Help with Sharpening a Wostenholm...

Hi,

Here's my setup:

King Japanese Waterstone (1000 grit)
Norton 4000/8000 combo
Natural China Guanxhi Polishing Stone (12000 grit)
Japanese Nagura Stone (for making slurries)
Norton Lapping Stone

I cleaned up a beautiful Geroge Wostenholm and Sons I-XL Sheffield Razor. When I finished I noticed a small chip in the center of the bevel on the blade that did not extend pass the bevel, plus this shaver was not shave-ready. Now I'm new at this, so I figured the 1000 grit is good for bringing back an edge since 1000 Japanese is even a bit coarser than that US. Anyway, I started with the 1000 grit and worked to a bevel. The 1000 is almost 3" wide and I may have put a bit of pressure. Either way, I got ride of any chips in the bevel and worked to a decent bevel on both sides of the razor, though I found it hard keeping the razor level when doing the X-Pattern. I also did a few passes on the norton 4000/8000, but did not go to the 12000. After that I tried cutting a few hairs from my arm. I did strop. Cut a few hairs, but missed most and picked up more surface skin cells than anything else. :( So my questions:

1. Is it necessary to go through the 4000/8000 a few passes and the 12000 in order to cut some hair or should it be cutting at this point?

2. What do you suggest I do next?

3. I found that my film of water was depleting unevenly on my stone, does that mean I need a good lap? If so, how many times do I lap per stone.

4. I noticed on my shave-ready razors there is a very slight bevel, howver on this Wostenholm I notice a more pronounced bevel. Do I need to keep cutting to get that bevel down some?

5. Is it possible that too much pressure is killing this process? I did notice some scraping on the stones and constantly had to put water on them.

I don't wanna wear down this razor and probably did quite a few passes on the 1000. I chose the stones I did because they seemed to be most cost effective for me. Also, I want to learn to do this on my own and not have it sent out, hence the reason I bought the stones. And yes I have the Bill Ellis CD and Lynn Abrams CD. I will also tell you I have a shave ready Wapienica and Solingen Razor by Josh Earl. Thank you in advance for your responses.

Hopefully others with more expertise will jump in here, but...

1. I've read you should be clipping arm hairs before you leave the 4K. I have trouble doing this, but I'm certainly clipping arm hairs after my first pyramid.

2. I'd go back to the 4K until its sharp along the whole edge.

3. I would lap the stone. Draw a grid with a pencil on remove it on your lapping surface.

4. I don't think you need to worry too much about the width of the bevel on a vintage razor (anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong).

5. Once the chips are gone, you don't need a lot of pressure. Use no more than the weight of the blade.

Good luck!

Jordan

I am not an expert but here is what I did to a blade I had that was chipped. First I had a piece of glass and I taped a piece of 2000 grit wet dry sandpaper down on it. I then began to hone on the sand paper until the chip was gone. At this point it was cutting hair, not well but it was cutting. I then moved to a pasted strop with .5 micron paste and proceeded to do about 10 passes. Then I switched over to a regular strop and did roughly 50 passes. By the time I repeated the stropping set 3 times it was cutting hairs well. You can take this as you may but it worked for this blade I hope that another more experienced person that hones can step in and set the record straight. Have fun and good luck.

3) Definitely do the grid thing. Use coarser paper, 400 grit.

4) In my experience any razors with more wear have wider bevels. I wonder sometimes if older razors might not have been made with as much machining precision (i.e. hand made, or less precision grind equipment....). This would make the uneven bevels I've noticed on older razors.
Absolutely critical is the marker test or the edge uniformity test. Its heavy reading but well worth it.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=31640


5) Too much pressure doesn't exist for setting a bevel. Your hands will get tired by the time the bevel is restored. It takes a lot to grind out metal even at 1000 grit. That being said, don't spend more than an hour at a time. Check it often. Afterward ease up and do it right.

Definetely lap the hones. I was all over the place with honing my first razors until I got them flat. You need to lap them until they're flat, so use the grid method to show you when they are there.

You should be able to start back up on the Norton 4K when you start honing again. No significant pressure should be needed. It should be cutting hair decently off of the 4K.

Wider bevels are normal on old razors, and they're usually bigger on the wedges too.