Thread: Advice on a beginner set-up

I now have a few razors that are being made shave ready by very experienced honers that I have reached through a shaving forum. Once i have them I do plan to straight shave, maybe once a week with DE shaving the rest of the time. I have the "Filly" strop from RupRazors to keep my shaving razors in shape.

However, I'd appreciate advice on a set-up for restorations. I'd like to find some razors at antique stores and get into restorations as a hobby - gradually learn the skills and see where it takes me and how much I enjoy it. I am assuming that I will not buy antiques that have notable rust or major chips etc, but that they could be butterknife dull and smiling/frowning.


A local store carrys some hones (I can save a ton by not needing shipping) so I was thinking of buying:

Norton 220/1000 wet stone (8"x3")
Norton 4000/8000 wet stone (8"x3")

I have the strop to continue beyond the 8000 grit.

So my specific questions (beyond looking for general advice on suitability for a beginner, bang for the buck, etc):

1) would I need a stone, maybe a 2000, that would fit between the 1000 and the 4000?
2) would I need a stone, maybe a Chinese 12000, to use after the 8000 but before the strop?

Thanks in advance.

This is not advice. I am not qualified to give advice.

If you have a Woodcraft store near you they carry the Chinese 12K.

After that, I strop on newspaper (lots of laps) before going to the canvas then leather.

Welcome to SRP.

You might find the following articles in our Wiki useful:

1. What hone(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Wiki
2. Easily make a pasted balsa strop - Straight Razor Place Wiki
3. Honing a damaged blade - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Good luck, and keep us posted.

I can offer a little on this but am not anywhere near as proficient as many here are. And since I seem to have insomnia at the moment, I'll dive in here some...

As far as stones go, I have 4 from Norton. 220/1K and the 4k/8k. It's actually 2 blocks with different grits on each side. I use the lowest (rougher) only rarely and only for badly damaged or seriously dull edges, or to reshape a part of a blade, then step up the grits as I feel the blade start to smooth out on the stone. If you buy a few SRs off Ebay you'll eventually need the power of the rougher stone. I like the Nortons because they use water as opposed to oil. But I guess any stone will work as long as you can step up the grit as you go along. I considered using stones simply marked "rough" "medium" and "fine" but decided to go with stones that have a defined grit to them so that I know exactly what grit I'm using. Which ever way you decide to go make sure you keep your stone surfaces nice and flat. I've read and heard that advice many times and it makes sense. Tough to put on a good even edge when the stone surface is concave!

I've been thinking about 2 more stones as well, something along the lines of 12k and 16 or 18k but i want to poke around some here to see if the 12k and 16k are are basically the same as the other stop I use. That other strop I use for "almost strop ready" blades. I put coarse paste on one leather side and fine paste on the other leather side. So I go from stones to the paste, then felt strop then finish it all up with the good leather strop (3" wide I picked up at SRD). What I'm trying to find is the best way to fill the gap between the 8k stone and the strop with the paste on it - or do I even need another step. It MAY be that an old barber's stone is for that purpose but I haven't had time to check that out yet.

I also have a 6" grinding/polishing machine with 2 wheels that I plan to use once I get it dusted off and oiled back up. It may be that 6" wheels are too large but I plan to try them out on a test blade anyway. The point of that would be to cover more space on a blade with a wire brush wheel and felt wheels than I can with a Dremel. That's going to be mostly for blades with a lot of rust and spots where I need to work the entire blade surface and to polish large areas of a blade faster. That's my theory anyway.

That's all about putting on an edge. The other part to consider is getting a blade and scales back into shape - or to take a bay purchase that has good metal but is rusted over ready for shaving again.

A Dremel is a must-have tool. Based on Lynn's DVD I picked up a battery powered one to compliment my AC powered one. At times you'll want the rotation to be slower than the AC Dremel will go. The stones get me from a dull or broken edge to one that's ready for a strop. The Dremel gets me from a nasty old rust laden and pitted piece of Tetanus-on-the-wing to a new blade. For that I use the Dremel's wire brush and felt wheel attachments (and maybe the 6" wheel). After I remove all rust and pitting that I can, then I start in on the blade with various Dremel bits for polishing. A can of MAAS is good to have as well but I'll also use white rouge with a felt wheel on the Dremel to finish up a blade before starting on the stone. Lynn covers the touch-up process using a Dremel in his DVD and I think some of that part may be on small videos in here as well.

I haven't gotten to scales restoration or building yet except to pop the collars on pins and remove them and then remove scales. I'd think various small jigsaws may be good to have once you get into making scales - but I'm guessing on that. I'm looking around now for scale material as well as a few different types of pins and spacers but haven't found any yet. Some materials I'm interested in for scales are bone, ivory, wood, and even other materials that may stand up to water and a bit of weight. I'm just guessing here but it seems that getting the correct thickness is a real time saver there - I'd rather have to just shape some material as opposed to having to slice it to the desired thickness. But that may change.

There are a ton of Honemeisters as well as restoration gurus here that can give you a lot more info than I can. Also there are a few videos around in here that help as well. Please post any links you find in your search so we all can take a look. I've got so much going on with learning and getting proficient with all this that I have to start taking notes and bookmarking info sites! This can certainly become a massively time (and money) consuming hobby if you allow it! But something this much fun and that serves a practical purpose can't be all bad.

1) You don't need a stone to fit between the norton 4k and 8k.

2) You don't NEED a stone after the 8k, you _can_ shave right off of it, however, most people, including myself, prefer to take it to a higher grit stone. The chinese 12k is a good cheap option here. Another good options is the naniwa 12k that SRD (Straight Razor Designs) sells. This stone is gaining a lot of popularity as being an awesome 12k stone, but it's a little more pricey. If you're on a budget, start with the chinese 12k, IMHO.

Welcome to SRP. If I had it to do over and I was just starting out I would get a DMT D8E 1200 continuous plate, a Norton 4/8, the Naniwa 12k and some chrom ox. If money wasn't an issue I would also get a DMT D8C 325 to lap the hones. Otherwise I would use sandpaper on a flat surface. There are a lot of options.

This is all very helpful! I'll check out the wiki articles tht I have not seen yet. And thanks AirColorado for the detailed response.

About shaving once a week with a straight and the rest of the time with a DE: When I started out a few months ago, my plan was also to only shave with a straight during the weekend. But now I use a straight exclusively. There are several posts where members mention the same effect.
So welcome to the club.