Sharpening with glass platen

[ArrSea Defense]

So I am new to the wicked edge. I have the pro pack 1. I’ve just purchased my first set of additional stones (1500/glass).

My father said his dad used to sharpen his shaving razors on flat pieces of glass. He was told that the glass polishes and puts a nice edge on the straight razors.

Why do I need to use the lapping “stickers” if the 1500 grit and glass should do what I am expecting them too (polishing from 1000 grit)?

 

Thanks.

[Organic]

Welcome to the forum!

A flat glass surface on its own will not have any significant abrasive properties. As such, it will not sharpen steel. My suspicion is that the bare glass can act in a similar manner as a strop; it can straighten out the bevel but won’t remove much (if any) metal. This would restore the cutting ability of a rolled edge that is still sharp.

The glass platens are intended to be used as a hard, flat backing for the polishing films. These films have very fine and uniform abrasives attached to them and can be used to put a clean, flat, and highly refined edge on a blade. I have some of the diamond lapping films and I highly recommend them. I can’t say that I’ve seen anyone say they didn’t like them.

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ArrSea Defense, sksharp, Mark76

[ArrSea Defense]

thanks for clearing that up for me! I had assumed that he was using the glass for stropping but didn’t know if there was a polishing component to the glass. I will look into getting some lapping film for finishing work.

[Mark76]

Welcome to the forum, ArrSea Defense!

There is a page on sharpening straight razors as part of the resources on this site: https://www.wickededgeusa.com/?s=razor . However, it’s currently not working. I just posted a message with the question how to watch this page (see recent topics).

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

1 user thanked author for this post.

ArrSea Defense

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