Thread: The good and the not so good

Just recently completed the few hones that I wanted to restore razors with. Happy to report that bevel setting is going faster with my new chosera 1k rather than attempting on my norton 4k, even if I still have some learning to do.

Anyhoo, Picked up a couple new straights to restore and mess around with and came up with some unexpected results. From right to left I have S.R.Droescher Blue diamond, an unmarked antique shop special, and my first Wade & Butcher off ebay


The Blue diamond is my daily shaver, after a year stint with a beard getting this puppy honed and stropped to it's current state has been a dream now that I have to be clean shaven every day for work. Especially after experiencing the heartbreak of shattering my brand new Revisor 6/8ths a sad sad lesson learned. Even though I love my blue diamond I have a preference for heavier 6/8th's straights.

I purchased the two on the left with the hopes of restoring them, I had high expectations for the wade but sadly I feel I have fallen victim to the flaws of ebay purchasing, though half of the edge cleaned up nicely the tow has too much pitting and despite my laboring does not seem capable of developing a clean bevel. I am hoping that it is just my honing, but looking under the scope the pitting continues all the way to the edge even after copious amounts of material have been removed. Now half of the blade passes the hht and shave test and the rest does not. Perhaps it's because I'm not used to honing a smiling edge.

On the other hand the middle blade, 6/8th's half hollow was sitting covered in active rust at the local antique shop. I purchased it for 5 dollars, no markings on the blade, with the intention of practicing my honing skills. I had absolutely no expectations for it . I didn't even bother to polish the blade up before honing just removed the active rust and started honing away. After more hours than I care to recount it blew me away and developed a wonderful edge. It now passes the hht and shave test wonderfully and is becoming a new favorite in my rotation! A small miracle, who would have guessed.

As another bit of good news I went down to our local leather shop and picked up a strip of scrap latigo for 5 bucks to replace my abused 3" strop. Had him cut it to 2.5" and absolutely love it!

after all the honing and testing people look at me funny when I roll up my sleeves

Haven't posted anything for a while, just wanted to share the goings on in my pursuit of this wonderful hobby.

Thanks for all the help I've received from the members here



Cheers - Sailor

Looks like you have things in order & your enjoying the journey. That's all that really matters.

What is that green stone?

Naniwa chosera 1k

I have a boat load of stones and my go to progression is exactly what you have there. You may want to add a Chrome Oxide strop, paddle or hanging and if you are going to do restores that require edge correction a diamond plate will make your life much easier.

Recently there was a thread about inexpensive no brand name Diamond plates and several posted as I did and have found some of these cheap plates are pretty good.

Glen has correctly said Restoration begins at purchase, and no truer word have been written. Spend a little more money (20-30 dollars) and you can find some very, very nice razors that will serve you well. Remember there are a lot of razors out there, waiting for you to find and save them.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

I have a boat load of stones and my go to progression is exactly what you have there. You may want to add a Chrome Oxide strop, paddle or hanging and if you are going to do restores that require edge correction a diamond plate will make your life much easier.

Recently there was a thread about inexpensive no brand name Diamond plates and several posted as I did and have found some of these cheap plates are pretty good.

Glen has correctly said Restoration begins at purchase, and no truer word have been written. Spend a little more money (20-30 dollars) and you can find some very, very nice razors that will serve you well. Remember there are a lot of razors out there, waiting for you to find and save them.

Yeah! I love my stone progression now, I also have a couple diamond plates for lapping and extensive repairs. I have to get more comfortable using tape though, I don't like the way it gums up and wears down, however I think using a couple layers would be preferable to how much ware I put on the spine of that middle razor. That being said it shaves really well at this point. And I really like the weight behind it.

I have tried a pasted balsa strop with cro, and really like the result but at this point I just put a little bit of fine diamond paste on the webbing part of my strop then finish up on the leather. The shave test is all that I really need from them, but every time I finish a razor I try to make the full length of the edge pass the HHT easily. Lately I have been having trouble with my smiling edge wade, I don't know if it's the smile or if it is too pitted but I can't seem to get that toe to come around. I may end up taking it to the diamond plate to try and get past it, though I would hate to put unnecessary ware on that one as well.

I've also been thinking about restoring a bunch of inexpensive razors and seeing if my local barber shop (which is awesome, they still hold out and use real straights even though they technically have to use disposable blades for sanitation reasons) would let me sell them there. I would hope to drum up some interest around here as there doesn't seem to be much activity.

Can you post some close up photos of the problem areas, perhaps we can make some recommendations.

I only like to use the DMTs if I have to remove a lot of metal and even then just get close to finish and do the final metal removal with a 1K.

I could not get as close up a photo as I would have liked but this was the best I could do with the phone camera.

When I purchased the razor off ebay it was listed as "mirror finish" which I suppose it is. But it also has marks that look like a dremel was taken to it and the pitting obviously goes all the way to the edge. I can see it with the naked eye even after removing a decent amount of material.