Thread: Getting It Razor Sharp??

Originally Posted by Inked666

Hi guys

As some of you know I'm new to straight razors and Im having a few problems getting my razor sharp enough to shave with.


When I bought my razor it was already very sharp but not quite sharp enough to shave the hair on my arm ( no funny jokes i was only shaving my arm to test the razor...lol), so I gave it a good stropping (why does that always sound dirty) and it was a lot better but it still wasn't quite there, so I bought some DOVO red paste and stropped with that first and then on a plain stop and it now cleanly shaves the hairs on my arm but it pulls like mad if I try shave my face with it.


The strop I have is in two pieces, one piece is smooth leather on the outside (the side I've been doing my normal strop on) and raw leather on the other side, and the other piece is a sort of faux leather (i think) on the outside and a sort of thin fleece material on the other side (the side I've been applying the paste).

I'm thinking of buying one of those cheap woven canvas strops to see if it makes any difference with the paste.


Is there anything else I can do to get it razor sharp?

I don't have enough experience to give you advice because I don't know the "best" way to proceed so I'll just tell you what I did. What I did was based on advice similar to some of the posts in this thread along with the fact that I had no skill and little money to use to have shave ready razors. Everyone said I needed to have a shave ready razor honed by a pro or very experienced person. I found this to be a necessity for anyone just starting. The main reason is so we will know what a truely shave ready razor shaves like. Seems EVERYONE needs to be able to strop but not everyone needs to or wants to hone their razors. I decided up front I wanted to hone mine. To have a shave ready razor I bought a $41 shave ready razor at whippeddog.com. I had already been attempting to hone a Boker razor a friend had given me. I was getting it sharp enough to shave with even though it was no where close to "shave ready" standards experienced straight shavers have. So when I got the shave ready razor I could see and feel a huge difference in how it shaved. So now I have a shave ready razor that I need to maintain by stropping. Since my stropping skill was horrible I quickly destroyed the "shave readiness" of that razor. But I could take both to the stones to get the edge back then strop and I'd then have two razors that were sharp enough that most would send them to be professionally honed. But they would still shave. I decided to live with terrible shaves until I had gotten good enough at honing and stropping to maintain my own razors.

Normally you don't need to take the razor to the stones very often at all if you can strop well. But until you can strop well you will be dulling the edge a little as you strop. Don't be mad or even surprised. This is just a learning curve we all need to go through. I did anyway. But,,, since I was needing to use my stones more often I was developing skill with them. Then I would strop also of course so I was getting better at that also. Even when the edge was as sharp as I could get it I'd still strop just for practice. All the time I was working on this honing and stropping skill I asked questions (no matter how stupid) and watched videos, etc. Lynn's video on youtube where he demonstrates using Shapton glass stones is the best video I remember. Not the fact that he used any particular stones. It was because he went through the whole process on a razor from setting the bevel to stropping and having it shave ready. Watching that video and then doing it on both my razors taught me more than I had learned previously. Up to then I had learned bits and pieces of when to hone, when to strop or whatever. Anyway, even though the bevels were already set on my razors I did the circle motions and processed through the stone just like Lynn did. I have the Shapton glass stones he used except the 30k grit. After I did that I used a "poor man's strop" I got from whippeddog.com. At this point I had been working on this skill for about 10-11 months. Now my edges were sharper than before. I could cut the hair on my arm above the skin once in a while. Not consistently but in about three passes I'd pop one hair off. This was an improvement. Then a couple of days ago I got the "rich man's strop" on whippeddog.com. This one is 3" wide and also has a poly webbing strop in addition to the leather one. I put some .3 micron chromium oxide on the webbing strop. Up to this point I have been practicing, working, getting depressed by dull edges, getting surprised when an edge turns out sharp, etc.

Suddenly, all of this stuff came together. I think it came together because of two major things. First, it was Lynn's video of taking a new razor out of a box, setting the bevel angle and proceeding until the edge was shave ready by anyone's standards. Seeing the whole process was very educational instead of seeing different portions of the process at different times. Second, the poly webbing strop has added a abrasive tool that seems to fill a gap between my 16k Shapton glass stone and the leather strop. After getting the new strop I took both razors to the 16k stone for 5-10 passes then I used the poly webbing strop (15 passes) and then the leather strop (50 passes). I still wasn't able to cut hairs on my arm above the skin very well. I tried the hanging hair test and once in a blue moon the edge would cut the hair. So I did another 25-30 passes on the leather strop and suddenly I was cutting every hair on the entire length of the razor (heel, middle, toe). I have shaved twice since I have been destroying hairs with the HHT and they have been very very nice.

I think I would have improved faster if I had just taken advice from people and sticking with it. What I did a lot was try something and if it didn't work right away I'd do something different. I think the key for fast (as possible) improvement is to get stones if you want to hone your own and a strop that has two strops. Seems there are differnt kinds but I got the one with leather and poly webbing (instead of linen) because of the good comments it got on this forum. I happened to already have the Shapton glass stones because I bought them for my knives. Except the 16k. I got it especially for honing razors. I thought about getting a 12k Naniwa or something because everyone likes them. But I decided to get the Shapton glass 16k because I knew it would work on razors and it would also add to a set I already had. I already loved these stones for knives and now I love them for razors also.

I still have a ways to go as far as honing skill of course but in less than one year I am getting my razors sharp enough to be considered shave ready. I'm sure Lynn and most others get their razors sharper and I hope to continue to improve. But to improve at any decent speed I will need to practice stropping even after my edges are as sharp as I can get them. So I'm going to use one of my razors to practice with in addition to shaving. I've read about over-honing or over-stropping and how that could damage an edge that you already had in good shape. I'll be over-doing both for a while so I'll see how that goes.

I hope I didn't get too long winded. I wanted to tell a success story along with how long it took be to get to the success part. I do want to emphasize that I have to double the number of strokes Lynn uses. He will say 4-7 strokes on an 8k then going to a 12 or 16k. It seems to get good results I need to use 10-15 strokes. I think this is due to my skill being far less. He gets more positive results on every stroke than I do so I need to perform more strokes. This theory may be right or wrong, I don't know. I would just recommend everyone just learning to use as many strokes as you need to. Even if we are doing too many strokes they all are contributing to the learning process. Even Lynn says the number of strokes he uses seem to be the "magic" number that works for him and others may need more (or less I suppose).

Ok that's all I'm done. This is my story and I hopes it helps someone else.


Jack