What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Update 2/22/22, I have an edge. It isn’t the edge that I want yet, but progress was made. Basically it was just a lot more of the same with a lot of flipping the blade each stroke to keep the bevel from getting too far out before I switched sides. It would likely shave, but I’m just not where I want to be yet. I’ve still got 3 layers of electrical +1 Kapton on the omote and 1 layer of Kapton on the ura. Once I get an edge that I like, I can figure out if and how much tape that I want to pull.

 

Good luck Steve! Hope that you get a good edge. I would suggest not to use tape at all for the final edge honing.


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Thank you Hans, honing without tape will be possible on the ura, but not I believe on the omote.

 

Latest razors that I have honed, from top left;

Stålvaru AB, Hästsko 11/16” Eskilstuna, Factory in production between 1946-1954, quite rare razor.

TH Bergholtz 11/16” Sunne, Factory in production between 1905-1910, very rare razor.

Japanese Kamisori

CVH No.4, 11/16”+

CVH MK No.30 with Ivory scales.

All of them had some geometry issues, curvature, bent, and so on. Had to flatten the spine more or less. Before totally impossible to get sharp.

The TH Bergholtz…



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I hate to see spines "Flattened". If the spine, or blade is a little warped, you could just use a narrower stone, or use a rocking motion, when you hone. I've honed hundreds of razors, many in pathetic shape, and have only had a couple I couldn't get a very nice edge on the entire blade. Those failures were due to poor steel.

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I can assure you that the TH was not little warped, and after all now it’s sharp as h**l.


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Yes, I believe you, that the spine was warped.

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I see your point and many are totally allergic to make any “damage” on the razors appearance. However I want to have a working tool that is flat on the stones and the strop. If can’t use it properly and without making thousands of tricks when honing and stropping it, it’s going right down in the . A major part of the razors I have is perfect, at the moment 5 off approximately 80 I had to adjust.


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Some brightly colored razors to the stones on Saturday…
The latest project Bengall and the Robeson ShurEdge “The Captain.”

Naniwa 1k, followed by the 4k Hayabusa, refined with the 8k Snow White (pictured) and finished with the Okudo.
Happy honing.
Tom

 

Whole lotta bevel setting this morning
You are never so good that a Magic Marker Test isn’t useful
Naniwa Chosera/Professional 1k for the win





Hone On !!!

 

Update: The warped orihi is still winning. I took it up through the grits again, not trying so much to correct the geometry but just trying to get a better edge on it. I stopped at 8k and tested. I failed, lol. 320-1k-3k Shapton Glass HR, 8k HC

A quick recap, the lower portion of the razor is bent, looking down at it, it looks like a ‘(‘ where the left side of the ‘(’ is the ura and the right side the omote. I was using sliding strokes on the omote which is the problem, sliding the heel off the edge of the stone, trying to slide the edge of the stone into that depressed area, with not too much success. Sliding the heel off the edge of the stone will eventually make a frown on a normal razor, but whatever makes a frown can also hone one. Basically this is just honing to the razor shape rather than trying to correct it which is what you want to do with that nice mellow W&B FBU too, grinding the spine flat and the edge straight would ruin it. The kamisori edge apex is still not straight and even in the middle of the omote though.

I do have a couple of things to try. Next up, I’m going to try Shapton G7 stones, much smaller than bench stones and see if smaller stones improve the edge in the problem areas.

The last resort is pointy stones, if these can’t hone it, it can’t be honed. You can hone one of those ‘mole razors’ with these.

 

Well, I have an edge ! I reworked that hollow with the corners of my Shapton G7 set in a progression that’s toughly 1500 - 4000 - 8000 and finished on a JNat. It would not surprise me if I need to do a bit of re-work since the steel is super hard, but the edge in that depressed place is straight and even now. Basically I honed the edge in sections on both sides then sort of smoothed things over. The HHT was respectable, so I’m willing to put the edge to my face now to see what else it needs. What a stinker.

 

That’s nice Steve, I am not that fancy off the Japanese razors however they have a cool look. Thinking that they are to short and a little bit fiddly to manoeuvre.


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Honing Eric’s @ewk GBS straight razor has been interesting so far. I figured that it was a rebranded Gold Dollar, but clearly it is not. That makes the possibility of having a ‘RSO’ a distinct possibility, especially since he did not have much luck honing it.

That’s not the case however, at least I do not believe so at this point. The steel is actually quite hard, normally hard for a good quality razor, and it returned a straight even edge even off the coarser 500 grit stone I began with.

It has two issues, neither impossible to overcome. First, I measured the bevel angle sans tape, and it’s 13.8 degrees, far too low IMO though it might actually work since the steel is good. But the bevels would be halfway up the blade, lol. So I chose 3 layers of Scotch and one layer of 1 mil Kapton which would give a respectable 17.5 degrees, inked up the bevel and did a few passes on a 3k Shapton. Which revealed the second problem, the blade has a twist to it so the stone was not hitting the apex even with all that tape on it. The show side toe and pile side heel were not close to hitting the stone, and together that’s about half the blade, so no wonder that it was difficult to hone.

Anyway, I’m at 8k grit and the bevel is still pretty wide but pretty even but I have HHT except in the middle, so I’m going to have to go through the grits again, but not so much effort I think, it’s almost there. And the edge is straight and even so it appears to be holding the edge at 8k. Seeing how it holds up under shaving will be interesting. I’m done for the day though.

 

Wow. To know that this letter opener can actually be made sharp is astounding to me. I sure picked the wrong razor to experiment with honing. I am so grateful to know why I had so much trouble. Thank you!!

 

We’re not there yet, but I am optimistic. A razor steel that makes a straight, even edge at 500 grit is good stuff. I’m not sure modern Solingen will do that.

Since this razor is a family gift and difficult to hone, I’d recommend that you keep it clean and ‘oiled’ when not in use. Any decent honer can hone it, but it helps to know that it’s twisted and 14 degrees.

 

We have an edge! If it holds up during a shave test tomorrow, I’ll touch it up and it will be on its way home.

 

Update for @ewk - The edge held up, so I’ll get it touched up and hopefully out tomorrow.

 

Not all heroes wear capes.

Well, we haven't met. Maybe you do wear a cape. That would be cool.

Anyway, thank you!

 

YW sir, it’s on the way, should be there Monday. It has some food-grade silicone oil on it, same stuff as in the razor socks, so just wipe/rinse it off and shave. It’s stropped and ready to go.