Thread: Better steel?

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

My problem is I love to hone, I mean I really love it. I hate that term but some would describe my take on it as "zen." I rather use the term meditative. I wind up finishing razors that don't even need it. People ask how long an edge will last. I have no idea. I never let them get there. Trouble is I run out of things to bevel set which is most fun part.

Haha, try get some cheap ones from AliExpress? Then you can deal with all kinds of issue you can imagine. Maybe that a step too far, just for the sake of sharpening...

Originally Posted by mrjin

I have only just above 20, and I find myself not touching most of them already...

I like restoring them, so that's why I have so many. Once you've become proficient with their use, it's like riding a bike. It's a razor, made for hair removal.

Old thread but here's my 2 cents: steel quality has vastly improved since the 1960s and more so in recent years. Look at knife steels. Who would have thought S110V, Maxament, Magnacut, and other steels would exist even fifteen years ago. Firearm steel has greatly improved and that is why older guns often cannot fire modern ammunition and why they change a cartridge ever so slightly so it won't chamber in an older gun. The steel is inferior. Now we have cartridges that have 80k psi and the steel has to stand up to that.

Razor steel has improved just by osmosis or by trickle down. Thiers Issard uses a steel that they run to 65hrc or better. That level of hardness was not normally to be found 50 years ago and if it were, the razor would be brittle. Sure, there were some, but modern steels have improved, even good old standby basic steels have been improved.

Because this thread needs a picture:

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

My problem is I love to hone, I mean I really love it. I hate that term but some would describe my take on it as "zen." I rather use the term meditative. I wind up finishing razors that don't even need it. People ask how long an edge will last. I have no idea. I never let them get there. Trouble is I run out of things to bevel set which is most fun part.

Start running meets in your area. The biggest part of teaching honing is teaching people to set bevels so you'll do a lot of it. My favorite way was to stop honing just short of the bevel being fully set and then have the student identify, using the fingernail test, which parts were fully set and which areas needed more work.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

Start running meets in your area. The biggest part of teaching honing is teaching people to set bevels so you'll do a lot of it. My favorite way was to stop honing just short of the bevel being fully set and then have the student identify, using the fingernail test, which parts were fully set and which areas needed more work.

That's a good idea but maybe a bit out of my wheelhouse. I don't have a suitable place and there aren't any members near.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

That's a good idea but maybe a bit out of my wheelhouse. I don't have a suitable place and there aren't any members near.

The last one that I did was held at a condo neighborhood community room of one of the participants Try advertising on B+B.