What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Another day, another edge restore, another dilemma.

Robeson ShurEdge 6/8 extra hollow 16-C-250, practically no hone wear.

No way to see it in this photo (especially not with the blade slathered in camellia oil), but...

I started out on a mission to get past a chip and to take off a little light rust directly on a short section of the edge, one side only. Mission accomplished. Time to set the bevel. I quickly discovered that the edge is wavy. Maybe a grind with some stabilizers would have been wiser, eh Robeson?

So this blade is shrugging off anything approaching a decent bevel. That may well be the reason for the lack of hone wear. First time he tried to hone it, the last guy just tossed it in the drawer and left there for his heirs to deal with.

Bottom line: I’m not so Shur about this Edge. Can I just keep lapping away on an unstabilized extra hollow and expect to remove enough steel to straighten the blade and get a bevel? I am kind of enamored of this razor. Made for hicks, and I’m kind of a hick:


I’ve got plenty to think about “tomorrow”.

 

May require more laps on you bevel setter as my F. Herder did. Twice the laps as a matter of fact. Over 100 on the 30 mu film I use for that purpose. I am sure our resident hone experts will have more to suggest. Nice razor, brother and nice to see you enjoying using a SR. Give my regards to Gary and Fred.

 

Those are usually made pretty straight, or close to it. Part of honing is learning a little blade gymnastics. In other words, applying torque, or pressure, in areas that need it. Make sure you tape the spine, when you start learning, or have a lot of steel to move. If you don't, there is a good chance you could blowout the spine.
My suggestion would be to get some Gold Dollar razors, to learn on. Most of them have minor issues that need to be solved, and when you figure them out, they make excellent shavers.

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Playing around with a new Coticule and a Wosty Pipe razor. Set the bevel on a Suehiro 1k, then took it the rest of the way with this stone.

Finished up with a 2nd layer of tape, just water, and light strokes.

Had just one of the older Geo. Wostenholm pipe razors, and now that quantity has quadrupled... how do they do that without me noticing???

Happy honing.
Tom

 

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement! Steeling my resolve (laps, lots more laps) and thinking about blade gymnastics are first on my agenda. If any blade can be ‘bent’ a little bit while honing I guess an extra hollow would the best candidate.

The Robeson honing yesterday was the first time I’ve taped a spine. I was looking at the chip when I decided to tape. I honed past the chip pretty quickly. Maybe that was due to the extra hollow grind as well. I may learn quite a bit from this Robeson.

I have several bevel setting options now - film, 1200 and 1500 wet/dry, 600 and 1200 diamond plates, and my old, barely used Oregon Stone synthetics. I might just take a shot with each option, see what I learn.

It is just possible that I took such a steep dive down the vintage rabbit hole that I have several marginal razors for practice. The easy honing jobs (my Torrey, Kinfolks and Cattaraugus) kind of spoil me for the more challenging honing. The Steve Clark/Chuck Naill Gold Dollar that started me down this path? It is so well honed that it is hopeless looking for problems there.

Chuck, I will give Greg and Fred the nod from you. We are all on TSD at least a little, but several threads you started or nourished on that other forum still get our attention. Fred has gone over the edge, hosting both Slantember and OCtober. I just sent those guys some Enders and Valet AutoStrop blades for their perverse experiments with those long extinct razors.

 

I think your father was supposed to explain that to you?

I have such a motley herd, they won’t breed true.

 

Definitely on the look out for that “Wosty & Butcher”

 

Touch up of the big steel for next Thursday’s guest of honor. Big steel, big rock, time to take out the 10” coticule. Put both sides to use

 

It takes a skilled hand to sharpen knives freehand.

There are those of us who cheat at knife sharpening.

 

They are like Tribbles !

 

I do cheat a bit. I do use a homemade guide on the spine at times. Mostly by feel of the bevel plain on the stone

 

One thing that’s helped me with freehand knife honing is to not move/flex the wrist or hand. Make the stroke from the elbow and hold the wrist rigid. I’ve never played golf but they tell you to swing from the shoulder as much as you can, so kind of the same thing?

 

Touched up the Grelot 14, the initial honing shaved well but needed to be smoother. This finisher is the one that put the edge on the Filly 14 Sub Cero that I’m doing the edge longevity test with, and hard steel likes this stone. The HHT was what I was looking for, so we’ll see tomorrow maybe. The 6/8 Rodgers was an eBay acquisition of opportunity, ivory scales and not much wear though it has some light patina up near the spine. Lovely razor, feels very much like a Dovo Bismarck in hand, or at least a Bismarck with proper scales. The Rodgers was bevel set on a Shapton Glass 2k, then 4k, Aiiwatani then the the same finisher since I had the stone out and slurried up. It took a great edge.

 

Since my Silverloaf took a fall and has some small chips on the bevel I decided to some touch ups too.

Silverloaf Kami Naniwa 1k, Shapton glass 4k, 8k, Goykumyo 20k then CrOx and diamond pastes to 200k

Touched up on the Goykumyo 20k, CrOx and diamond pastes to 200k Friordur 8/8, Takehana Feon, Joe Edson Kami and Atlas JWest

Touched up on Shapton glass 16k, CrOx and diamond pastes to 200k Joe Edson kami, Mike Martinez 8/8

 

Oh Boy this is going to be fun

 

I’m kind of anti-tape Glen, but you’re going to need tape on that omote!

 

@Steve56 I am really thinking I might have to go to the 2x72 on this one

 

Some days just don't go easy on the hones





Case Ace - Dead center on the bevel

 

Been there, done that, with several razors. Then again, look at what I start with. Just when you think you have it licked, a pinhole of a little bit of corrosion has eaten all the way through the bevel. You get that licked, and another pops up in another place.
I had one with perfect looking steel, and when I went to set the bevel, I found the steel had tiny little bubbles in it. It took a couple of resets, to get the bevel perfect.

.

 

Bevel Restore is done





Luckily this is a larger Kami so we have steel to play with



Hint:

If you look REALLY close you will see just a slight trace of the damage still there
If you go ALMOST to the point of eliminating it during restore and then get rid of the very last trace with a 1k hone as you hone it normally you don't leave those deeper scratches from the restore
You also lose the LEAST amount of steel possible