Hoping some of the straight razor honing experts on the forum will chime in here. I have some fine grit (up to .5 micron) sandpaper from sharpening chisels and wood plane blades - is there any reason I shouldn't use them to sharpen straight razors? I stick the paper to plates of flat glass to make sure I have a flat surface. If using sandpaper is fine, this might be a cheap way for newbies to get into honing their own razors. I think the whole set up cost me around $30 total. Thanks in advance for advanced help!
Search "Straight Razor Honing with Lapping Film" Using that is common, quite a few people use it, I have some myself and a polished marble plate, but tend to like the edge off of Quality Stones better myself The lapping film can produce a rather harsh edge if used on the wrong steel or you are not really careful.. Regular Wet r Dry sandpaper, cuts way to deep into the steel because of the low amount and sharp nature of the grit, this produces a harsh fragile serrated chippy edge, many people don't even realize the damage it causes The biggest difference in sharpening SR's compared to most everything else Everything else needs to be sharp, sharp is honestly pretty easy,, a SR however needs to be Sharp and Smooth on the face, using a push cut.. that isn't quite as easy to do...
Thanks for the advice! I definitely think I would want to upgrade to stones down the road but hoping to use this to see if I am going to continue honing my own razors before investing that much into stones.
I had Glen hone my SR over a year ago and since then all Iv'e done is chromium oxide and iron oxide on balsa wood bench strops to touch them up once every 6 weeks or so, besides regular stropping I haven't found a need for any more than that. ( I have a heavy beard that I shave daily ) If your just getting started SR shaving that's about all you should need.
I've tried sandpaper and I've tried honing film. I find stones to be the way to go. Can't beat the stability, durability and stability of stones.
