Straight razor

[Robert Gilvary]

I haven’t yet tried the HHT, but might do it after my morning shower. My eye’s have a hard time seeing these fine strands of white hair. I did run the razor across my arm held about 1/4″ off the skin and knocked down some hairs.

I may try a stroke or two when I shave, but I’m not experienced at all with using a straight razor.

Yes, it did take a long time to do, in comparison to knife sharpening, but in my mind I ended up with a fine product I enjoyed achieving. I’m looking forward to the next one.

[keith]

As said before, restoring old razors can be fun. The straight razor I use daily is one I restored that is almost 200 yrs old. I wish old razors came with written logs of who all used them in the past.

[Mark76]

The straight razor I use daily is one I restored that is almost 200 yrs old. I wish old razors came with written logs of who all used them in the past.

+1

Great that it’s almost 200 years old! Care to share details? My favourite is a Heljestrand. I don’t know exactly how old it is, but probably from the end of the 19th century.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[keith]

Mine is a WWGreaves

Before

After

The straight razor I use daily is one I restored that is almost 200 yrs old. I wish old razors came with written logs of who all used them in the past.

+1

Great that it’s almost 200 years old! Care to share details? My favourite is a Heljestrand. I don’t know exactly how old it is, but probably from the end of the 19th century.[/quote]

Attachments:

• WWGreavesStraight2.jpg
• WWGreavesStraight.jpg

[Mark76]

Cool! Very cool! And I don’t know how you did it, but that’s a beauty of a polishing job!

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[keith]

Mark,
I had to make a jig to hold the knife stationary while I hand sanded. I started at 220 grit and went up to 12,000. It wasn’t too bad once I hit 600 grit.

I was fortunate that the blade had little pitting and edge chips.

Back to the original thread topic. I would think the WE will do a good job sharpening the friend’s razor. I wouldn’t worry too much about damaging the razor if it is in decent shape. If you hade to reprofile the blade shape before sharpening then I would hesitate to do it.

[Mark76]

Mark,
I had to make a jig to hold the knife stationary while I hand sanded.

Why? What do you mean by hand sanding? Not on the WEPS?

I sharpen it the way on the WEPS I sharpen every other knife. That works fine. I may not be able to reach 15 degrees, but that’s not an issue if you can finish it with a really fine stone.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[keith]

Oh no, I hand sanded the entire blade to restore the mirror polish. I didn’t use the WE on this blade at all. I used traditional flat stones to hone it.

[Mark76]

Still, exceptionally beautiful work!

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Robert Gilvary]

Outstanding work on that restoration.

[Robert Gilvary]

I attempted to shave a few strokes yesterday and the results were that I didn’t cut myself and yes it shaved close, but pulled some.

I honed it some more after looking at the edge through my 100x microscope, after which, I did see some improvement. I really didn’t expect much from this edge yet as I don’t have a strop. After this mornings honing it did shave hairs off the underside of my fore arm with less effort than yesterday.

Comparison of what I shaved yesterday with this razor on my right check and a throw away safety razor on my left check is that my right check still seems smooth and my left check is spouting a bit of stubble.

[keith]

Have you had a chance to tackle your friend’s razor?

[Robert Gilvary]

No, he was just a customer. Never can tell if they mean what they say. There always a chance that he’ll show up, but who knows when.

[Author]

Posts