What's new

Scalpel to straight razor → what's the rub?

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Agree with the other posts, that frown means a lot of wear and pressure was used in honing it, likely way too much. That’s a decade of wear or more. You may also be rolling the edge while stropping. I’ll hone it for you if Alfredo doesn’t respond, I think that I can PM you if you’re interested.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I'm not feeling the love for your Etsy guy. Owning a shop, whether virtual or brick and mortar, does not mean he can hone. Make sure he is actually part of the online community, a respected member of at least one shaving forum, and known and well ragarded by several members of long standing. Anybody can say they can hone. Anybody can hone a razor to a pocketknife sharp or arm hair shaving sharp edge. That's not sharp sharp. Plus, simple sharpness is not the only quality of a shave ready edge.

Never trust anyone who does not shave daily with a straight razor, to hone yours.

Alfredo is definitely our go-to honemeister on this board but he does get swamped. You don't have to PM. Just put an "@" in front of his user name and it will make a notification, and then if he isn't too busy he can come see what the fuss is all about. Like this: @Doc226 . @Steve56 should be able to fix you up, though. You can also try Glenn at GemStar Customs. He is a member here but responds quicker at his website. His member ID is @GsSixgun. Pretty much any member here who says he can hone your razor, who has at least a year on the board and 1000 posts and isn't getting constantly shouted down, is probably going to be able to do a good job honing your razor. Reputations are at stake. Better a community member than a stranger with a digital shingle on Etsy. But who knows, maybe he is legitimately skilled and someone will pipe in about him.
 
Update on this thread. The razor was BUTCHERED. Severe frown, appears to have been honed with the spine off the stone or on a belt. Bevel wasn’t set even after the frown.

EA3F90B3-DC11-4502-83B4-A4964527B6DF.jpeg
70AFA060-C6BC-4D87-BD61-842E9C3C1D08.jpegDCFC1E66-D94A-48E4-8FB9-77464FE592CE.jpeg

Hard to capture but it’s at least 1.2 to 2.0 mm frown.

2C52917B-DEF1-4802-B165-83951EAFAF66.jpeg
Removed this much

2F8FD957-A95F-48FC-AA4B-D37302D848A3.jpeg
After bevel set

Did most of the bevel set without tape as I wanted to thin out the spine. I was not touching the apex, off by a few mm , after k was close I did put on one layer of tape
 

Attachments

  • 8D0D3E77-45B5-4323-A919-5209525F8C1E.jpeg
    8D0D3E77-45B5-4323-A919-5209525F8C1E.jpeg
    571.2 KB · Views: 29
at to the OP, there's lots of pre-shave hair hydration and skin softening techniques out there wat work to varying degrees for different people. I've found post shower to be the best for me personally. we tend to be partial to a shaving soap or creme applied with a brush. another skill set to tune up. stropping is a also an earned skill set.

once you get it all figured out, it's the best shave most all of us consider achievable. then we start honing our own... enjoy and good luck with the journey.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Update on this thread. The razor was BUTCHERED. Severe frown, appears to have been honed with the spine off the stone or on a belt. Bevel wasn’t set even after the frown.

View attachment 1569616
View attachment 1569615View attachment 1569617

Hard to capture but it’s at least 1.2 to 2.0 mm frown.

View attachment 1569618
Removed this much

View attachment 1569619
After bevel set

Did most of the bevel set without tape as I wanted to thin out the spine. I was not touching the apex, off by a few mm , after k was close I did put on one layer of tape
OUCH! What a sorely abused razor! Yeah that was a pretty sad razor. I think you took realistically the only really practical approach. Bevel angle still looks pretty stout but the proof is in the shave. With a nice straight edge and a proper bevel it ought to serve as a decent shaver for decades to come. Good save.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Update on this thread. The razor was BUTCHERED. Severe frown, appears to have been honed with the spine off the stone or on a belt. Bevel wasn’t set even after the frown.

I did one like it not long ago, but with the one that I did, the spine certainly wasn’t off the stone. It took a good bit of tape to get it to 16.5 degrees or so.

I suspect this is how people come to realize that straight razors aren’t little knives.

29ED2585-F241-4FB1-B3EE-E7E15C3632A2.jpeg
 
Thank you all for helping me, I appreciate it a lot.

An update of my personal progress:

Lesson learned the hard way -- all future honing will go through Alfredo. I did try again with a Bergischer Lowe and it's no problem at all to get a super close shave; all my scalpel practice came to my aid. Stropping still makes me nervous, but I think I have a good technique going and I just need to practice and take it slow. If I do roll the edge in stropping, can that be corrected by stropping correctly, or does that merit a rehoning?
 
Thank you all for helping me, I appreciate it a lot.

An update of my personal progress:

Lesson learned the hard way -- all future honing will go through Alfredo. I did try again with a Bergischer Lowe and it's no problem at all to get a super close shave; all my scalpel practice came to my aid. Stropping still makes me nervous, but I think I have a good technique going and I just need to practice and take it slow. If I do roll the edge in stropping, can that be corrected by stropping correctly, or does that merit a rehoning?
I’m glad it worked out for you, a proper shave ready edge makes all the difference.

Don’t discount honing your own edges though, there’s no better satisfaction than shaving with a fantastic edge you honed yourself!
 
Thank you all for helping me, I appreciate it a lot.

An update of my personal progress:

Lesson learned the hard way -- all future honing will go through Alfredo. I did try again with a Bergischer Lowe and it's no problem at all to get a super close shave; all my scalpel practice came to my aid. Stropping still makes me nervous, but I think I have a good technique going and I just need to practice and take it slow. If I do roll the edge in stropping, can that be corrected by stropping correctly, or does that merit a rehoning?
I would hit a finisher for 10 laps if I rolled an edge, then my crox paddle strop and that should be fine I would expect.

Though it's also likely it wouldn't need it, perhaps a crox paddle strop would be all that's necessary, or that I'm wrong, not sure I've rolled an edge so this is just my intuition..
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Don’t feel badly, many people do similar things when they first begin to hone razors.

Honing a razor isn’t hard, but it’s like playing a musical instrument or riding a bike, etc, it just takes practice. Think ‘Karate Kid’, wax on, wax off. Do it enough times and you’ll be good.

The amount of wear shown in these images is almost always caused by using knife pressure on a razor, perhaps with an unsuitably coarse stone (which would be OK with a knife or tool). Or by continuing with poor technique without figuring out why the technique was not producing the desired results.

Everything about a straight razor is bass ackwards from every other edged tool. If the edge is not developing, you need to figure out why, but too much pressure is one of the things beginners do. Try using about 1/100th the pressure than what caused this wear. Use a Sharpie to ink the bevel to make sure that you’re honing all of the bevel evenly. Use a 7-10x loupe to inspect the bevel and the apex, where the bevels meet.

And maybe most importantly, if the razor isn’t shaving well, don’t push it harder into your face, or you will be very unhappy. Unlike a knife, if a SR isn’t cutting well you can’t push harder.

Good luck!
 
I didn't grind that razor into oblivion. I took it to the guy that sharpens my other knives because he said he could do it. He only admitted he didn't know what he was doing after he destroyed it. He had found a nick in the middle of the blade, so he ground it out on a wheel, hence the frown.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
@hubo, instead of continually resending (after about every 100 shaves) your SR to @Doc226 for refreshing, you should consider maintaining your SR on a 0.1μm diamond pasted balsa strop after each use. It is not difficult to put together or learn This will save you money and relieve some of the pressure on Alfredo.

Instructions can be found here:

 
Top Bottom