Thread: Not shaving well...

That would be a True Fix. Knock it down and start over on the edge. That is if you hone. Or send it out for honing. No more guessing or playing this way.

Thanks Glen. I will upload a pic of the edge tonight. It’s a Joe Chandler that I bought from Charlie Larson(He used to be involved with the forums).

I will probably give my face is a break and retry over the weekend. I wish I had a bevel setting stone because it would be easier if I just reset it. However it would be risky because it’s such a nice blade and I don’t want to damage it.

Pic is below. Hopefully it is clear enough. Thank you.

If it has never shaved well I would assume the bevel wasn’t quite set, or if a recent restore the edge may be a little rotten. Pretty easy to tell, if you get any glinting off the where the edge should be that’s pretty tell tale. If all you have is a 12k I’d use it as an excuse to get a 4/8k combo.

If you are familiar with any members near by that hone, that would be the best. It looks like the last 1/3 is pretty rough. I am guessing it needs a full progression. If you are very content to continue to touchbup and maintain your edges, send it out. You have enough razors you could wait until there is a meet that you would like to attend.

If the razor never shaved well, and you have been shaving with straights long enough to be proficient, then you may have to go back a few steps at a time, possibly all the way to setting a new bevel.

12,000 grit is o.k. for maintaining an edge that has deteriorated slightly, but it is not a good tool to repair chips and nicks, let alone set the bevel.

If you had a range of hones you could go back one or two more steps and see whether that cures the problem. With my hones, I would go back to 7,000 grit before taking the razor to the 12,000, and then 20,000.
If that doesn’t work, I might try the 5,000, but chances are that I would rather set a new bevel on the 3,000 or 1,000.
I found that if there was a decent bevel before and not much steel needs to be removed the 3,000 usually works rather well.

If you don’t have a range of hones (at least something like a 4,000 and 8,000 grit), you may save yourself a lot of frustration and wasted time by sending the razor away for expert honing.
It’s perfectly fine to stay with a single 12,000 grit hone if you just want to maintain the edge and are not into restoring razors, as this course of action may be more sensible than spending on a range of hones that you will rarely use.

Honing, like stropping and shaving, are three disciplines that need to be learned and mastered and a mistake in one of them may make a decent shave impossible.

When honing, I think of stones as the tools that give me the required sharpness, and pasted strops as the tools that give me the desired smoothness after honing.


Lastly, what razor are we actually talking about and where did it come from?
You said it never shaved well, so it could just be a question of starting afresh by setting a bevel and progress from there, but there are also razors that never amount to much, no matter who hones them or how often they are honed.
Could be the material or how it was heat-treated, but let’s face it, sometimes we end up with a razor that is just crap, will always be, and doesn’t deserve our attention. :-)

A good, reputable razor maker will, however, back his product and rectify a problem.


B.

Originally Posted by beluga

When honing, I think of stones as the tools that give me the required sharpness, and pasted strops as the tools that give me the desired smoothness after honing.B.

I only use synthetic hones, Naniwas, and have found the comment on using pasted strops for smoothness to be so true for me. That came as a bit of a surprise.

Bob

I do have a 4K/8k but I rather just have it sharpened by a pro. I have only dealt with Larry(Whipped Dog) and Roctraitor(Sam from Reddit). I’ll try to buy a beater soon so I can learn to hone. Just to risky with the razor. Any recommendations on who to send it to?

Hopefully this razor ends up working out. Costs me $355. In the past I had a TI that never shaved well even after sending it out.