Thread: New to razors, but not blades

If your planning on honing yourself start with a cheap ebay razor to practice till you can get it right. You mention having stones. Most knife guys don't have stones to a high enough grit for razors but you like have a few to make the start of a god set. What stones and grits do you have. + 1 for SRD having inexpensive quality starter razors or using the classified for vintage razors.

Originally Posted by eddy79

What stones and grits do you have.

I have several, the only one I have bought brand new was a Smiths Medium stone (which is great for any rough spots on a knife but not finishing touches), my Edgeware combination stone from the early 50's i think and has a medium side and a fine side. With that one I can actually get my pocket knifes sharp enough to shave hairs off your arm. I have a few others, one that I dont remember the name off the top of my head, but is red in hue and in my research was originally produced for straight razors.

With what TulaneBoy suggested I might do it slightly differently, and please tell me if this is an idea i need to rethink as well. I am thinking I will start with a shave ready razor, be it new or sold by members or someone else suggested, and save my honing and referb for my second razor. As stated by several of you, I don't want to cripple my self before even beginning.

This now seems like something that is going to take a lot longer than I hand anticipated to get into, but anything worth doing is worth doing properly.

Originally Posted by PrimedMonkey

..
I am thinking I will start with a shave ready razor, be it new or sold by members or someone else suggested, and save my honing and referb for my second razor. As stated by several of you, I don't want to cripple my self before even beginning.

This now seems like something that is going to take a lot longer than I hand anticipated to get into, but anything worth doing is worth doing properly.

Bingo! That is absolutely the correct approach to take. You'd be surprised how many newcomers with knife experience stubbornly cling to the idea that "Hey, I know how to make a knife sharp and sharp is sharp."

Forget about honing for now, start with a known good edge, learn one thing at a time, and you will be miles ahead of the average straight razor beginner. In fact, with proper edge maintenance you could keep a blade shave ready forever without ever needing a full hone job. (We don't talk about that much because most of us enjoy honing and are looking for any excuse to pull out the hones.)

Welcome aboard!


rs,
Tack

Originally Posted by Tack

Bingo! T(We don't talk about that much because most of us enjoy honing and are looking for any excuse to pull out the hones.)

Welcome aboard!


rs,
Tack

Oh I know how that is, I have one of my stones in the drawer of my desk here at work ready to sharpen whenever I want lol.

As I said one razor to shave with and one to learn. Sounds like for razors your stones are level settles and medium sharpening stones. Polishing(8k) and finishing come next. Without knowing the grit of your stones its hard to say. +1 on keeping a stone with you. Have a stone and strop in my work bag.