What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

my two last honings. vintage boker king cutter and kinfolks blue steel special. both looked in very good condition on the pictures,but had som serious pitting issues when looked on with the loupe. i ended up bread knifeing the kinfolks to get past the pitting that made the bevel chip. when i finally got to good steel it took an insane edge.
the boker was sold as near mint,but was far from. it has much pitting not showing on the picture.so i guess i ended up paying waaay to much for it. it also have som spots on the blade and gold wash which i did not see.even it showes on the sellers pictures. when i find a razor that i have been looking for i tend not to look closely on the pictures.silly
the boker too came out fine after some honing .but there is still pitting close to the bevel.

 

You were right! I had to drop down to the 1k. I watched my pressure and it made all the difference in the world! Lapping the GNAT to 2.5k brought it to life as well. This is the best looking bevel I have honed. I'll report the shave later. Thanks.
Everyone likes a shiny stone.

 

You are more than welcome.

 

today i honed this Burell top flight.this was also a troublesome blade. was a spot near the heel that would not get sharp.so after the 5k i killed the edge and went back to the bevel setter.did a little extra pressure on the trouble spot and torqued the blade, and it got sharp at last. and yes.my 12k naniwa has been dropped on the tile floor
test shave will be tomorrow.the edge seems promising.
it also gives me grate satisfaction to get a troublesome blade to become a good shaver

 

You have two very nice American razors there! (Bokers are normally nice, so I won't mention that one.) The steel in these will take an insane edge, but seems to be pretty easy to hone. Both the Kinfolks and Burrell razors were made by Case family relations in the New York area. I have both of those razors, but yours are in better shape than mine. I'm a big fan of American steel, and can't wait to hear what you think.

 

i think these American razors are among the best. they take an edge not all razors seems to be able to.and the shave they give is butter smooth.i have become a big fan of them.
unfortunately i found a crack in my Torrey, so going to replace that one when i find a nice one.a cattaragaus is also on my list.

 

I have some free time today, so I wanted to knock out a razor. It came from Japan, and looked in good shape. It had tarnish, but no pitting, that I could see. That is, until I polished it up, and saw some light pitting. It looks like someone, years back, had polished most of the pitting out, and ground the blade down, to a clean edge. Well, like I have said, the 60x loupe doesn't lie. I could see a lot of micro chipping on the heel and toe ends. I used the 1k stone and worked these out. Then I saw a little corrosion on the edge, and I had to keep at the 1k, until it was gone, not too bad. I've definitely honed worse. I finally ended up with a hair popping bevel, on the 1k, down the edge. Swedish steel rarely disappoints me. I did my progression on the Welsh Slate stones, and stropped it. Fantastically sharp now, with a beautifully straight, and clean bevel.

Japanese "Bellman 45" Swedish Steel 6/8th
Cost $12.01

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After:

 

I had time to do one more. This one Came from Japan too. It's a German razor, made in Solingen. It took a light polishing, nothing too much. It's bevel was well done, from the start, without issues on the edge, it just wasn't sharp. I killed the edge on the 1k, lightly. I then reset the bevel, which went quickly. The blade was straight, without issues. I could tell this steel was softer than the Swedish steel, and it was easier to hone. I went through the 1k, 3k/8k, 8k 12k 15k Welsh Slate stones, then the Chromium Oxide linen and the Leather Strop(100 strokes). Tree topping and hair popping all the way.

Razor- German "Lutz 43" Solingen 5/8ths+
Cost- $9.50

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After:

 

Do you use any power tools when polishing? I have only polished by hand and never got that good results.

 

Beautiful result.

 

Hand polishing takes forever. I rarely do it.
I use a Dremel, some inexpensive linen polishing wheels, and some polishing compounds. The compounds came in a variety package from ebay. It's a fast easy progression, you just need to be mindful of the heat. If I had a large buffing wheel, I would be in heaven. I try not to make the razors shinier than they were originally.

 

What grit's are you using?

 

I moved away from hand-polishing for the majority of work some time ago. It is far too time consuming, and on the more practical side, I'm prone to bouts with CTS so I avoid any prolonged repetitive work by hand.
Buffing wheels with compounds are ideal time-savers on many razors.

 

Nice scales on the Boker though, A nice razor even with the issues you mentioned. (And it now shaves )

 

A variety of grits, depending on how much metal needs buffing out, and how high a polish is wanted. Similar to this pack. ]
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Enkay-149-C...950366?hash=item1c7447da9e:g:M7oAAOSwA3dYGqTW

 

I rehoned a tiny Mustache Razor, that I needed to be sharper. These little razors take a lot of concentration. Not much blade resting on the stones and it's easy to get the angle off. So, i went at about a quarter speed and it turned out nicely. It will be used more often. I will start trying to tackle my other Mustache Razors now that I have better control, of these tiny things.

Razor- PfeilRing Inox. Made in Solingen

 

Well, I've had this tucked away for two months, and just got around to putting an edge on it. It feels like Swedish steel, on the stones, but I cannot read Japanese. Odds are it's Swedish Steel. I did my usual progression and it took quite a while. In the end, because of the toe wear, I had to add a little blade torquing, which wasnt any big deal. It came out very sharp, and I will give it a shave tonight.

Razor- 飛燕 HIEN 東京

 

Today was my day to hone some problem razors. Ones I just couldn't get to work out. These all honed up fairly quickly, due to the bevel being set in them already.

This one took two strips of tape, due to excessive spine wear. That did the trick and set the bevel angle properly. It was very obvious the difference under the 60x. You could see the old and new bevel, and now about half as much steel needed to be worked. End result, very uniform edge, and a very sharp smiling blade.

Japanese 寒月 KANGETSU 東京



This next problem razor, had a lot of wear, and was very dull. For some reason the toe was an issue. Not anymore. Time and experimentation took care of it. Plus Three strips of tape.
It's a Japanese razor, made with German steel. It looks prettier in person.

Japanese Klupp Polger 1200



This one had me confused, a while back and I thought the steel was bad. It just needed some extra care, and a very light touch. The edge came out on it really quickly, and sharp.
William H Morley & Sons.

 

A few standouts from the last few days thought you guys might like


C-MON Cadillac in the Cracked Ice customs
Adoration in the Crimson customs
Dubl-Duck in the Yellow scales



Filarmonica Oooooo finished on the Nakayama



Dubl Duck Goldedge Blue/Green Escher




@Drygulch thought you might like those pics

 

Niiiice!!!!