Thread: Antique Razor

So today I scored a razor at a local antique shop for $5. I'm not sure what brand it is as there is no marking except for on the tang where there is some slight rust covering the name. It is made in Germany however. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that the cutting edge/bevel was almost so small you could barely see it, with almost no hone wear on the spine. Contrast that with my Dovo which has been irritating my face lately and has a much larger bevel with a lot of spine wear from aggressive honing. On this new blade I plan to hone it and see how it shaves but there is some slight rust on the edge and after inspection with a 30X loupe a small microchip in the center of the blade. It does shave arm hair as-is, primarily at the toe and heel. Where would you guys suggest I start with this blade in the honing progression since I don't want to hone it too much and create a bigger bevel/spine wear. I'm assuming this razor came from a barber as besides any rusting it seems to be in pretty good condition and I'm guessing this is close to how a razor is -supposed- to be honed. It is a hollow grind by the way.

Pictures would help, but sight unseen I would start by saying that hone wear takes a long time to develop. I wouldn't worry about that.

Start with a 1k and see if you can get the micro-chip to go away. You need to get rid of that or it is unlikely to ever become a nice shaver. Work your way up from there. Remember, light strokes.

a 1k should be fine. try doing 40 circles each side and see how that turns out

Start honing with tape. Other than that, look at the honing section and you will find plenty of videos from the likes of Lynn or Glenn (gssixgun). As Lynn says: Have fun!

Thanks for the feedback, yes I did hone with tape this time. The rust was a real bear coming off, the 1k didn't take it off easily at all though even after firm pressure that at one point I even raked the blade over the 1k norton edge facing down into the grit and completely destroyed the edge getting rid of the rust. The microchip went away pretty quick too with the raking action. After going through the full honing progression up through 12k naniwa, it does shave very nicely though. Before, I was never able to get a blade shave ready off an 8k whereas this one was pretty close after that. During honing I used primarily an X stroke but in the middle of the stroke a slight circle motion incorporating a sort of backhoning stroke before proceeding forward to the corner of the hone. Seemed to work well for the edge. Does anyone else do this?