Can I hone my straights with the Professional Precision Adjust Knife Sharpener by Worksharp if I use lapping film?
Straight Razor Honing
- Thread starter jabomano
- Start date
Are you thinking of using lapping film belts or disc?
Well, it would depend on your skill level holding the razor to the abrasive, but even then, it would be needlessly difficult.
Belts are too narrow to evenly polish the edge.
The goal of razor honing is all about, not making a burr or minimizing the making of a burr. Using a motorized sharpener will create a burr.
Getting to sharp is easy, razor honing is about keen and comfortable. Knives and hair shears make no consideration for comfort.
I know guys, very experienced professional razor honers, that have used/tried hair shear, sharpening machines that run similar spinning plates with micro abrasive disc, without good results.
Now, someone that professionally sharpens hair shears for a living, with professional equipment, may have a better shot at it, but a novice and a hobby machine, I doubt it.
Keep in mind that with razors the cutting edge is so thin and fine, it can only be seen with SEM magnification. Very little room for error.
With razor honing, new shavers/honers’ biggest maintenance issue is stropping on a hanging linen and leather strop, add a motor and the negative variables increase dramatically.
It is the most difficult things for Knife sharpeners to accept about razor honing, that razors and knives are different and are honed differently for different purposes.
Many of us come to razors from knife sharpening, so the transition can be made, if one is willing to accept the difference.
Well, it would depend on your skill level holding the razor to the abrasive, but even then, it would be needlessly difficult.
Belts are too narrow to evenly polish the edge.
The goal of razor honing is all about, not making a burr or minimizing the making of a burr. Using a motorized sharpener will create a burr.
Getting to sharp is easy, razor honing is about keen and comfortable. Knives and hair shears make no consideration for comfort.
I know guys, very experienced professional razor honers, that have used/tried hair shear, sharpening machines that run similar spinning plates with micro abrasive disc, without good results.
Now, someone that professionally sharpens hair shears for a living, with professional equipment, may have a better shot at it, but a novice and a hobby machine, I doubt it.
Keep in mind that with razors the cutting edge is so thin and fine, it can only be seen with SEM magnification. Very little room for error.
With razor honing, new shavers/honers’ biggest maintenance issue is stropping on a hanging linen and leather strop, add a motor and the negative variables increase dramatically.
It is the most difficult things for Knife sharpeners to accept about razor honing, that razors and knives are different and are honed differently for different purposes.
Many of us come to razors from knife sharpening, so the transition can be made, if one is willing to accept the difference.
Isn't the idea of the Worksharp that it allows you to sharpen with a precision angle? A straight razor is its own angle guide.
This^
Why do you need a honing guide if you only have to put the lapping film on something flat and lay the blade on it?
Can you? Maybe. But do you want to and why?
I wouldn't want to use such a machine on a razor, it doesn't seem to lend itself to the task. I see no possible advantages.
The clamp's dimensions aren't ideal for a typical razor. The system isn't geared toward honing ultra fine edges, more like for utility edges. Maybe it can be modded to be better but it seems far from ideal for honing a razor. If you had a wide razor, with a thicker spine, and the right abrasive plates, you can probably get somewhere but it's almost guaranteed that honing on a stone is far more capable of producing a far better (more consistent, more even, sharper, more refined) end result.
I wouldn't want to use such a machine on a razor, it doesn't seem to lend itself to the task. I see no possible advantages.
The clamp's dimensions aren't ideal for a typical razor. The system isn't geared toward honing ultra fine edges, more like for utility edges. Maybe it can be modded to be better but it seems far from ideal for honing a razor. If you had a wide razor, with a thicker spine, and the right abrasive plates, you can probably get somewhere but it's almost guaranteed that honing on a stone is far more capable of producing a far better (more consistent, more even, sharper, more refined) end result.
Abrasive belt, disc and a motor, what could go wrong?
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
I think that good advice to the OP is that a straight razor is not a little knife and cannot be sharpened like one. A razor is a completely different beast where sharpening is concerned.
Exactly
