Need honing

[Danielbz]

Hey guys, I'm about to buy a razor or two that aren't shave ready, and I'd like to get them honed. Are there people on here that are recommendable for honing blades, or is there a general consensus on where to send razors? If you can't tell, I'm a total newbie, and I'm looking to own my first real straight razor after having a dovo with replaceable blades.

Thanks for the help guys!
-Danny

 

[Gamma]

Welcome to B&B.
There's a few people on the board that have honed for free, and a few others for not-so-free. ..
Anyway - there's a thread with a list somewhere on this forum, poke around and you'll find it easily enough I think.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Pics? Some guys hone for $. Some guys hone for fun. Some just want to test shave your razor after honing it. Pics will get the free-honers interested. But a sure thing would be sending it to Larry at www.whippeddog.com. He is one of the cheaper for-pay honers and does a pretty good job. While you are on the site, have a look at his cheap badgers, and his whipped dog razors. He loves helping the newbies and his prices reflect that.

His Poor Man Strop Kit has a pasted balsa strop. Maybe he sells the balsa part alone, without the leather strop, I don't know. Anyway, you can use the pasted balsa after each shave, and keep your edge sharp for a long time. Possibly indefinitely. A better kit would be to buy a block of balsa about 3" wide and 12" long, and some diamond paste. Probably even better is to buy 3" wide balsa, but thin sheet, like 1/4" or thinner, and carefully glue it to a 12" long piece of heavy glass, a marble edge tile, or some other dimensionally stable substrate. You want it as flat as possible, and for it to stay flat. I like to flatten and smooth my balsa with a progression of sandpaper to 1k grit, glued to a very flat surface. Anyway, the bigger balsa is easier to use and get better results, especially with a straight edged blade, and the diamond cuts faster, with more consistent scratches due to more controlled particle size. I get mine from www.tedpella.com. Balsa you can look for online, or buy at your local hobby shop. The Poor Man kit will be cheaper, however. The green is the coarse side. The red is the fine side. With diamond, use 1u or .5u for the coarse side. A beginner should probably go .25u for the fine side. Me, I use .25u for coarse, and .1u for fine, and I am loving it.

For normal maintenance stropping on the balsa, a couple dozen laps, maybe fewer on the coarse side, should do the trick. If not, increase the lap count. For bringing back a dulled edge, probably a hundred or a couple hundred on the coarse side, two or three dozen on the fine side, ought to gitter done. If it don't, and you want to try more laps, go for it. Just keep the spine on the balsa, flip the edge outward when turning, and don't let the shoulder ride up on the balsa. Pressure should be light, of course, and a slight x-stroke motion is good even with a wide balsa strop. I like to swap ends, halfway through the stropping, too, and vary the heel leading angle, to compensate for any irregularities in the surface.

The pasted balsa strop will not do much good on a very dull edge, but if it is only slightly dulled through normal use, it could bring it back okay. What the pasted balsa is really good for, is either softening up a harsh edge just honed, or maintaining a sharp edge so it never gets dull in the first place. You could maybe keep your least dull razor and experiment with the pasted balsa, and send the others to be honed. Or if you are patient, just do the balsa until you get one of your razors shaving again, and keep at it for the others. It really does work, if you do it right. Maybe stick with 1u diamond for the coarse side, if you want to do that. It cuts faster. .25u for the fine side, but use more laps on the fine side, since it is a big step up, from 1u to .25u. I would say 4 dozen laps on the fine, maybe more, with a 4:1 step like that. YMMV.

BTW, I find that with good technique, I NEVER have to re-hone anymore, unless I just want to hone something.

 

[xuzxuz]

Pics will get the free-honers interested.

Indeed.

 

[BJJ]

If I am not wrong, i think Scott which his nick is life2short1971 , made a thread saying if anyone wants a razor to be honed could send too him... also DOC226 is a good honer and could help you.... there are many great honers here but .... try to talk with these 2 guys and see how it goes....

good luck

Hey guys, I'm about to buy a razor or two that aren't shave ready, and I'd like to get them honed. Are there people on here that are recommendable for honing blades, or is there a general consensus on where to send razors? If you can't tell, I'm a total newbie, and I'm looking to own my first real straight razor after having a dovo with replaceable blades.

Thanks for the help guys!
-Danny

 

[BJJ]

got it !! here it is..

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/340371-FREE-razor-honing-on-my-coticules

 

[Danielbz]

Awesome, thanks for all of the help guys. I'll definitely post pics when I have blades that need honing. I'm buying them off ebay, so I don't have them yet!