I have never even held a str8, so forgive my stupidity on this one. On some of the nice str8s with etchings, etc. on the blade, don't you wear it off when you are honing? Just curious.
AFDavis11 said:All of my razors look like shaving implements pretty quickly. I.E. they have that hardwater sorta gunk you might find on the top of a DE occasionally, despite efforts to clean the razor afterward.
A very popular product for cleaning str8ts is MAAS metal polish. You can find it at Walgrees or Wal-Mart by the cleaning products.roughrider said:I heard people use CLR or other similar products to remove the hardwater spots/dull look.
In normal use, a str8 is only honed occasionally. Once it is keen, it can be refreshed with a few swipes on a razor hone when the razor starts to pull a little. And if you keep it keen, serious honing is very infrequent.Scotto said:I have never even held a str8, so forgive my stupidity on this one. On some of the nice str8s with etchings, etc. on the blade, don't you wear it off when you are honing? Just curious.
Joe Lerch said:In normal use, a str8 is only honed occasionally. Once it is keen, it can be refreshed with a few swipes on a razor hone when the razor starts to pull a little. And if you keep it keen, serious honing is very infrequent.
Razors are designed to be honed flat on a stone. That is, only the spine and edge touch the stone. Since most razors are hollow ground, the gold wash and other decorative coverings don't touch the stone.
Right. He was worried about grinding off the goldwash, which could easily be done in one sitting if it contacts an abrasive. I just wanted to assure him that normal honing won't do that, although I agree that handling normally will, in time.Laz in Tampa said:Holy cow Joe, we agree on something! haha.
I think he was refering to etching and gold wash on the spine, not the blade itself. Gold wash or bluing on the tang will eventually wear off just from handling it, oils on your fingers, etc.
Not as easy as you would think, once the spine is taped you lay the blade flat on the honing stone and even though it looks like it will scrape off there is a space between the gold on the blade and the stone