Did I buy a duff one?

[Templar]

Hey all,

I've been straight razor shaving since January, having bought a pretty cheap Bluebeard shavette. I upgraded to a Whipped Dog sight unseen special a couple of months later, but as that was getting pretty blunt I bought this from ebay a few weeks ago:




Now, it may just be me, but it doesn't seem to be holding it's edge at all. It claimed to be honed, but being ebay you can't be sure how well that was done. I don't mind sending it off to be properly honed (my efforts have not been a success, but then that isn't a surprise, as I was planning to use this razor while I learned to hone on the old Whipped Dog one) but I don't want to waste my money on a razor that will never hold an edge. Does anyone recognise this razor? Have I been conned into buying a cheap Chinese knockoff? It has "The Electric Razor Co" on it, and the only other piece of information on it is "The Hamburg Ring" on the blade.

Is there anything I can do? the only stone I have is another ebay special - some purple Welsh stone. By all accounts it's too fine to do much but polish.

Thoughts?

 

[Slash McCoy]

I do believe you have a pretty darn decent razor there. I don't have one like that one so can't vouch for it definitely but they are well regarded. It is certainly in nice condition, from the pics. Someone will probably offer to hone it cheap or even free for you eventually but yeah I think it is well worth sending out. Your Welsh Slate is indeed mostly just a finisher, for a beginner to hone a razor start to finish on just that stone is pretty nearly a no-go proposition. It would involve working up a heavy slurry and gradually diluting it as you hone, which is kind of tricky your first few times out. Best for now to simply regard the slate as a finishing stone to follow something like an 8k Norton.

See this thread if you want to give it another try but don't want to spend a bunch of bread on honing equipment.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/283576-Lapping-film-try-it?highlight=lapping+film+try+it
Be sure and read the whole thing. Several newbies are walked through the process of getting their first really good razor edges in that film. I suggest saving all pages to your hard drive for future offline reference.

If you want to use rocks for honing, you will want something in the neighborhood of 1k for bevel setting, first of all. The Norton 220/1000 grit combination stone is good for that. The 220 side is good for knives and sometimes is handy for heavy edge repair on razors. The 1k is quite an adequate bevel setter. This stone must be lapped before use, and occasionally thereafter. Next you want something more mid-range. Again with the Norton brand, there is a 4k/8k combination stone that will bring you up to sufficient sharpness and polish to get some benefit from your slate as a finisher. You could also go with Naniwa, their 1k Chosera as a bevel setter and the 3k/8k combo stone for the progression, and maybe a 12k SuperStone for a finisher. A big medium Arkansas stone can set the bevel. A 1k King or a 1k/6k King will set the bevel okay. A 1200 grit DMT can set the bevel. I would rather steer you away from slurried naturals at this stage, but just know that a coticule is a very popular type of natural stone and it CAN set the bevel and CAN be a finisher, but it really shines through the middle range where it replaces two or even three synthetics if you know how to use it. You don't save much, though, because a nice big one costs about as much as the synthetics it replaces.

You have already dealt with Larry of Whipped Dog, so I will point out that he hones for a reasonable price and he even gives honing lessons.

 

[Krodor]

Yup, good stuff in my book.

 

[Templar]

Fantastic - thanks very much guys. I probably won't use Larry to hone this razor, simply because I'm in the UK (though he was still the cheapest way into straight razor shaving!), but now I know the blade is decent I can send it out locally.

Thanks!

 

[blackhhawk]

You say the blade can't seem to hold an edge... make sure you are stropping correctly. Check out some of the stropping videos. It is possible to ruin an edge with poor stropping. Don't want to see you get a nicely honed razor back and then ruin it. Not sure if the guy from ebay is credible or not either, so it may in fact have come to you with a poor edge to begin with. Who knows, just something to keep in mind.

 

[Templar]

The weird thing was that I did a hanging hair test as soon as I got the razor and it passed, no problem. I stropped it (I've learned how to strop both from youtube and from damn near ruining my other straight), shaved with it and on the first pass it was like butter. Second pass it was terrible. I wondered if the ebayer had over-honed it, and the edge had bent as I used it.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Possible. Try stropping on canvas or felt with the strop a tiny bit loose, then hit your pasted balsa. That should knock off any fin edge and develop the true edge just a bit. Personally I think "over-honing" is pretty rare, almost an urban myth, if the honer used truly light pressure, but YMMV.

 

[Templar]

To be honest I tried honing it myself after a few poor shaves, and I've almost certainly buggered it up (too much pressure I'd guess), so I'll just send it out to be honed instead.

Thanks for the advice all!