Gen 3 and Straight Razors

[Sunny]

So I haven’t had an opportunity to check for myself and though I’ve been looking around for a couple hours and I haven’t really found an answer, but I have a Gen 3 and an old Boker razor (Red Injun) which I hand sharpened a couple years back and dearly love. It needs some more work and I was considering giving it a go with my WEPS. I know on the Gen 2 Clay had a video about how to sharpen a straight razor, but I was curious to see if anyone has tried sharpening a straight razor on a Gen 3. Think I might take a look soon and see if I can get it to work but I would greatly appreciate any wisdom I can find!

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M1rrorEdge

[Josh]

I have found myself going back to the gen 2 vise for straights as the tangs are either too thick or the nubs on the gen 3 vise get in the way/won’t clamp properly.

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Sunny, wickededge, M1rrorEdge

[Sunny]

Last night when I got a chance to look at it that was what it seemed like to me too. I did manage to get my gen 3 to clamp the razor sufficiently, but even so I didn’t see any way to get the stones to meet the proper angle set by the spine. Looking around I saw a post from I think 2012 where someone said they sharpen their straight razor like they would any other knife (cringe). Do you guys think a razor sharpened to 14 or 15 dps (as that appears to be the minimum I have clearance for) would work very well, especially a hollow ground razor? I have a set of Arkansas stones and an rough sided strop loaded with some yellowish stropping compound (I’m not sure what grade it is, wife got me this almost 3 years ago now) that I’ve been using but I just feel like I can’t get the razor to work as well as I feel it should. It works alright now on a strictly cleanliness level but leaves some serious stubble and feels kinda rough. =) Still prefer it to electric/disposable razors though.

[dima]

Would low angle adapter work for this? I’m just curious…

[Dwight Glass]

I sharpen my straight razor with the leather belt that I wear. About halfway through the shave I might touch the edge up again. 10 to 15 times on the rough side of the leather and about the same on the smooth. I occasionally use a fine stone but that might be 6 months to a year for me. If I have stubble left I get it with a double edge safety razor. This might not be the best way to do this but has worked for me the past 48 years.

[Sunny]

Dima:  Unfortunately I don’t have a low angle adapter (I’m not entirely sure about how they work, other than the obvious, anyway), but in the interest of combined curiosity if someone has I’d be very happy to hear well it works. =) I haven’t strayed much past the 15-20dps range yet on most of my knives so I haven’t had much reason to need one before now.

Dwight: Not much need to fix what’s not broken I guess. =)

I’m curious though to see how an edge from the WEPS compares to the edge it has now. Since I’ve gotten it I’ve only really sharpened it the once (other than the regular stropping) and it was pretty beat up when it came to me.

[Sunny]

I hand stropped it with my Wicked Edge strops this morning after touching it up with my Arkansas stone. World of difference. =)

[Josh]

I do straights all the time on my wicked edge… but I had to have a part custom made to allow this to work, and you have to use the old arms. I clamp the tang in the vise and then I can move my rod arms out to where they need to be. The Wicked Edge allows for such precision it’s truly amazing…

Here is a straight razor edge that I set the bevel just off of the spine, then increased by 1 dps for a microbevel… would be next impossible to do freehand, but it adds strength to the apex and ensures you are hitting the very apex w/ your last grit stone.

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Farns, dulledge, Sunny, Mark76, tcmeyer

[Sunny]

That is awesome! I haven’t really had much cause to be doing lots of straight razors but if I ever find that I’m doing them consistently it sounds like a gen 2 system really works well for those. Now that I’ve had a chance to use my razor after working on it a bit, I think my main problem was the strop I was using. Looking at it closely I found that somehow it got some glitter mixed up in it! =? Like, red glitter you’d get from a craft store. I don’t even think we have any glitter in the house so I dunno how that happened but it sure doesn’t help my stropping be more effective. (face palm)

[Author]

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