My first straight razor was a Thomas Turner & Co 5ths. It wasn’t very sharp when I got it so I sent it away for honing. It came back fine but over the last two years I’ve been maintaining my razors myself. I only have 7 of them so I don’t get a ton of practice on the hones. Mostly my edges are very passable to me and give very good daily shaves though I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface so far.
The Turner, for whatever reason has always been a bit problematic. I’ve had good edges on it but it seems very hit and miss. I honed it on a piece of black shale recently and got a great edge but it only lasted about 4 shaves. Last night I honed it on Welsh slate and felt sure I’d done a good job only to find this morning that, while improved, it still wasn’t great. So tonight I thought I’d try it on lapping films. I worked on 1u for a while then dropped down to the 0.3 for a light finish.
When I looked at the edge through the loup I could see scratches which didn’t go all the way to the edge of the bevel. The edge of the bevel itself though was mirror polished. It’s almost like a micro bevel.
So my question is to ask what’s going on? My honing technique feels pretty solid and none of my other razors are a problem.
It seems the deeper, non continuous scratches are being left by higher grit work whereas the very edge of the bevel is being worked by the fine grits.
What should I do to correct this? Is the blade geometry off or is it me? Should I take things back to coarser grits until I’m happy with the pattern? Or should I just leave it as is as the edge is sharp? Any helps appreciated.
The Turner, for whatever reason has always been a bit problematic. I’ve had good edges on it but it seems very hit and miss. I honed it on a piece of black shale recently and got a great edge but it only lasted about 4 shaves. Last night I honed it on Welsh slate and felt sure I’d done a good job only to find this morning that, while improved, it still wasn’t great. So tonight I thought I’d try it on lapping films. I worked on 1u for a while then dropped down to the 0.3 for a light finish.
When I looked at the edge through the loup I could see scratches which didn’t go all the way to the edge of the bevel. The edge of the bevel itself though was mirror polished. It’s almost like a micro bevel.
So my question is to ask what’s going on? My honing technique feels pretty solid and none of my other razors are a problem.
It seems the deeper, non continuous scratches are being left by higher grit work whereas the very edge of the bevel is being worked by the fine grits.
What should I do to correct this? Is the blade geometry off or is it me? Should I take things back to coarser grits until I’m happy with the pattern? Or should I just leave it as is as the edge is sharp? Any helps appreciated.