- Joined
- Apr 27, 2015
- Messages
- 4,156
A bit late, but FWIW...
Most razor steels, incl. W2, are low alloy carbon steels, so relatively easy to sharpen...
That said, I've never made a razor from scratch, (which is awesome btw), but I've put nice edges back on some pretty gnarly vintage ones, and my setup for razors; Shapton HR 1000, 4000, 8000, 16000, (+ a canvas and leather strop w/ green compound)...
...
For the ones that are really bad, I'll tape the spine and reset 'em with a DMT coarse and/or fine stone depending on just how bad they are, since the diamonds do a great job removing those low alloy carbon steels pretty fast. If the edges are "too" bad, I won't even waste my time messing with 'em, but for typical micro chips that you often find on vintage ones, I find that does the trick, and imagine it would work well for setting a brand new edge as well. Then the 4 stone shapton progression pretties 'em up real nice...
(If they aren't too gnarly, I go right into the shaptons.)
...
The good thing is, once you have a good edge, the strop will do a pretty good job maintaining it for a good while, and provided you don't completely ruin the edge, the 8000/16000 will usually be enough to bring it right back... razor edges are already to thin they really don't take that much.
The DMT's and the 1000/4000 shaptons then, (especially the shapton HR's) are also great to have around for other applications, (kitchen knives, scissors, pocket knives, whatever.) So it's not a complete wasted investment... I actually have long considered buying a double thick shapton HR 500 and 6000 to add in and be my "knife" set up, but recently bought a worksharp instead
Most razor steels, incl. W2, are low alloy carbon steels, so relatively easy to sharpen...
That said, I've never made a razor from scratch, (which is awesome btw), but I've put nice edges back on some pretty gnarly vintage ones, and my setup for razors; Shapton HR 1000, 4000, 8000, 16000, (+ a canvas and leather strop w/ green compound)...
...
For the ones that are really bad, I'll tape the spine and reset 'em with a DMT coarse and/or fine stone depending on just how bad they are, since the diamonds do a great job removing those low alloy carbon steels pretty fast. If the edges are "too" bad, I won't even waste my time messing with 'em, but for typical micro chips that you often find on vintage ones, I find that does the trick, and imagine it would work well for setting a brand new edge as well. Then the 4 stone shapton progression pretties 'em up real nice...
(If they aren't too gnarly, I go right into the shaptons.)
...
The good thing is, once you have a good edge, the strop will do a pretty good job maintaining it for a good while, and provided you don't completely ruin the edge, the 8000/16000 will usually be enough to bring it right back... razor edges are already to thin they really don't take that much.
The DMT's and the 1000/4000 shaptons then, (especially the shapton HR's) are also great to have around for other applications, (kitchen knives, scissors, pocket knives, whatever.) So it's not a complete wasted investment... I actually have long considered buying a double thick shapton HR 500 and 6000 to add in and be my "knife" set up, but recently bought a worksharp instead