Thread: 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.