Thread: Setting new bevel.

Originally Posted by jfk742

Similar for sure, same thing as the spine to edge setting the geometry, use electrical tape on the spine until you get a feel for using the the spine as a fulcrum, it will teach you proper pressure without unnecessarily wearing out the spine from too much down pressure. After setting the bevel with some torque applied run the edge on the side of your hone really lightly or drag it through a cork, felt, or a piece of wood to make sure you removed any possible burr then go back to the bevel setting hone (I use a 1k) and give it a few light strokes to bring the edge back. Learning to get a good bevel set is the hardest part of the whole thing, same as with a knife. The foundation of your house so to speak.

This was incredibly helpful. Back to the stones!

On that subject, what do most people prefer in their hones? Thanks to my other hobby, I have a fairly stupid amount of options. What seems to work best? Harder stones? Softer stones? Natural stones? So many options.

For synthetics, Naniwas are very popular.

Originally Posted by outback

I too have honed knives since I was very young, somewhere around the age of 6 or 7. And found honing razors to be a bit more technical than knives.

I freehand hone, with the use of no holding jigs for angles. Its all done by repeating muscle memory, which to me is more difficult than razors. Also why most knives have a convexing bevel. So I give u kudo's on the knife honing, their not as easy as some make out, either

Some razors are done with a double bevel, hence...micro bevel.

Your gonna have a blast with razors, they'll really up your game on knife edges, too.

Jigs never held much appeal to me. I like the relationship between me, the knife, and the stone. Jigs just seem like they'd muddy up the waters.

As a backgrounder, I hardly have any experience sharpening knives so everything I learned in honing straight razors was from scratch. It would have been nice to have some one on one with an experienced razor honer to cut down on the learning curve but that was not possible. I'd say if you have that opportunity you should go for it.

I learned to hone on Naniwa synthetic hones as they are very consistent in grit as opposed to naturals which I am told are variable in that respect. So far that has worked for me over some years and only recently did I add another hone to the progression. That was also a synthetic hone, a Shapton 16000 glass hone.

To counter any burr I might have raised, I will do a couple of spine leading strokes on a hone followed by a few more edge leading strokes to finish on that hone.

Bob

First, post clear pics of your razor for better advice.

Drop the Imperia stone from the progression, any natural stone introduces a number of variables into the learning process and is doubtful it is finer that 8-10k anyway. That a vendor grit rates a natural stone is questionable and makes the stone itself questionable.

Do tape the spine, and as said most probably the bevel is not fully set, a very common issue especially when edge correction work is done with a very low grit stone.

Generally, with vintage razors, if there is a spine issue it is that the spine is too thin, not thick, as said.

I would use a dedicated strop for razors only, strop contamination is an issue. I even use dedicated hones for razors, but stones can be lapped and cleaned to be used for both. It can be difficult if not impossible to clean a strop that has been used to strop knives and or tools.

Many of us come to razors from sharpening knives, where folks have difficulty is letting go of knife sharpening process and learn a new technique with new tools. Yes, they are similarities, but very different. Sharp is easy, smooth and comfortable is a whole other issue. Where most knives are finished is the starting process for razors.

As once said, it’s like a cowboy jumping on a motorcycle saying, “this can’t be too tough, saying “Giddy up”, spurring the oil tank and dumfounded when nothing happens.

Its not that tough, just different.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

First, post clear pics of your razor for better advice.

Drop the Imperia stone from the progression, any natural stone introduces a number of variables into the learning process and is doubtful it is finer that 8-10k anyway. That a vendor grit rates a natural stone is questionable and makes the stone itself questionable.

Do tape the spine, and as said most probably the bevel is not fully set, a very common issue especially when edge correction work is done with a very low grit stone.

Generally, with vintage razors, if there is a spine issue it is that the spine is too thin, not thick, as said.

I would use a dedicated strop for razors only, strop contamination is an issue. I even use dedicated hones for razors, but stones can be lapped and cleaned to be used for both. It can be difficult if not impossible to clean a strop that has been used to strop knives and or tools.

Many of us come to razors from sharpening knives, where folks have difficulty is letting go of knife sharpening process and learn a new technique with new tools. Yes, they are similarities, but very different. Sharp is easy, smooth and comfortable is a whole other issue. Where most knives are finished is the starting process for razors.

As once said, it’s like a cowboy jumping on a motorcycle saying, “this can’t be too tough, saying “Giddy up”, spurring the oil tank and dumfounded when nothing happens.

Its not that tough, just different.

Yeah, a dedicated strop is an option, but if I get another stone, there's no way I'm not going to run some knives on it. I got the Imperia based off of a Dr. Matt recommendation, and if I need to drop it, I can live with that, as I love it for knives already. What would be a good replacement? How high of grit is necessary?

Just drop it for now. Perfect the 10k to get the hang of honing and finishing a razor, then once you got it down, test the Imperia and see if it improves a 10k edge.

A 10k edge stropped on Chrome Oxide should be a very keen, comfortable edge. You can paste a piece of cardboard, inside of a cereal box with good pure Chrome Oxide, or make a dedicated Chrome Ox strop with a piece of nylon or cotton strapping from a fabric store.

You can go for more, that it the 2% that we all chase.

Nessesary is also an option. Some say 8k is a finisher and others say its a pre-finisher. With synthetic stone i finish on 20k. That is nessesary for me. But id say 12k is where most would feel is the finest needed for razors.

As Marty said, its a different way of honing. A razor has a smooth edge. A knife has a toothy edge. I use a microscope to check my edge at 100x. And the edge looks like a straight line. That is where the smooth come in.

How does everyone feel about 1 micron diamond compound on balsa for finishing? That's an option too. I've got too many options.

Little coarse IMHO, if an edge needs that much work I would just go back to a stone. In the rare event that I do use paste it's usually .25 diamond on felt. However there are people who strop on even finer pastes. I would focus on just plain leather stropping for the meantime. Stropping on abrasives will only exacerbate any faults in your technique, just my 2 cents.

-Laramie-