Solingen versus sheffield

[auntmary]

Hi everybody, i'm a new member here and i'm from Germany.
I started wetshaving with straight razors three month ago and i think this is a new hobby wich lasts forever. I collected a few razors from a bay, mostly NOS and vintage items. Even a few hones, strops, brush, soap, aftershaves.
What i experienced is that i have two sorts of razors:

1. Thin blade full hollow grounded from Solingen
2. Vintage wade & Butcher, Wostenholm (thick Blades)

The first are very scrapy even sharp.
I got them "shave ready" and only stroped them before shaving.
The second are very sharp and very smooth razors. I restored them with "bread knife" method, coarse diamond stone, blue and yellow belgian, 12000 chinese stone, Diamond paste on paddle strop, stropping on leather.

Could it be that the modern solingen blades have harder steel than the vintage sheffield ones ? How can i get them smooth and sharp like the oldies ?
I'm thinking that i should sell the solingens and only shave with the vintages.


Does anybody have the same experience ? And does anyone got a solingen blade (paul schulze, Puma) as sharp and smooth as an wostenholm ore w&B from the 1850's ?

 

[chess1]

Problem is in your pastes. you can get smooth shave from solingen too.
Generally solingen steel is harder then sheffield steel.
gl

 

[auntmary]

Thanks for your reply chess1.
Do you think the diamond paste is not good for this hard solingen steel ?
Is it better to use chromoxid ? because of the round geometry of the molecules ?
Or avoid any pastes and just finish honing with the "chinese 12000" and then stropping (cotton, leather)?
I'm a newby and thankful for any advice

 

[Thebigspendur]

Whether the Sheffield is harder or not has nothing to do with shave quality. Either way you should be able to get great shaves. First you have to access the edge and how much work is needed. The Chinese 12K is a very slow stone. It will work but takes time. Depending on the sharpness you have and the condition of the edge there are a multitude of hones and pastes you can use.

 

[chess1]

Using chro2 after 1200 won't hurt you. Any way you are not going to make 100 laps on it . you need may be 15-25 laps on chro2.
that should be enough

 

[SliceOfLife]

I find razors I bread knife and then restore do seem to take a better edge than razors which haven't had it done. I can't say for sure why. Maybe it's a guarantee of entirely fresh steel. Maybe it's that the bevel is less likely to have unnoticeable imperfections. No idea, it's just what I've found. The question is, if it's worth losing a bevel's depth of steel (and spending a lot of time on the stones grinding the spine down to match again) to get that improvement.


That said, hollow grinds "thin blade" razors are likely to seem to scrape to a new user. The make noise when they cut and flex a lot more. A thicker blade will make the same cut silently and seem much smoother even if they're equally sharp and capable. Once you get used to shaving more and get angles down pat you'll be able to distinguish between an edge that scrapes and the apparent scraping caused by a thin edge. I suspect you've been spending more time on the sheffield's and have learnt to use them very well, but haven't taken the time to get the Hollow blades technique down as well.



Edit: In my opinion, hollower grinds if anything take a sharper final edge than the thicker grinds. My Henckles 1/4 hollow shaves great, but the edge isn't anywhere close to as sharp as my W&B FH. (Yes, that's a Solingen Thick blade Vs. a Sheffield hollow.... did it to clarify the position I have on Sheffield Vs Solingen, FH Vs. Otherwise. I could just as easily have compared a thicker Sheffield I have being less sharp than my Puma).

 

[auntmary]

Hi, and first of all thank you for your replies to my newby questions. I was send here from the newby checkin forum because of the technical aspects.
I think i was a bit to euphoric of my abilities because i brought this little ebay beauty back to function.
[[Image:Wostenholm01.jpg]]
http://i.ebayimg.com/24/!Bi-CPDg!2k~$%28KGrHqQOKkQEsnuUi+Q+BLRjJlLRSw~~_12.JPG
Its a wostenholm and its my best shaver now.
I believe SliceOfLife that the thin blade razors can get an extremely sharp edge, but its harder to get there as you said. So i will take my new puma and apply a new bevel and than try to make it super sharp. I have to rebevel, because they applied a second bevel in the factory. I noticed that too late and overhoned (with coticule) because of too much pressure. I go to a coarse stone now and then step by step up to the chinese 12k