Using the time off

[Jakebullet]

Having time on my hands today as I stay at home as advised, I decided on a little honing and maintenance to kill an hour so I got set up on the kitchen table and put my glasses on.
I decided to use metal polish to try to clean up my Suredge, my ELSINE and my Thomas Turner razors. The Suredge and ELSINE are both brilliant shavers but came to me a bit rough around the edges so I wanted to clean them up if possible and the Turner had rusted a while back and I’d never got it quite how it used to be.
Id also bought a small Welsh slate stone ages ago and tried it but couldn’t really use it back then as I was very new to honing and I’d dulled my 2 Gold dollars trying to learn to use it so today I thought I’d try to put a decent edge on Gold Dollar B with that. I lapped it on a sandpaper backed tile and gave it a try. I also lapped my Naniwa 12k while I was at it though not for use today.

The stone is a purple/grey slate of only about 6 inches x 1 1/2 inches so a bit tricky to use but I definitely felt more comfortable using it today than last time. I wet it and gave it around 50 laps with the last 20 being very light. I’m very interested to see how this shaves tomorrow, my hope is that it’ll be smooth like a coticule edge someone once sent me.
Next I gave the ELSINE, Suredge and Turner a light metal polish hoping they’d come up a bit and they did but not by any massive amount.
I think any further polishing improvements will need sandpaper or a dremmel although I’ve never tried removing deep rusting or staining before.

Next I took them to my acrylic block and lapping films to bring up the edges.

I did 20 laps on each razor using green film at around 30u 1.5k, blue at 9u 4K , pink at 3u 8k, light green at 1u 10k and white at 0.3u 12k.
The first 10 laps were with some pressure and the last 10 with hardly any.
I then stropped all 4 razors 40x on linen then around 100 each on leather.
The whole job took me a pleasant hour and I’ve now got 4 freshly honed razors to try out this week but the one I’m looking forward to using most is the Welsh slate edge as I want to see if my honing skills have improved enough to be able to use that and im interested to see how my face likes a natural stone edge.

 

[Slash McCoy]

If you want a comfortable shave off the .3u film, apply it over damp paper and only go a half dozen or so laps. Sub-micron film is notorious for harsh edges. Me, I don't even use it. From 1u film I go straight to balsa but even without the balsa, a good 1u edge will be pretty sharp and reasonably comfortable to shave with.

Be careful with the Dremel. They have destroyed a lot of razors. Be sure to wear eye and face protection.

 

[Jakebullet]

If you want a comfortable shave off the .3u film, apply it over damp paper and only go a half dozen or so laps. Sub-micron film is notorious for harsh edges. Me, I don't even use it. From 1u film I go straight to balsa but even without the balsa, a good 1u edge will be pretty sharp and reasonably comfortable to shave with.

Be careful with the Dremel. They have destroyed a lot of razors. Be sure to wear eye and face protection.

Thanks a lot for the advice, what does the paper do to the edge in terms of helping with smoothness? What Grit sandpaper would you recommend instead of the dremmel?

 

[Slash McCoy]

Thanks a lot for the advice, what does the paper do to the edge in terms of helping with smoothness? What Grit sandpaper would you recommend instead of the dremmel?

The paper under the .3u film acts as a resilient buffer. It smooths out any irregularities and compensates for any dust or lint, and it very slightly convexes the edge just enough to make it more comfortable. We often refer to the paper as "picopaper". See the lapping film thread. Try it on one razor. Go a dozen laps on 1u and then do a half dozen on .3u with the picopaper. Compare the shave to a shave from one honed out to .3u without benefit of picopaper and you will notice the edge is much kinder to the face.

Even better, of course, is to run the balsa progression. I no longer use .3u, myself. I haven't used that grit in several years. I just don't find it useful, with the balsa available. And you don't want any convexity going into the balsa progression so the picopaper would be out, anyway.

Those razors look pretty good and it doesn't look like any coarse sandpaper is needed. Maybe 800 grit, then 1k, 1.5k, and 2k. Or skip the 800. Maybe skip the sandpaper altogether? Hard to tell from the pics. Judgement call, anyway. Don't get me wrong, the Dremel (or better yet the heavy duty Harbor Freight knockoff) is very useful. I like to use the felt wheels with diamond paste. I have a full range from 30u to .1u, and where to start is a judgement call, too. Once you get down to sub-micron grits you aren't removing much steel so for a razor without much pitting or deep scratching I often start with .5u and then .25u and .1u for a brilliant finish. I always lay the razor down on a plate of aluminum to act as a heat sink and to protect the edge, and never orient the dremel so that the rotating wheel could catch and shatter the edge. Heat is your enemy. It is easy to push the temper in the thin parts of the razor, especially the edge.

When light pitting is present I might start with 3u diamond. I seldom use anything coarser. You can end up with a grooved or gouged look. Sandpaper makes a flatter surface. From 2k sandpaper to 3u diamond paste is about a 3x jump and so quite practical with nothing in between.

To recap on the Dremel, the hazards are mainly overheating, shattering or chipping, and gouging. These can be controlled but one moment of carelessness is all it takes for Demon Dremel to gleefully destroy a nice razor.

 

[Jakebullet]

Thanks so much for such a helpful and detailed reply I’ll definitely take what you said on board. Have to say I read one of your earlier posts where you describe taking up straight razor shaving way back when and had no help whatsoever just your problem solving skills, experimentation and a lot of trial and error. This is one of the reasons I appreciate you bothering to respond so much as I know you’ve really paid your dues and have a real deep and comprehensive knowledge of the subject.