straight razor honing on a budget

[Blade_Runner37C]

Ok i've been told all my stones wont work for a straight razor. i'm on a budget and have an older Joseph Rodgers and Sons that I was told the blade is worth honing. Remeber i'm on a budget and would like to try out this razor before looking nto newer ones, i have a birthday coming up.

I have:

Flattening stones

sharp pebble 400/100 3000/8000 whetstones I was told were junk.

Norton India 2 sided oil stone course and fine

Arkansas stones of all ratings except for translucent. I did get ahold of a large surgical Black stone which is much much more like glass than the other true hard Arkansas stone (so several soft, several hard, 1 true hard and a giant surgical black that Dan's shows finer than translucent.

DMT Dia-sharp set (120 microns / course / fine / x-tra fine

and a wicked edge sharpening system with every grit they offered, ceramic stones, leather strops etc.

is there nothing in my toolbox other than the surgical black Arkansas to finish after a Naniwa 12k stone?

What on the cheap is the least I can get by on if I have to buy something? really on a budget and still need a strop, mine is a cheap one.

 

[Legion]

If it is a real surgical black, and not one of the pretender stones that are around the place, that might be all you need to maintain a shave ready edge, other than a strop.

Send the razor to someone competent who already has all the gear and pay them to make it shave ready. That is your cheapest option that will get you shaving for a good long while.

 

[Blade_Runner37C]

If it is a real surgical black, and not one of the pretender stones that are around the place, that might be all you need to maintain a shave ready edge, other than a strop.

Send the razor to someone competent who already has all the gear and pay them to make it shave ready. That is your cheapest option that will get you shaving for a good long while.

Yes it really is I bought it straight from Dans, was on a wait list for it. It's 8x3x1 I believe (2-3 i'm sure) It wasn't cheap.

I'm up for suggestions, I had someone offer but I needed to have a strop bought already and heirloom was out at that time.

 

[Legion]

Yes it really is I bought it straight from Dans, was on a wait list for it. It's 8x3x1 I believe (2-3 i'm sure) It wasn't cheap.

I'm up for suggestions, I had someone offer but I needed to have a strop bought already and heirloom was out at that time.

Try them again for a beginner strop. Just the most basic model they sell will be more than enough. There is no point getting a razor honed if you cant strop it.

If they are still out, put up a WTB on the buy, sell, trade, and see if someone has something reasonable spare and can hook you up. I'd offer to help, but I'm probably on the wrong side of the world.

 

[Blade_Runner37C]

If they are still out, put up a WTB on the buy, sell, trade, and see if someone has something spare and can hook you up. I'd offer to help, but I'm probably on the wrong side of the world.

Yes i'm in the USA, I can't post on the BST forums for another week or two. I did see a strop that was the nicest looking strop i've ever seen from a guy on youtube, older gentleman with a shave channel. I tried getting the name, just saw it was made in Australia. Too bad you weren't in the USA or I was in Australia, i'd take you up on that.

 

[Legion]

I'd probably advise against getting the nicest strop right out of the gate. Most of us wrecked our first strop learning.

Get a basic strop that is not too expensive, but of good quality, then splash out on a fancy one when you trust yourself.

 

[Koop]

Check out Duke City for a strop on Ebay. His strops are very reasonably priced and they're good to go.

 

[Blade_Runner37C]

I will say i've been sharpening knives for a long time and have peeled some strops back with knives before I learned how to use them. I dont know if that carries over for safety razors, it would seem like stroping would be easier with a safety razor than say a ka-bar? maybe not

 

[jj_sharp]

I would think you should be able to get the job done with the Arkansas stones, assuming the edge is not terrible

 

[Saloogie]

King synthetic stones are very cheap and very good for SR's.

You could get a 1-2 and 8k on eBay for about 70 bucks or so and that would make a nice progression up to your Ark and you'll be good to go. Having that Ark is a huge advantage and a great finisher.

 

[PintoPlain]

I'd be inclined to agree with @Legion regarding the strop. Don't go for a good one straight away. If you're confident enough you can make your own if you're so inclined. My strop is a strip of veg tanned roo with D rings at each end, one of which attaches to the wall with a swivel clip.

You state you have a surgical black ark. Again I would have to agree with Legion. Send the blade to someone who knows what they are doing to give it a shaveable edge and maintain on the ark. Don't be discouraged if you ruin the edge trying to maintain it. It is likely to happen while you are getting used to honing a razor. It is different to honing a knife insofar as a more delicate touch is required for a razor, especially finishing. At least if you get it honed, you will have a decent bevel and a reference to what is achievable.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Yup, skip the Pebble stones, they are more trouble that worth for razor, perhaps you can use them for knives and tools.

You can easily set a bevel on the India fine side, with 2 layers of tape, you will burn through the tape and trash the spine if you do not tape, but you can set a bevel if you watch your tape and replace often.

A $20 King 1k or $30 King 1/6k are much better options. A King 1/6k, your 12k, and Ark is perfect lifetime progression.

But with what you have, you can do an Indian to12k with slurry to remove all the deep Indian stria and finish on 12k with just water. You should be able to shave off the 12k very well.

You can improve the 12k with the Ark, provided it is a true Ark, and the stone face is flat and smooth. Arks are all about the stone face finish.

Tape your spine to learn to hone or you will trash your razors. Once you master honing a year or two, then decide if you want to continue to tape, no downside to using tape.

Stropping a razor and stropping a knife are nothing alike. Learning to strop a razor is critical and more difficult than honing.

You can get a razor pro honed and ruin the edge in a single lap. The goal to master stropping is getting to the point where you are improving the edge with each lap. Again, you can do 100 perfect laps and roll the edge in one stroke.

Stropping a razor is all about pressure, paying attention and the quality and cleanliness of your strop.

The good news is, if you roll the edge or damage it, you can with your 12k restore the edge in 10-20 laps and start over. It will not be a pro-honed edge but should be shaveable.

A Naniwia 12k has a lot of range, can set a bevel with slurry in experienced hands and finish on water with a light touch.

The reason I and others recommend Tony Miller strops is first, hand-made quality, you can buy replacement leather or linen, and upgrade leather and linen individually.

New stroppers almost always cut or nick their strops. Stropping demands your complete attention and can take a year of daily stropping to master. So, learning to touch up an edge is a must.

 

[5whiskey]

Razors are more forgiving than they're made out to be. I honed one razor that had a deep chip in the blade on a cheap 150 grit corundum stone. I needed to take the blade from a true 6/8 to nearly 5/8 to get that chip out... so I had to remove a lot of material. After getting the bevel roughly set, I started to work on it with a soft ark (surface dressed with 600 w/d). Then a hard ark, then a black ark. It took a while cleaning up the edge with Arkansas stones, but I got it done.

Your Dan's black Arkansas is a finisher. A little on the slow side, take the number of strokes you think you need and add about 50% to that. But it works, and works well.

 

[bluesman 7]

I tried an idea that Joe Calton (sp) proposed for knife people who likely had this stone in their collection to try out a dull straight that they happened upon cheap. Using a 1k 6k combo which is cheap anyway followed by crox then a clean leather stop a usable edge could be had. It's not an edge I would put on a razor I was selling, but definitely usable.

 

[Sustainashave]

I got my first shaves off DMT plates and plenty of stropping (lots and lots actually) I was hooked though. I use Shapton Pro's & you can get away with just the 1500 (or 2000) & the 8000.

 

[JPO]

I got my first shaves off DMT plates and plenty of stropping (lots and lots actually) I was hooked though. I use Shapton Pro's & you can get away with just the 1500 (or 2000) & the 8000.

You can use a well broken in 8k DMT from, and including bevel set. If you finish on something like a jnat with tomo slurry you will get a really good edge in just a few minutes. Don't worry about some of the deeper scratches further up at the bevel shoulder. The apex will still be super clean and smoot.
This plate can easily replace a full set of synthetic stones if you are a minimalist.
The only caveat is you need to find a way to brake in the plate without ripping out the diamonds.
I used the end of an Arkansas stone carefully over the surface.

Now i need to have a go at just using a pasted strop after the 8k dmt.