Bought A Vintage Kropp On Ebay: What Happened Next..?

I Have Honed Many of these SRs...Kropp Razors are Not Difficult to Hone or Strop...If You Know what You are Doing in the 1st Place..They are Top Tier Sheffield Shavers Made by Osborne, Garret & Co..If Honed Properly..I Own three Sheffield Razors Made by the Same Company.. :cool:

Here is an Old Thread & Comments on Kropp Razors by Well Respected Forum Members that have Honed Many of them..(y)

Newly Aquired Osborne,Garret & Co Kropp

I Pressed the Button on this Beautiful NOS Shave Ready 6/8th by Osborne, Garrett & Co Kropp Ltd 1899 - 1923...The Blade was made in Sheffield England & was Ground in Hamburg..I just Love these 6/8th Blades..I got this Razor on EBay from a British Seller that does the High Quality Windrose...
www.theshavingroom.co.uk www.theshavingroom.co.uk

Billy
 
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My Three Osborne, Garret & Co Razors..Two.. C . Myers & Sons Sheffield 6/8th Razors & a Kropp 6/8th at the Bottom..All Three were Made by the Same Company & NOS When I Got Em..:cool:

Billy
 
AFAIK Kropp have a good reputation. Good steel. Of course that doesn't mean some of these old razors won't have problems after decades of hone wear or corrosion.

My own Kropp is a very fine, "singing" blade with a fair bit of flex. It probably wouldn't trouble a more experienced honemeister but, for a clumsy beginner like myself, I'll need to be careful not to apply too much pressure.
 
Fergiebilly said:
I Have Honed Many of these SRs...Kropp Razors are Not Difficult to Hone or Strop...If You Know what You are Doing in the 1st Place..They are Top Tier Sheffield Shavers Made by Osborne, Garret & Co..If Honed Properly..I Own three Sheffield Razors Made by the Same Company.. :cool:

Here is an Old Thread & Comments on Kropp Razors by Well Respected Forum Members that have Honed Many of them..(y)

Newly Aquired Osborne,Garret & Co Kropp

I Pressed the Button on this Beautiful NOS Shave Ready 6/8th by Osborne, Garrett & Co Kropp Ltd 1899 - 1923...The Blade was made in Sheffield England & was Ground in Hamburg..I just Love these 6/8th Blades..I got this Razor on EBay from a British Seller that does the High Quality Windrose...
www.theshavingroom.co.uk www.theshavingroom.co.uk

Billy
Click to expand...

I'll remember to ask you to hone mine in the new year Billy.... hopefully you can make it more lively than the previous honomeister :)
 
My budget honing set up:

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500, 1000 grit wet & dry aluminium oxide sandpaper
30-12-9-5-3-1u lapping film
0.5u CrOx & 0.1u FeOx pasted balsa

The plate for the lapping film (left) is an acrylic sheet 300x100x10mm glued on a piece of marine ply to add some stability and to give me something to hold onto which keeps my fingers out of the way of the blade. The plate must be kept clean & scratch-free so it's perfectly flat.

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The piece of marine ply was lapped to provide a nice flat surface. Several coats of varnish were applied to make it waterproof and thus avoid any swelling or movement. Water is definitely getting into the glue layer though. I may need to do this again.

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The balsa sheets are 12" x 3" x 1/4" again glued to chunks of marine ply to add stability (you might not need to do this with an acrylic sheet but you definitely need to glue balsa onto something more solid).

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The balsa was lapped with some 320 grit sandpaper on a large flat tile from B+Q. It must be perfectly flat: draw all over the surface with a pencil (gently!) and sand out all the marks.

Can you see the red tone in the first picture? That's how much FeOx you need to apply. It won't cut if it's very lightly applied.

However I think a lighter layer of CrOx (the green bench strop) will work OK. Still figuring this out. I'd been warned not to over-apply. Apparently it doesn't work so well if you put too much on.
 
After cutting up a budget and pretty useless strop I bought online, I was ready for something better. I wanted to put all my money into a nice piece of leather so I decided to make my own.

The Artisan Leather Company sells strop leather. I bought a 3" wide piece. A solid lump of 4mm leather.

Straight away you could feel the improvement. There is some real draw on this leather - nothing at all on my budget strop. It also has a very fine suede on the stropping side (VERY fine). Perhaps it must be worn-in before it will perform at its best?

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There's a generous 21" of usable stropping length. Which is nice :)

I finished the ends really simply by folding the leather over & stitching it down (wet the leather so it will bend, clamp it until it's dry, then 2mm drill bit to make the stitch holes).

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Metal bars & cord complete the setup. It's pretty basic but, like I said, all I really want is a nice piece of leather to strop on.
 
So... did I manage to hone my Kropp?

Nope. Two attempts. Two fails. I did get close and I managed to shave with it.. sort of.. It was very rough. So bad, in fact, that even if you had to choose between shaving or the guillotine you'd want to stop and think about it. At least the guillotine would be over quickly.

Maybe not if I'd honed it.

I think I have to put this down to user error. In the right hands the budget set-up, above, does work. Lapping film might need to be backed up by wet & dry to get a bevel set (depends how bad the edge is) but it should get the job done to a high standard.

I did (just) manage to get a shavable edge on my other straight, a near-wedge. I've probably been too heavy-handed with the delicate, full-hollow Kropp. The blade bends very easily and needs a light touch.
 
mcgruff said:
So... did I manage to hone my Kropp?

Nope. Two attempts. Two fails. I did get close and I managed to shave with it.. sort of.. It was very rough. So bad, in fact, that even if you had to choose between shaving or the guillotine you'd want to stop and think about it. At least the guillotine would be over quickly.

Maybe not if I'd honed it.

I think I have to put this down to user error. In the right hands the budget set-up, above, does work. Lapping film might need to be backed up by wet & dry to get a bevel set (depends how bad the edge is) but it should get the job done to a high standard.

I did (just) manage to get a shavable edge on my other straight, a near-wedge. I've probably been too heavy-handed with the delicate, full-hollow Kropp. The blade bends very easily and needs a light touch.
Click to expand...
Use that 1 K Naniwa Super Stone to Bevel Set it Ya Just Got..It Should Shave from the 1 K Stone..Thats Where 90/95% of the Magic Happens..The Bevel Hone is the Most Important Hone..Most Folks Just Dont Grasp this No Matter How Often its Mentioned.. (y)

Billy
 
Yeah that will be my next attempt, once I've lapped them nice and flat.

To anyone following this looking for some tips about owning your first straight razor, I think the budget setup will work when you develop some basic skills. But when I found some Naniwa super stones on sale at a great price I couldn't resist :)

I chose the 1k and 10k because I figured the bevel setter and finisher were the two most important stages in the process and also the two I'd be doing most work on. Lapping film can fill in the gap.

The stones feel really nice to the touch. Very fine and smooth. Even the 1k.

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I've had several sessions and many hours in total with the new Naniwa 1k but I just can't set a proper bevel. I can get close, close enough that the blade will shave arm hair (although not very well) but the cherry tomato test is a miserable failure. A push cut just depresses the surface of the tomato and leaves a dent.

It has to be poor technique. I guess I just need to keep practicing and with luck I'll improve.
 
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