sharpening a straight razor with the sharpmaker

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dtownknifekid

Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,155
My parents got me a straight shaving kit for christmas, and I was wondering how the sharpmaker would work for sharpening it. No I will not use the angle guides because I know that wont work. I was thinking about using the ceramic stones as a whetstone in the slots on the bottom of the base like it showed in either the instruction manual or the video. My only concern is that the gap in between the stones might somehow cause a problem during the honing process and damage the edge. My kit came with a whetstone but a review said that the whetstone was ineffective. It was a colonel conk kit that comes with the razor strop and whetstone. I cant afford to buy a new stone right now so that option is out. Do you think the sharpmaker stones will work until i scrape up the cash for some nice water or arkansas stones? Thanks in advance
 
The ultrafine stones, bought separately would even be pushing it. A straight razor has to be smooth on the skin, which means a very, very high degree of refinement. Honemeisters don't stop below 10k water stones and typically reach for 15k, 30k, or even natural stones.
 
Ok well then do you have any recommended affordable water stones?

What about stropping with brkt compound before i hit the bare leather strop? Would that compensate for the low grit?
 
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Well after reading that the sharpmaker wont be effective, I tested the edge, it appears shave ready although not ideal. I'll try to find some affordable water stones. Further research indicates the sharpmaker stones are a 2000 grit equivalent and the included stone in the kit is 1000 grit.
 
Sharpening on a 2000 grit stone plus stropping on plain leather then on to newspaper, will give a good shave. I've done it numerous times. Ceramic and Belgium coticule are much finer than a black Arkansas. DM
 
Hey bud, I straight razor shave every day and can tell you how I sharpen my dovos and Edwin Jagger's. if you bought your blade from straight razor place it's already pro honed by Lynn Abrams. If you got it someplace else you may or may not be professionally honed. Watch videos on YouTube showing how to sharpen a straight razor. If you dive in and try and sharpen it like a knife you can destroy your blade. Don't use a sharp maker.

Brkt white compound can sharpen to a very keen edge. I do 10 passes with white compound then 40 passes on the nylon and 60 passes on leather when sharpening after every 6-10 shaves. Before every shave I do 50 passes on leather. My blades are perfect for me and this is what I feel gives me a fantastic shave every time. I use an 8000 grit stone once every 3-6 months to polish up my edge. These results vary bSed on use etc... Very subjective to the shaver.

Get a good stiptic pencil you will need it when learning. Facial scars heal fast so don't worry terribly about them they will fade. Enjoy and welcome to the club.
 
Also you can get a shave ready blade on a strop with bark river grey and white compound just takes time. Give it a shot before you spend 90 bucks on a norton wet stone. Test the blade by touching a hair to the edge, if it pops when you drag it you will be good, if it splits in half you will be more than pleased
 
If I was going to be using a straight razor to shave I'd probably start with newspaper and a bare leather strop. If that didn't work I'd keep trying :)
Since you don't want to buy a new stone. And If the blade will already shave you can try stropping with cardboard, newsprint or magazine paper and see if that will improve the quality of the shave. I think that you're going to have to do some trial and error to see what works best for you.
If the blade is not already razor sharp, then you'll have a lot of work to do with various grits before you will have an edge worth to be stropped.
Keep in mind, I don't use a straight razor to shave. I use a DE razor and I'm so new to it that I'm still on my first blade.

EDIT:
I don't know how much experience you have with stropping. But there are tons of videos out there and lots of information on the bladeforums as well. For me the biggest problem I had was using the correct amount of pressure. I've found, for me anyway, that you really can't use too little pressure. All I do is make sure that I am contacting the strop and use as little pressure as possible.
 
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mikethemayt said:
Also you can get a shave ready blade on a strop with bark river grey and white compound just takes time. Give it a shot before you spend 90 bucks on a norton wet stone. Test the blade by touching a hair to the edge, if it pops when you drag it you will be good, if it splits in half you will be more than pleased
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Where does green fall? is it between white and grey, and is grey the same as black or does BRKT make a grey and a black? Thanks for the help.
 
I researched and found that yeah green falls in between white and grey. I also managed to scrounge enough money for the Norton 4000/8000 hone so I think I'm good now.
 
dtownknifekid said:
I researched and found that yeah green falls in between white and grey. I also managed to scrounge enough money for the Norton 4000/8000 hone so I think I'm good now.
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With the Norton hone and a hanging strop you can be self sustaining for life. The skill is a lot easier than many make it out to be and it is very rewarding to be able to fully maintain a straight on your own. Adds to the pleasure of every shave. Lynn Abrams, mentioned earlier, posted several you tubes that I found helpful when I was starting. The video quality is not great but he delivers the necessary information in a clear concise manner. There is a sea of information and one can drown in it. Lynn nails it. Best of luck.
 
dtownknifekid said:
I researched and found that yeah green falls in between white and grey. I also managed to scrounge enough money for the Norton 4000/8000 hone so I think I'm good now.
Click to expand...

I will suggest that you can learn and accomplish a LOT with a Norton 4/8. Razor honing is not an easy task to master, so practice practice practice. Until you can achieve good results with the 4/8, there is zero utility from higher grits. FAR too often novices read about hone masters using expensive gear and mistakenly think they can get better results with better gear (without first learning to get good results with basic gear).

Enjoy the ride;)
 
The most important part of honing a razor is getting the bevel set properly. If you only have a Norton 4/8 hone, then the 4k side is going to be your bevel setter. Don't waste time on the 8k side until you get reasonable sharpness from the 4k. You should be able to shave off of the 4k edge. After that, you don't need to do more than 10-20 strokes on the 8k side.
 
I'm learning I have yet to try the shave based off of my first honing but the razor is preforming better on hanging hairs than factory. It'll cut them but not pop them. Tomorrow morning i should get an idea of how it worked.
 
I got my straight from Evil-bay about a year ago, it was far from shave ready but I got it there with nothing other than pasted strops. I used black, then green, then plain leather, and thats all I've used to maintain the edge ever since and it gets a closer shave than my DE
 
Good luck with your shaving. You will find a LOT of myth and hype in this area, you will also find what works for one person doesn't work for another. You will get a lot of advice of number of strokes, pyramids, and incantations... ;) Well, maybe the first 2. Take it all as a guide, not an absolute number to be adhered to, as others have already noted. Experiment, see what works for you, and go with it. Just use a VERY light touch, no matter what method or stones you choose. While I use different equipment, my numbers are close to what mikethemayt posted, although your might be different.

I use the Norton 4/8, and a canvas/leather DOVO combination strop. I put this on the canvas side, http://www.classicshaving.com/catalog/item/522944/564416.htm, and conditioner on the leather side http://www.classicshaving.com/catalog/item/522944/8955979.htm. I'm not plugging the web site, it's the first one my google search hits. I had horrible luck with Belgian Coticules (after spending a lot of money on them), while others consider them a necessity. Go figure.
 
Bark river green compound, a combination strop, and the norton stone are working well for me at the moment. However lapping the Norton with sand paper is a pain in the butt. One of these days I will get a professionally honed razor or get mine honed, that may change my opinion on working though.
 
dtownknifekid said:
However lapping the Norton with sand paper is a pain in the butt.
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Would you please elaborate on this? I have lapped a lot of hones and consider the Nortons to be fairly easy to lap. Are you using wet/dry sandpaper and backing it on a wet and flat surface? If you do the lapping under a steady slow stream of water, it should be easy.
 
I think that the strop is much more important than a hone for beginning straight razor shavers. You don't really need to hone the blade all that often if you keep it properly stropped.

Glad you didn't try the Sharpmaker. The sharpening "rods" on the Sharpmaker are very narrow, this means that you run a great danger of warping or nicking the very thin edge of the razor as you hone. Just a bit too much pressure, or a slight difference in angle and you can permanently damage the edge of the razor.
 
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