Thread: Hart Steel Quality

Hey there! Thought I would go and make a post about the 6/8 Hart Steel Razor I just received in the mail today and I'm wondering what the 'ideal' strop would be for O-1 Tool Steel at a final hardness of 63 HRC? Or in simpler terms, it's pretty heavy stainless steel. Razor came pre-sharpened as apart of their service and with a very slight smile in the edge which I'm alright with but now I need gear for it before it decides to go from smooth to a garden rake. Thanks!

I did a bit of work in the machine world and have access to a few 3D printers, thought I might print out a few scales and post them up at some point

-TMB

I'm sure you will get several different opinions. I find that plain leather works just fine for all of my razors, stainless and carbon steal. I get around 3 months of 3 passes 5 days a week with a single razor without having to do anything else to it.

The real reason for my reply is, that I'm really interested in seeing the printed scales, if you get round to it.

Hey Bacon. 'Looks like you might be new to the art. If so, you're starting out w/ a really nice razor. That slight smile you notice, adds to the shave in a nice way. It does take more experience to maintain that smile when honing, so I don't recommend trying to learn the stones w/ that nice blade. It should give you decades of smiles and nice shaves.
Enjoy.

Yep, any quality strop will do. it's more a matter of the handling characteristics of the different strops and which you like to use.

I own 7 of these fine razors and use a mistro livi or a SRP Lynn Abrams modular both fine strops any good leather strop will work it is a personal choice I have all types but my choice is the two I from above.

Originally Posted by easyace

The real reason for my reply is, that I'm really interested in seeing the printed scales, if you get round to it.

I'll be sure to make several of them. What I have available right now is PLA plastic which is usually transparent or colored bright. I'll post them on this thread when I get down to it! thanks!

I have two Hart razors, a 6/8 round point, and a 7/8 square point. As stated, any strop will do, however, I do notice really good results with an Illinois 827 strop, and they are not expensive. You can find them on Amazon, amongst other places. Also, I recommend you give the new razor a good stropping before you use it. Some recommend you not strop it before the first shave, but in my experience, a good stropping before it's first use resulted in an excellent silky smooth edge. Good luck.

Originally Posted by IamSt8ght

I have two Hart razors, a 6/8 round point, and a 7/8 square point. As stated, any strop will do, however, I do notice really good results with an Illinois 827 strop, and they are not expensive. You can find them on Amazon, amongst other places. Also, I recommend you give the new razor a good stropping before you use it. Some recommend you not strop it before the first shave, but in my experience, a good stropping before it's first use resulted in an excellent silky smooth edge. Good luck.

Quick caveat: We recommend that new shavers not strop before their first shave, since their stropping skills might not be up to par and they'll damage the edge. Hence, they won't experience the edge as it should be. Many pro honers also recommend no stropping before shaving from their edge, for the same reason.

So, Ticklemebacon, if you haven't stropped before, use your blade first, watch some stropping videos, and practice with a butter knife before you start stropping for real.

I just tried this before posting it as advice a couple of days ago: make a strop out of a single thickness of newsprint and one bulldog clip (those black springy paperclips). A quarter width of a standard newspaper page is a good size. Clip one end and anchor the clip to something solid, then practice stropping on that. If you pull the paper out of the clip, you're pulling the strop too hard. If you cut through the paper, oops! Good thing that wasn't a really expensive piece of leather!

Also, newsprint is perfectly fine as a stropping medium, so you can get started even if your real strop hasn't arrived yet.

Best wishes.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Quick caveat: We recommend that new shavers not strop before their first shave, since their stropping skills might not be up to par and they'll damage the edge. Hence, they won't experience the edge as it should be. Many pro honers also recommend no stropping before shaving from their edge, for the same reason.

Thanks for the suggestion! I actually taught classes on blade maintenance for ages 10-21 for a few years (not razors however), I doubt stropping is too different as I've already seen several instruction videos (my favorite were the ones off this site on YouTube) and I'm sure I'll pick up on it without too much of a struggle. If anything I would probably excel more in honing than stropping because I taught the same technique!

I made this suggestion to another guy last week--send a PM to our member unit (that's his screen name, unit). He's a long-time and very accomplished knife honer who has recently taken up razors as well. Not all knife honing skills translate. He probably knows better than most of us which ones do and don't. Many razor honers (myself included) don't have experience on knives, so we can't really speak to them. Occasionally we read a tale of Major Woe from someone who took their nice blade to a professional knife honer and got it ruined.

I hope this doesn't sound patronizing. I'm just erring on the side of caution, since those tales of Major Woe are always so Majorly Woeful.