What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Time to put some edges on the C.V. Heljestrand 7 day set from the Otto Kerner Jr estate.

They had bevels, but not exactly unmolested. Felt I could start at the Naniwa 4k Hayabusa, then transitioned to the Naniwa 8k Snow White for these first three.

After the 8k, I turned to the three small Okudo finishers. Upper left is Sunday, then clockwise to Tuesday and then Thursday.

I’m debating next, but leaning towards a old natural combo Coticule that I’ve had for a few years but haven’t used. And then maybe use these three stones again, but finish on water to see if it changes things.
Happy honing.
Tom

 

thats very cool.

 

Thank you Gary. I’m glad I finally pulled these out… looking forward to a great week.

 

Sticking with the small stone theme, and wanting to throw something different into the mix, I turned to this old Coticule for the Saturday blade.

It is a beautiful natural combo.

It was hard to slurry, felt great with slurry and under running water… really was a pleasure. We will see how the edge performs.
4 down. 3 to go.
Happy honing.
Tom

 

It’s been ‘brick week’ for me, and tuning up my own 6/8 Case 133 full hollow (bought right here from drygultch). The stone is a huge piece of Nakayama kiita from Alex Gilmore.

 

I finally broke down and got the Shspton Glass HR 10k since I’ve sold off some koma nagura. The 3k, 10k, and 30k Shapton HR are the 3 stones in the HR line that Shapton recommends for razors. I already have the 3k, and use the Suehiro Gokumyo 20k in place of the 30k glass.

Shapton Glass Stones need a good lapping when new, they have some kind of a slick surface or maybe some manufacturing component. The last image below is water beading on the new, unlapped surface. They don’t cut well until you get the surface lapped.

The Filly needed a touchup due to touching the back of my thumbnail, very minor and really no need to remove the tiny ding, but it was a good test for the 3k -> 10k sequence. Passed with flying colors. The finisher is a piece of nice smooth kiita that’s never been my favorite finisher so I’m re-visiting it.

 

I haven’t honed any of my razors in a year and a half! I only touched up them up once on crome ox, and even at the time it wasn’t needed.

I switch up between SE, DE, injectors, Shavettes, straights, and my CJB Kamasori so everything gets its fair use. Wonder when they will need a hone…I miss honing on my Naniwa super stones lol

 

I usually go 2 weeks out the month using safety razors and the rest of the month using straight blades ( Shavettes, straights, kamasori’s)

 

You can maintain a razor for many months with CrOx on a strop.

 

Yeah I have mine on the poly webbing side

 

C.V.Heljestrand
B.K. No.41
Eskilstuna
11/16th
Near Wedge

This one was a little tricky. The corrosion that is seen, on the blade, is the worst kind, in my book. It is the kind that eats away, in small area, like a drunken worm. On the surface, it doesn't look like much, but it is deep. I've seen smaller than pinhole corrosion eats almost completely through a blade. You can sand and sand, and not get anywhere, until you sand completely through a blade. In this case, it is all over, and I thought the bevel was fine, until the 60x loupe was brought out, after the bevel was set. Halfway on the bevel was a small bit of this corrosion, so I had to delicately hone, hoping the edge of the bevel wouldn't get close to corrosion.
I decided to use a very hard JNAT I had obtained from @Steve56, and several Naguras, to do the rest of the work. It came out with a fantastic edge. Two stones, for the entire process. Not including Naruga slurry stones.

 

Geneva Cutlery Corp.
"Pyramid #71"
Geneva NY USA
5/8th
Half Hollow

I thought this would be easy, until I looked under the 60x loupe. The edge was chippy, after I obtained a bevel. I had to take it down to the 320 stone, to preset the bevel, because this NY steel is super hard and takes a while on bevel setting. After the bevel was set, I took it to a very hard JNAT, with several Naguras. Very sharp edge. I like Geneva steel. It is also a very well-constructed blade. Some of the best around.

 

A.Witte "Classic"
Germany
4/8th
Extra hollow ground

Long story short, this was a free razor. The seller accidentally sent the wrong one, and told me to keep it, as he would now be sending the correct one to me.
This A.Witte razor has a very thin extra hollow grind. The blade is perfectly flat, everywhere, and was a joy to hone. Zero issues, and same stones as the ones above. It took on a scary sharp edge.

 

What grind is the Pyramid, Scott?

 

Oh, and does that ‘Classic’ logo remind you of Clauss, Fremont, Ohio?

 

I thought it was, at first.

.

 

KCS "TULA"
K.C.Seelbach Co.
Solingen
11/16th
Extra Hollow Ground

Freshly Restored, now Honed.
I took this through a Welsh Slate Stones progression, and for the final Finisher, I used an Arkansas Surgical Black. This is one serios Super Finisher. This razor took on a very sharp edge. It helped that the razor was flat, in all areas, and an Extra Hollow grind.

 

Bismarck #1
Solingen Germany
11/16th+
Full Hollow ground

Freshly Restored and Honed.
This was the same as the Tula, with the Arkansas Surgical Black super finisher. Wickedly sharp.

 

Bismarck
Solingen Germany
11/16th+
Full Hollow ground

Freshly restored and honed.
Almost a twin to the above Bismarck, except no #1 on the tang, and different scales.
Same progression as the above razors. Wickedly sharp too. This Arkansas Surgical Black does a wonderful job.

 

This old soldier has had a rough life, in spite of having little or no wear on it. It’s a 6/8 Geneva Vanadium that‘s suffered from cell rot, and my afternoon project was to see if I could promote this razor (a bare blade) from the ‘Dud Drawer’ to at least a decent test razor. The cell rot from the faux tortoise celluloid had made frosted areas in the pattern of the light and dark areas of the scales, and had made some pits on the bevel. These are not cheap razors, the 1920 advertisement shows that they sold for $40 per dozen, so a little over $3 each when $1 per day was a good working wage.

The seller or previous owner had honed the heel more heavily so the heel was and still is a little weak but that can be fixed if I want, or I can let honing over time take care of it.

First off was slightly recontouring the heel on a diamond plate for cosmetics, then some 360 to 2k grit sandpaper, then S100, 3M, and Maas metal polish. Next up, a good alcohol cleaning and a heavy coat of Ren Wax to fill in the pitting/frosting. I threw on some scales from the scale pail to be able to hone it, and began with a Shapton Glass HR 2k, mostly to save wear on the more expensive HR 3k. The 2k got the bevel cleaned up well so then the HR 3k and 10k followed, and the finisher was a nice barber size Nakayama kiita.

It turned out pretty well, and since these are very good razors, it may actually get a trip to Chez Alfredo for a proper cleaning and pinning.