- Joined
- Wednesday August 5, 2020
A little while ago I bought a shave-ready razor which inevitably became blunt. My first attempts at stropping probably made that worse, not better. Time to get sharpening.
My honing/stropping set up:
- 30u, 12u, 9u, 6u, 3u, 1u and 0.3u aluminium oxide lapping film
- CrOx balsa strop
- FeOx balsa strop
- cheap leather strop
On my 2nd try I managed to get a shaveable edge - but only just. The blade scritched & scratched through stubble rather than gliding through it like it wasn't there. But it did cut. On the plus side it was a very gentle shave. The mild edge was very forgiving. That was nice - but a little sharper would be better.
I started on the 30u, raised a full-length burr both sides (as best I could tell) with about 300 single-sided laps each side and then worked through the progression all the way down to 0.3u. 50 laps per sheet. Then I shaved with the razor straight off the film. No stropping.
* I guess if I want a sharper edge I need to go right back to 30u and start from there, re-setting the bevel?
* Not sure about the final steps. Should I use a leather strop after the 0.3u film? I wasn't sure if my stropping technique could be trusted not to mess up the new edge so I didn't bother.
* Is there any benefit going to the pasted strops after 0.3u film? The vendor listed the CrOx as 0.5u and the FeOx as 0.1u.
* Once I've got a good edge, what do you recommend for occasional maintenance along with regular stropping on leather. Pasted balsa? Or just stick with the 1u and 0.3u lapping film?
Thanks for your help
My honing/stropping set up:
- 30u, 12u, 9u, 6u, 3u, 1u and 0.3u aluminium oxide lapping film
- CrOx balsa strop
- FeOx balsa strop
- cheap leather strop
On my 2nd try I managed to get a shaveable edge - but only just. The blade scritched & scratched through stubble rather than gliding through it like it wasn't there. But it did cut. On the plus side it was a very gentle shave. The mild edge was very forgiving. That was nice - but a little sharper would be better.
I started on the 30u, raised a full-length burr both sides (as best I could tell) with about 300 single-sided laps each side and then worked through the progression all the way down to 0.3u. 50 laps per sheet. Then I shaved with the razor straight off the film. No stropping.
* I guess if I want a sharper edge I need to go right back to 30u and start from there, re-setting the bevel?
* Not sure about the final steps. Should I use a leather strop after the 0.3u film? I wasn't sure if my stropping technique could be trusted not to mess up the new edge so I didn't bother.
* Is there any benefit going to the pasted strops after 0.3u film? The vendor listed the CrOx as 0.5u and the FeOx as 0.1u.
* Once I've got a good edge, what do you recommend for occasional maintenance along with regular stropping on leather. Pasted balsa? Or just stick with the 1u and 0.3u lapping film?
Thanks for your help