will also almost bet that those good edges will look not so great under high mag of a PC microscope. Mind you I don't use one so that is just a guess.

Bob

Yes Jack you have the visual correct in the brain

A SR is basically a push cut at the beginning stages, later down the road you will learn about Scything strokes etc:

Watch the trap of using High magnification, a mirror bevel does not always mean it is a good shave in fact chasing the "look" can lead to a harsh fragile edge..

Some of the Smoothest feeling Natural finishers leave a rather hazy scratchy finish, it really does come down to your face, this is one of the reasons we tend to tell people to hang at the 8k "level" until you can get a smooth comfortable with relative ease.. Then add a high grit finisher to get the icing on the cake..

One of my favorite sayings is "Bevel Bevel Bevel 90% of the work is in the bevel set" after that it is all just fun

and here is a thread where some of the guys took my statements of the bevel set should be able to shave all in itself to task


http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-1k-shave.html


that will give you an idea of just how sharp these SR's really are

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Yes Jack you have the visual correct in the brain

A SR is basically a push cut at the beginning stages, later down the road you will learn about Scything strokes etc:

Watch the trap of using High magnification, a mirror bevel does not always mean it is a good shave in fact chasing the "look" can lead to a harsh fragile edge..

Another reason to not use magnification is my beautiful mirror finish gets depressing when magnifiedd.

Some of the Smoothest feeling Natural finishers leave a rather hazy scratchy finish, it really does come down to your face, this is one of the reasons we tend to tell people to hang at the 8k "level" until you can get a smooth comfortable with relative ease.. Then add a high grit finisher to get the icing on the cake..

One of my favorite sayings is "Bevel Bevel Bevel 90% of the work is in the bevel set" after that it is all just fun

and here is a thread where some of the guys took my statements of the bevel set should be able to shave all in itself to task


http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-1k-shave.html


that will give you an idea of just how sharp these SR's really are

Funny you say that 90% of the work, or I assume final result is in setting the initial bevel. This exact concept was discussed when dealing with knife edges when "chasing the mirror finish and edge". If the beginning steps aren't perfect you can't fix the issue with the final steps. You are just wasting time by getting into a hurry. One of my favorite saying is "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, you sure don't have time to do it twice".

Just got back from the mailbox and a Boker razor a friend sent me is here. It's an older one with no handle. I like making knife handles so this is really a bonus for me. The edge needs work though. I'm torn between working on it myself or sending it to get shave ready. Sending it to someone is probably the smartest thing. There is a chip in the middle of the edge. The entire edge will need to be worked on until the chip is no longer there. Then the honing will start. If I wanted to send it to someone to sharpen (hone) so it is shave ready who would that be? How much do they usually charge? It will almost break my heart to send something away to get sharpened because I hate hate hate not taking care of my own tools. But in this case it's probably wiser than messing up a good razor I have pics of it but can't post them yet. The razor is a Boker. Near the spine at the end of the razor there is the number 1402. At the rear of the blade there is a number 1892. On the side of the blade is etched the landscape of a city and under that it says "WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, CHICAGO 1893". Does this mean anything to anyone regarding info on this razor? On the handle there is a tree layng on it's side then H. Boker & CO and Germany under that. Any suggestions on a handle material? I know, water proof. I love beautiful wood. There are some cheap materials I like also that look good. I'm thinking this should be pretty simple since I don't have to copy anything. All the handle needs is one pivot hole which can go anywhere near the end. I can get close enough just by looking at pictures. The razor I got from ebay has a blade thickness of 1mm at the edge. This one is .18mm thick at the edge. This is according to my caliper which is pretty accurate but I don't think it's calibrated for exact accuracy.

Jack

Guess what you guys. Another friend just offered to send me a couple different types of soap to try. One of them is a puck of mitchell's woolfat soap. I don't know the name of any other he is sending. So, it looks like all I need to get to get started is a brush. I'll be looking to Wal Mart for a cheap one to start with. The generosity of people on these forums with people of common intrests is great. Almost gives me my faith back in the human race. Maybe I will be able to help someone else in time. I have a Boker razor that needs work on the edge and soap coming. I'm pretty sure I have the honing tools I need to get started at least. The skill will be where I'm lacking for a while I'm sure. I have an 8k Shapton glass water stone (1.84 micron) to start with and strops of diamond sprays down to .25 micron on leather and balsa wood both. When I do get to the honing portion I'll try what I have and then I'll know if I need anything else. I may need a little advise about that from folks. I imagine the questions I'll have will come pretty fast after I get started.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Jack

Send me your razor and I will hone it for you, just cover the shipping. This way you will know what a properly honed razor feels like &/or you can use it as your reference razor. I'm offering this because I still stand by my advice, learn to shave first.

Do you have a strop, just plain old leather?

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Send me your razor and I will hone it for you, just cover the shipping. This way you will know what a properly honed razor feels like &/or you can use it as your reference razor. I'm offering this because I still stand by my advice, learn to shave first.

Do you have a strop, just plain old leather?

I appreciate this offer very much. Give me your address and I'll send it to you. Right now it doesn't have a handle. I'm going to make one pretty soon. Will that affect how you hold it or cause a problem? Do you have a paypal email I can send return shipping money to? Or how should I cover the return shipping.

I have quite a few strops all mounted on wood. I have cow hide (soft leather), horse hide (hard leather), balsa wood (harder) and a 2x6" kangaroo strop. I have them treated with diamond paste or sprays and a couple other coumpound types between 28 micron and .25 micron. The kangaroo strop I don't have any compound on. It is very thin hide on an aluminum plate and is less abrasive without compoud than the .25 diamond spray. I'm pretty sure I have what I need to hone when I start but will find out anything I'm lacking soon I'm sure. I don't have a belt type. Mine are all on hard surfaces. With these strops I can put an insane edge on my knives. I'm excited now though because jumping into honing razors will probably make me laugh about every time I called a knife "razor sharp".

Thanks again,
Jack

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Send me your razor and I will hone it for you, just cover the shipping. This way you will know what a properly honed razor feels like &/or you can use it as your reference razor. I'm offering this because I still stand by my advice, learn to shave first.

Do you have a strop, just plain old leather?

I forgot. The edge has a pretty serious chip right in the center of the blade. So it doesn't need just honing. It will need quite a bit more work than that. I can take the edge down to where the chip is gone I'm sure. Do you want me to do that before I send it to you? Right now the rest of the edge is as sharp as a barely sharp pocket knife. Actually I wouldn't mind doing this and put an edge on there that I can right now. Then you can see what I can do right now and how or what needs improvement. Let me know what you want to do. If you think I may screw up the edge I'd rather not touch it.

Ok, I got impatient and worked on the edge myself. This razor is a Boker with a hollow grind. I finished with an 8k Shapton glass water stone then a .5 micron then .25 micron then a kangaroo hide strop with no compound. This is the same progression I use on knives that I want as sharp as possible with a smooth edge. As a rule I'll stop the grit progression after a 2k stone or I might strop after that with a balsa strop with Boron Carbide 1 micron semi-paste. This produces edges completely adequate for the EDC pocket knife and most kitchen knives in my opinion.

Anyway, I have this razor VERY VERY VERY VERY SHARP by my standards. Is it shave ready by your standards? I have no idea. What I want to do with it now is let someone else check it out and let me know where improvement is needed and how to achieve it.

I feel I want to mention this and sincerely ask if me feeling like I feel is normal. Right now I have a very sharp razor and a can of standard shaving cream (crap in a can??? ). This means I theoretically can shave I believe. It DOES mean I'm tempted to shave. Here is my surprise. Suddenly I am nervous about performing the first shave. There are two reasons. First, I am just nervous about putting the edge against my skin. Second, I'm worried that attempting a shave with a razor that is not shave ready and improper soap may lead to cutting myself. This surprises me because on several occasions I have taken a knife I sharpened and tried to shave my face just enough to see if the knife would do it. Using shaving cream the knife did remove whiskers to my satisfaction. I did not cut myself but it wasn't comfortable enough to continue shaving. So why amI so nervous when I found myself at the moment of truth where I could attempt a shave? Just curious about if anyone else has felt like this.

Any answer to this question is appreciated. Should I try to shave now or should I wait for good soap along with a little practice creating a lather as well as having someone more knowledgable and skilled perfect my razor's edge?


Jack

PS
After I sharpened (honed?) the razor I read about stropping a razor using a flexible strop. I read about flipping the razor on it's spine. I did not do that. I do feel confident I didn't leave a burr or bend the edge or anything like that. However my confidence comes from knife sharpening technique.

The reason shooter asked about a plain leather strop is you will need one for between shaves. Pasted strops are used for touch ups when the razor starts tugging only. A bench strop is fine as is roo (mine is roo). Ill add a link for stopping on a paddle as it will be similar. This guy has great technique so you will want to try and copy it. Boker are a good razor so will be interesting to see how it turns out. Most wouldnt use it without a handle though.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-video.html

Impatience won out again. I just shaved a little bit with this razor. I have to say I was extremely pleased. It was not uncomfortable at all. I used crap in a can and only shaved my cheeks. I started with my sideburns and went down to my jawbone. This showed me the edge is passable anyway. I didn't hear the scraping sound I heard in a video I watched. The sound in the video was loud even being picked up by the mic on the camera. Mine is not perfect I'm sure but at least I dipped a toe. I may go ahead and jump in the deep end tomorrow am. I guess I need to strop on the roo strop now.

Jack