Thread: Bolta razor

I have a little Bolta 4/8 razor, made in Solingen, that I bought in Italy in 1972. I never got great shaves with it because I guess it wasn't shave ready but I only used it once a week and it worked well enough. I haven't used it since 73, just greased it up and put it away. Last week I tried to shave with it and got nowhere. While it still looks NIB it will not shave me. It will cut some hair but not good enough. Also, the edge looks perfect under magnification. I have a paddle strop. My question is, could I get by with buying a Chinese water stone, about 10,000 grit? Or could I just load up the strop with paste and maybe get it sharp enough that way? I don't want to buy an $80 4K/8K stone. I'll welcome any suggestions.
GK

It depends how far off the edge is and what it will take to get it going. Its possible the chinese water stone will work if its cutting but not that great. if its not cutting at all you would probably have to go back to 8K and maybe even a few strokes on a 4K. There are some pastes like diamond 1 micron that might work. Its hard to say since we don't know in what shape the edge is both physically and sharp wise. Try using what you have and see what happens.