Thread: W&B Project

Dude, I'm far from "senior member"! But yes, it was sanded up through the grits. I'd start high, you can always go to lower grits, but it's hard to sand out big scratches once you've made them. Start by soaking. It will really surprise you.

Hey guys, I gave this razor to a local straight razor barber at a client's barber shop for honing. When I got it back, it was as dull as a stick. Grr. I took it to a friend who just got a Japanese water stone and we tried to hone it, I first gave it 30 passes on the 1000 grit, then 60 on the 6000. Then 40 on the strop. Dull. My buddy gave it roughly the same treatment. Dull. I went 50/100/40. Slightly sharper. But I'm afraid the blade is curved somewhat, and it doesn't seem to be sharpening evenly. I think I'll send it off to be sharpened. Any suggestions or volunteers?

stop trying it yourself, don't give it to a barber. Look through the vendors section and fine one of the "honemeisters" who will do that excellent blade justice.

Cool, I'll search one out. In the mean time, anyone out there able to give me a quote or point me to someone you know does good work?

Originally Posted by TwistedOak

stop trying it yourself, don't give it to a barber. Look through the vendors section and fine one of the "honemeisters" who will do that excellent blade justice.

+100. Please stop. This isn't meant to be harsh, but rather truthful. You don't know what you're doing and experimenting aimlessly is not going to make anything better. I don't hone either, rather I send my blades to someone who doesn't have to experiment, and gets great, repeatable results every time.

Take a gander through the classifieds under Member Services. It will probably cost around $15-$25 and it will be right when you get it back.

Originally Posted by mkbolivianwonder

Hey guys, I gave this razor to a local straight razor barber at a client's barber shop for honing. When I got it back, it was as dull as a stick. Grr. I took it to a friend who just got a Japanese water stone and we tried to hone it, I first gave it 30 passes on the 1000 grit, then 60 on the 6000. Then 40 on the strop. Dull. My buddy gave it roughly the same treatment. Dull. I went 50/100/40. Slightly sharper. But I'm afraid the blade is curved somewhat, and it doesn't seem to be sharpening evenly. I think I'll send it off to be sharpened. Any suggestions or volunteers?

It most likely needs much more work on the 1000 grit, until the job there is down doing higher grit is pointless. Since neither you, your friend, or the barber know what you're doing you should simply let somebody else who knows take care of it. If you want to learn how to restore the edge of razors in such condition you should prepare yourself with patience, and start by reading the honing section, as well as the various articles on honing in the library/wiki.

have fun

I've read a lot in the forums and studied about this, I'm aware that we may have needed to use a lower grit stone, its just that we only have the one stone... Im hoping to get my own set with several grits for christmas. But that's why I was asking around for referrals. I was a bit surprised the barber didn't know how to hone properly, he must use disposable straights or something, he told me he could hone it, so that was dissapointing. My friend and I have honed other straights before, to a very nice edge, but this one is different, either it was too dull as you say and needed a rougher stone, or it could be that the blade is warped or curved in a weird way. I don't have the experience to tell what exactly the problem was, hence the forum question. Thanks for the response

first nice score on the W&B

Second Honing is a B to learn. Its going to take lots of practice and some times you will will accidentally get it right. You need to get that one done by a pro. Buy a kick around razor off of Ebay or an antique mall that you dont care about and practice honing on it, having your other razor honed by a pro will help you determine the success of your edge. Use magic marker on the bevel to see how your strokes affect the edge. Most importantly ask questions and listen to the answers. You will feel like an idiot sometimes for your mistakes (trust me I make them daily) but you can always count on someone here to help you figure out a solution.

as for stones I have a king 800/4000 combo I use for setting new bevel's. Hasnt let me down yet and its a cheaper stone to learn on. Just keep it flat and soak it for 20 min. Oh and do yourself a favor and watch GSsixgun's channel on youtube to see what honing looks like when done properly. #$%#@# make's it look so simple lol

Well this is where the hard stuff comes, it's not that you can't do it, but it takes a lot of experience to learn how to set the bevel when the razor is challenging. Barbers generally haven't had to do this type of edge restoration, what they usually do is just maintenance. Of course some barbers can, but it's just not something that they're expected to do.
It's quite possible that the steel is bad and the razor is at the stage of being just a decoration too, or it may be just a matter of more work, the thing is that unless you have the experience you can't really tell, and there isn't a shortcut to getting there.

You should be able to get the razor with the hones you have (I know that almost anybody here would consider that edge after the 6k and stropping inferior, but if that's your current standard and you're happy with it, you can get any good razor there with the hones you have). 1000 grit is pretty good for doing bevel work. I've spent hours on some razors on the 1k level just because I wanted to be extra careful and slowly take away the bad steel and no more than that, while at the same time preserving the condition as close to what it was, so speeding the work with increasing the pressure was out of question (on flexible blades it's counterproductive and widens the bevel unnecessarily).

So, don't feel bad, but if you don't have anybody good locally to do it in person the next most useful thing would be to mail it to somebody that's really good and ask for their feedback on what was the problem and how they did it.
Otherwise the standard recipe would be stay on the 1k level until the bevel is properly set no matter how long that takes, but you don't really know what a properly set bevel is, or what problems may be preventing you to get there. Using sharpie marker and magnification you can detect double bevel and if your magnification is high quality you can also detect rotten or just poor quality steel, but that's the stuff that you should've already picked up from just reading the honing section, so I suspect it isn't a new info that'll help you.

References - as it was suggested, take a look at the classifieds in the member services section and you'll find a whole lot of people. Of course, they all have different level of experience, but any on the present list is more than good enough to fix your razor if it's fixable.

As above. 30 strokes on 1k on an old Sheffield is wishful thinking for a new bevel but on a +ve note the bevels look pretty true, just relying on the pics.
I doubt you have a warped blade but someone whose done a few could tell you for sure
As Gugi said steel quality can be a big ? on old razors but it will be evident to an experienced honer after a bit of hone time on it.