Thread: Le Grelot one tough razor

Out of all the razors I currently have one in particular is giving me a headache it's a 5/8 Le Grelot, the steel seems to be much harder than any other razor in my collection, it started off OK but as I progress with the honing process it's taking longer and longer to remove metal, I am not having the same problem with honing other razors on the same stones, so what gives? Or are all Le Grelots hardened a bit more than usual? Has anyone else come across this problem?

Yes the Le Grelot can be quite trying to hone. There are those that are far worse but it's up there. I don't know which hones you are using but I used the Escher on mine. Just don't lose patience with it and think you have to go down in the grits. I know when I got mine it was just a touch-up that was called for.

Each one that I've had was problematic. With mine it was a question of staying longer on each one at each stage. These were vintage though, not NOS. Once you get there, they're good shavers though.

+1

Hard to hone but hold a great edge once you're there and uber smooth shavers.

I really think the key to honing the current TI's is to get a good bevel set. Many have uneven grinding along the spine and a wider bevel in the front of the blade vs. the back. Once you have the bevel set well, the rest should fall into place. Typically, they end up as very nice shavers.

Have fun.

Thanks for the input gents, this razor is not new, it came to me in a bit of a sorry state some surface rust and a chip 3/4 along the blade toward the heel, after light sanding to get the rust off some pitting was evident although not what I would call severe, and mostly away from the edge.
Following the advice on gssixgun's videos I got rid of the chip OK this obviously has reduced the blade width some and so the bevel is wider than usual I did notice that the blade edge seemed to be crumbling a couple of times, I could feel a sudden difference on the hone and a definite particle break away during bevel setting looking through the loupe there was a micro chip but there was no pitting on the edge evident, It's almost like there was an layer of bad steel that needed to be honed past if that makes any sense!

I'll just carry on and take my time, It's a nice razor and worth spending the effort.