Noob is wondering.......

[willye]

I've seen several Youtube videos where guys take a razor right out of a box and use a flat waterstone to bring the edge "up to snuff". They then strop it and it's ready to shave.

I've also read many posts here that describe much more complex methods and bring up issues that I barely understand.

So my question is this: Is the flat stone method I see in the vids gonna do me any good? I'm not trying to restore an old razor, I just want to make my good razors shave better.

 

[Seveneighth]

I am pretty lazy so 80% of the time this is all I do. I use a coticule or a Charnley Forest and do just that. They stay pretty flat, especially the Charnley Forest so don't need much maintenance. I also keep a CF and a Coticule in the garage that I use with oil. If a razor needs refreshing I will often use one of those and then put the razor away - the process is self oiling of the razor for storage. So sometimes I refresh with water, sometimes with oil - it depends what mood I'm in.

The issue comes when / if you get any micro chipping. You can hone it out on a finisher but it's a load of work. In those circumstances I would drop to a coarser stone to improve the edge and work my way back to the finisher.

That's where a coticule comes into its own (if you like a coticule edge). You can maintain an edge all the way from bevel to finish using progressively diluted slurry. Last February I did a "Frugal February" and shaved with one razor, brush, soap, stone and strop for the month. It was an educational experience. At the start of the month I had a razor that was badly chipped and I bread-knifed and cut the new bevel form scratch. Consequently I now feel pretty confident that if I had to I could survive with just one stone.

I also sometimes just refresh using lapping film stuck to a glass plate. This is a cheaper option and possibly even less hassle. If you read the posts in the newby honing compendium and take note of the finishing steps, that could also be used as a refreshing technique.

The "standard" refresh stone is a Naniwa 12k SS. Here is a good video describing this process.

You would need a diamond plate, a bowl and the stone. Seems more complex, but really isn't when you get the hang of it.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I've seen several Youtube videos where guys take a razor right out of a box and use a flat waterstone to bring the edge "up to snuff". They then strop it and it's ready to shave.

I've also read many posts here that describe much more complex methods and bring up issues that I barely understand.

So my question is this: Is the flat stone method I see in the vids gonna do me any good? I'm not trying to restore an old razor, I just want to make my good razors shave better.

Some guys like their razor sharp. Some like it sharper. Some like it as sharp as it can possible get.

Most new razors are not shave ready. Some few are. Some more few are nearly there, and a session on a finish stone can get it "good enough" for many shavers. Maybe most shavers. As already stated in the post above. a 12k Naniwa is considered a good, mainstream, reliable finisher. You can shave off it. Or you can use it as your gateway to the pasted balsa progression and get a superlative shaving experience.

The majority of new razors will want more than just a few laps on a finisher to make ready to shave. You would be looking at starting below 1k grit to get the heavy lifting done. then 1k or 2k for final setting of the bevel, then the progression of stones leading up to the finisher. Or films, of course. 1u film is the standard grit finishing film and it, too, is the jumping in point for the balsa progression. Those two standard finishers are as far as the average honer goes. They are quite happy with their average edges and average shaves, and nothing wrong with that. If you want better, you got to up your game.

Some retailers selling new razors that do not ship from the factory ready to shave, will hone them and make them so. Often the shaver will still want to put his own finish on the edge, so yeah, a dozen or two laps on the finishing stone or film are usually adequate for those guys.

Not every shaver likes a synthetic edge. Some guys will always finish on their favorite natural finisher, even if the razor already treetops like a light sabre and the natural actually reduces sharpness. It can be very much a preference thing, and very subjective.

 

[Joshua223]

Those people are usually just refining the edge some more to get it where they want. If I gave you a kitchen knife with a good working edge from a medium grit stone, you may still want to improve the edge on a finer stone before using it.
You can take an edge that is perfectly fine for one person, but another person may feel it is too harsh or maybe not sharp enough. Some prefer natural stones and maintaining the edge on clean leather, while some like regularly touching up the edge on a strop loaded with abrasives.

Can't comment on the videos in general. There are some great video tutorials out there, but some are not so great.