Wanted: Razors to Hone

[Herrenberg]

I guess it's not surprising that a guy who got into straight razor shaving in the first place because he likes to sharpen (check my intro thread), turns out to really like razor honing. The problem is, I've run out of razors to hone, so I'm hoping to hone one of yours.

This is not a money thing. I guess I can't rule out that someday I might hone razors for money, since I like doing it, but I can state with confidence that that will not happen any time in the next three years. I have a job I like fine. So this is the idea:

You send me your razor. I sterilize it with isopropyl alcohol, take microscope pictures of the edge, send them to you, then hone, shave with it, and, once I am happy (or decide that happiness is not possible with such a razor), I send you updated pictures, sterilize, and send it back. No money changes hands. I guess it's also possible I will tell you your razor is hopeless, at least for my skills, and send it back unchanged.

I am not a razor thief, in case you're wondering. I am a computer programmer who loves to hone razors.

For the first batch, I will accept up to 5 razors, no more than 1 from each person. I will pay return shipping, and I do not care if they all turn out to be Gold Dollar or Titan. I may care later, but not for now. I've never touched either, so learning about them is a benefit at the moment.

A little edge damage is OK, but not any that extends to more than 1/3 of the bevel. Edge damage may put you at the end of the (short) queue.

If you send me a fancy razor, I will treat it with the care it deserves. My razors are mostly Iwasaki kamisoris. I've figured out how to hone those to my liking, and I don't need any more of those, so I am looking for new frontiers.

US only. I hate filling out customs forms.

If this interests you, PM me. Happy to prove my bona fides if that seems called for.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Cool offer and a great way to increase your honing skills. My razors are currently ready to go, and I am still learning myself, or else I would gladly take you up on the offer.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[FarmerTan]

PM inbound.....

 

[Herrenberg]

Farmer Tan has sent me a razor to hone. It has some history, so naturally I want to do right by it. It also has some rust.

The wide view

The good news is that the middle of the edge looks mostly unscathed. There are also indications that this razor was once completely electroplated in gold. That shows up especially in the microscope pictures.

The goal here is not a full restoration, but rather to make something to shave with. A good thing, too. I have no restoration skills. What I do have is lots of kinds of sandpaper, and enough experience with it to know what to expect from it. The most important thing may be the choice of initial grit. 80, for example, would be a really bad idea. I'm going to go with 600.

Edge pictures in the next response.

 

[Herrenberg]

The heel and toe are quite rusty. Rust with gold in it looks kind of cool though.

The middle of the edge, while not unscathed, looks a lot better.

Onward!

 

[Herrenberg]

Some time with the sandpaper has improved the situation.

I have to fight a certain desire to keep going with this, but since the point here is "Herrenberg gets to hone some razors since he ran out of razors to hone," not "Herrenberg learns razor restoration on someone else's precious family heirloom, probably by screwing it up along the way," I think it makes sense to stop here, and move on to honing.

Post-sandpaper edge pictures in the next response.

 

[Herrenberg]

The edge has gone from a bucket of rust at the heel and toe to, well, not perfection, but something that seems very plausible to hone.

I'm quite surprised and pleased that it cleaned up as well as it did. Now I get to do the best part, honing it.

 

[MilkCrate]

How many razors have you honed in total?
What is your honing progression?
And are you doing tape or no tape? Thanks.

 

[Herrenberg]

How many razors have you honed in total?
What is your honing progression?
And are you doing tape or no tape? Thanks.

I've honed about 15 razors, plus some repeats when I had to deal with edge damage.

The start point for my honing progression depends on what I have to deal with in terms of edge damage and unevenness. The lowest I would go at this point is Shapton Glass 500. It is reasonably fast, and, importantly, very creamy and hard for such a low grit stone.

After that

SG1000
SG2000
Tsushima
Ohira Suita
Okudo Suita (only sometimes)
Green Asagi
Nakayama Kiita (only sometimes)
Nakayama Tomae
Nakayama Maruka
Then balsa strops pasted with diamond in 0.5 micron, 0.25 micron, and 0.1 micron

Again, the start point all depends. Ralf Aust arrived so sharp I just did the balsa strops. For an unknown razor like Farmer Tan's, with no apparent significant edge issues, I will start with the Asagi just to see where I am. If it produces nice even scratches along the entire bevel, under the microscope, then I will continue upwards. If not, I'll look at what's not right, and make a judgment about where to go next.

No tape. I dislike tape, and I don't want to have to keep track of what razors have been honed with tape and which have not.

 

[MilkCrate]

Thank you for the detailed post.

 

[Herrenberg]

I really like the look of an edge that has been over my final finishing stone.

It's so straight and even and fine grained. Which is not to say that everything went perfectly here. This razor has a smile, a thing I am not used to, living in kamisori-world. I tried to do some gyrations to give the toe and heel a proper apex, but it only worked a little. Actually, I don't even know whether it's supposed to have one -- maybe smile-razor shavers just use the 90+% of the razor that is not the smiley parts. Still, I'm going to ding myself for lack of knowledge, at least. Maybe someone can tell me about smiles, and how you should manage them when honing.

Smile corners aside, everything I'm seeing through the microscope tells me I am ready to move on to the pasted balsa strops. Onward!

 

[DeepSea]

Wow! Very nice work on that razor!

 

[Herrenberg]

And so we reach the final steps: stropping and shaving.

I discovered during stropping on pasted balsa that the bevel at the toe is not quite in line with the rest of the bevel. So to get it polished up, I had to do a second set of stropping passes on just the first 1/4 of the edge. Were this my own razor, I'd likely take it out again someday and really even the bevel on a coarser stone, but it'll do.

Rust is insidious. You can't escape its effects, and the worst of them were at the toe.

You can see the pitting in the bevel, and you can see the places where pitting was at the edge, and produced divots in the edge. The good news is that dings at this scale reduce comfort, but do not otherwise interfere with shaving.

The other good news is that the middle of the edge is in much better shape.

So a final pass on the hanging leather, and then a shave!

The shave went quite well. I got a nice, smooth shave, with just a bit of discomfort when I used the toe on neck hollows. Success!

Now all that remains is an isopropyl alcohol soak, to disinfect, and packaging it up and taking it to the post office.

This has been fun! Thanks for trusting me with your razor, Farmer Tan.

 

[bluesman 7]

I can't see any of the pictures.

 

[Herrenberg]

I can't see any of the pictures.

Hmmm. I'm not sure what to tell you. Maybe try a different browser? Unless I'm the only one who can see them, but I doubt that's the case because if I switch browsers and do not log in, I can still see them.

 

[stone and strop]

I see them fine.

 

[bluesman 7]

I see them now. My connection has been poor these last few days.

 

[Steve56]

I think that B&B has been having image upload issues today - not sure if it’s them or the connection/host, but I’ve encountered it today too.

 

[FarmerTan]

I'm just now seeing the progress of the work you did on what was my Maternal Great Grandfather's Straight. No idea how I missed it!

The razor arrived today! I'm absolutely thrilled. I'm going to take it slow, learning to use it; I'm an RN, not a surgeon, and have no idea how to reattach an ear lobe.

But I'm pretty much into the HISTORY of this hobby, mostly, and the idea of using the same razor that my ancestor used is just beyond cool.

Thank you SO MUCH @Herrenberg for the kindness you have shown me.

 

[Chard52142]

Fantastic thread!! A very gripping story with nice accompanying pictures kept me right at the edge of my seat right up to the end...a happy ending after all!!

Thanks, @Herrenberg for your detailed post...
Thanks, @FarmerTan for providing a well-rusted razor challenge, hahaha. Congrats and enjoy the shave!