What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Interesting about honing and all the different stones and steps you can use to get a good edge. I have tried with many different steps/ stones and I have found out that mostly it’s enough with two or three stones.
Blunt razor (bad edge)
Shapton 2K
Naniwa 5K
JNAT Yaki-Ire 12K isch.
Remake a edge, just the two last.
Earlier I have used many more steps without getting any better results.


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Same here Hans, my progression is two synths + JNat. Which two depends on the condition of the bevel, but usually a 2k or 3k Shapton Glass HR followed by a 6k or 8k Shapton Glass HC.

If chip removal or geometry correction is needed, usually I use a diamond plate or slurried Shapton 320 Pro followed by whatever gets me to the progression above.

 

Sorry I missed your posts

It is from England by Drew Dick, believe it or not he has improved his angles since he started

He did his first razors and posted them here on TSD, I asked about his angle because the spines looked REALLY thin for a 7/8-8/8 size razor
At that time he told me he didn't much care about angles, he used 10 layers of tape to hone it, I tried to explain it, but of course I got the typical pushback
He left here, and went over to SRP and posted there, he got the same response from other makers, he left there, and I am pretty sure he only hangs out on FB now

He has improved the angles over the years, his oldest razors are WAY off needing 7-10 layers of tape, the next few years they needed about 5 layers

Now he is around 2-3 layers

I can't remember his old screen name here but I am pretty sure the exchange is still on here

Other than that his builds are solid, and his steel is good,

I call balls and strikes, I have zero affiliations with any of them...

 

Drew Dick had a rep for too skinny angles.

 

What a shame, because he makes some beautiful razors.

 

Here’s one that you don’t see too often, a Japanese aural razor, used by a barber to trim hair inside of the ear canal. I always wanted one but new ones in the states are expensive. They’re cheap in Japan but shipping kills you. But opportunity rewards the patient and I have a new one at a reasonable price.

The first attempt is not what I want and I’m unsure why, most likely I need to develop a different muscle memory. The edge looks good, bevel polished, edge straight and clean, and undercut on the hone is immense and stiction is felt. Yet it barely passes HHT and my first attempt at ‘hair sniping’ had a little pull. You don’t use these with lather of course.

The first thing that I did was measure the bevel angle. it’s 16.8 degrees and I put one layer of 1 mil Kapton on the omote (soft iron side) and none on the ura. On a razor this narrow, 0.290”, it boosted the angle by one degree so I’ve got 17.8 degrees more or less, the angle is different on each side.

Only the last 1” or so of these is sharpened. I began on a Shapton 4k HR, and quickly discovered that there was really no bevel on the ura side and the bevel on the omote had absolutely nothing to do with the spine, lol. There is also a little dip in the bevel on the omote though that worked out fine.

It took a while to get the bevels cut and set. Working with a blade that’s this narrow is interesting to say the least. For me it seems a two-handed affair, otherwise you can’t adequately control the torque and bias. And even then it’s not that easy. I progressed to the Shapton 8k HC and then to JNat. After the 8k and some palm stropping the edge showed ‘bevel set’ via HHT.

You won’t strop one of these on a hanging strop - I don’t think and I didn’t try. I used a piece of steerhide from an old CKTG magnetic strop system. Every time that I stropped it the edge was set back. I’m guessing that maybe I’m rolling the edge a tiny bit. Honing it is hard enough, stropping it is no easier, lol. I also tried 0.25 CBN on a balsa-backed linen that Scott Lockwood gave me, and it didn’t seem to make much difference HHT or performance wise.

So far, it will work well enough to fulfill it’s intended purpose but it isn’t where I want the edge to be. I’ll re-hone it tomorrow. I’m wondering if a stroke 90 degrees to what we normally use would work better? Like a push-pull stroke along the length of the edge. The razor is difficult to keep stable and such a stroke might help? Dunno, maybe I’ll find out soon.

If anyone has any advice on honing one of these, please post and TIA!

 

Steve, I think a possibility could be honing it without tape. I have quit the tape long time ago. In this case the impact of the tape is huge as the blade is so narrow. Stropping I would suggest just a plain Balsa Wood strop without anything to keep the angle of the blade.


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@Steve56

So far, it will work well enough to fulfill it’s intended purpose but it isn’t where I want the edge to be. I’ll re-hone it tomorrow. I’m wondering if a stroke 90 degrees to what we normally use would work better? Like a push-pull stroke along the length of the edge. The razor is difficult to keep stable and such a stroke might help? Dunno, maybe I’ll find out soon.

This works, I don't know about on that razor, but I have used the "Shimmy" as I call it since I saw it on one of the Japanese Masters old vids...
I use a very short back and forth motion on the Nakayama right before final finishing strokes, it seems to improve the face feel.

 

That looks like a nightmare to hone. I wouldn't worry about it being as sharp as what you would with other blades. Remember, its for inside, and around the ears. Too many attempts at honing, and the razor might just disappear.

 

I may try that later Hans, I thought of honing it without tape on the omote. But the omote spine is soft unhardened iron, not steel and it wears quickly even with good technique. Certainly tape was the correct choice at least to begin with, otherwise there would have been immense wear on the soft iron before the stone ever hit the apex of the edge. I have a lot of ~18 degree razors that shave well if not ‘laserish’.

I’m pretty certain this is ‘operator error’ or a failure to understand how to hone it. Keeping it stable on the hone is more difficult than with a normal width razor. Still, I’m pretty sure that I can do it. Wish me luck, I’ll probably need it!

 

Thanks Scott, I’m just going slow and figuring it out as I go. I don’t want to trash the razor learning to hone it if I don’t have to. I’m interested if it has other uses besides the inside of the ear. As long as you can see what you’re doing, it might be useful. Especially if it’s sharp enough to tree top, that keeps the edge away from skin. Dunno about this either, but it is certainly a learning experience!

 

Good luck Steve!


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Thank you Hans, I may need it!

 

Geneva Cutlery 6/8” newly honed and polished. Also Ultra Sound cleaner and sterilisation. The scales was in graved with AN and on the other side SN by a 6 years old it looked like. Luckily not that deep so it was quite easy to get rid of.
Stones:
Shapton CR 2K
Naniwa 5K
Yaki Ire JNAT 12K



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A Jacques Lecoutre and a Frederick Reynolds. I stayed with the Suehiro 1k to 6k bevel set and refinement, but then switched to the pictured Thuringian.

Used the Reynolds last evening and it was very enjoyable.

Also used this same progression on a King Razor Mfg. and a Torrey once the sun set. Should have some fun shaves set up for the week.
Happy honing.
Tom

 

I have 3 of Drew Dick's creations. Two 7/8 Damascus steel blades, and one 5/8. All acquired via BSTs, one via our TSD member Keithmax.

From a user's perspective.....shaving, honing & strop maintaining all three myself (using/watching your YT guides, Glenn), the edge angles he used/uses is nothing of concern for me. In my meager straight/kamisori collection (about 23ish total), I've only had to hone them to my liking once. Since then.....maintained on a pasted mounted leather strop system a couple times, daily use via the hanging linen and leather strop everyone is used to. I used one of them for a 30 day rule in 2020, and to this day it's still one of my favored shavers. I can easily feel the angle of it's best efficiency, and it gets my trouble spot (right lower jawline/neck area) squeaky stubble free every time.

If the angle concerns are for a user’s application of ‘muscle memory’ shaving, I get that. For edge retention, yeah, get that too (a little), but isn’t the edge retention issue also present to some degree with various steels (and the quality of such), as well as grinds with most manufacturers? All just part of the enjoying the products & journey for me.

FWIW....in 2022 I'll be searching for more of his designs if I can. 2021 was spent in a No Buy, and I've ~30 days to freedom.

 

Dubl Ducks and a Blue/Green Escher following the 1-5-10 Choseras
A match made in heaven for SMOOTH





Hone On !!!!

 

Ooooo, a DD Grim Reaper. Can you post a picture of it opened??

..

 

SSA 7/8” Eskilstuna Sweden. Naniwa 3K, 5K and finally JNAT. Try it out tomorrow morning.



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Finally took a pair of Weiss & Sons to the stones. The shape always challenged me as to keeping the bevel small and even. I went full synthetic for the shine.

Suehiro 1k and then the 4-8-16k Shapton progression with 2 layers of tape.

I felt good with the result and the shaves were great.

Happy honing.
Tom