Choosing & Using a Straight Razor - pt 1

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Boab very kindly asked me to write a few articles about straight (aka "open" and "cut-throat") razors, so here is the first one. Others will follow with info about strops/stropping; hones and honing and the like. Please forgive the amateurish layout and writing, but I'm a restorer and honer among other things - not an author. The usual caveats apply to this and future ramblings: anything stated is just my opinion, you follow any advice given at your own peril, other peoples ideas may well be different to my own and free advice is worth what you pay for it. If this hasn't put you off, read on...

 
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Neil, I do not want to pollute your thread with too many comments but wanted to say thanks for taking the time to write this. There are always a million other things to do, so I appreciate that this takes time and time is money.

I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say that this is exactly what we were looking for on this forum.

Thank you very much.
 
Neil

echoing Audio's comments,fantastic stuff exactly what we need here, I am sure the straight users will appreciate it, I certainly do.
 
Sublime article and photos. If this is the quality of posting that will regularly appear on this site, I am extremely impressed.

Thank you for a great contribution.

Can we put this in a shave wiki area (sorry I don't know if this has been discussed already)
 
New arrival to the site and just posted in the welcome forum. I have to say that most of the questions I have raised on my initial post are probably answered in this article so I now look forward to reading Part 2 and beyond.

Great article Neil - exactly what this newbie to straight razors was looking for.
 
I have been interested in starting to use a straight razor for a while now, thing is I am a chef so I understand the pricipals of a keen cutting edge. I also , as a hobby am a wood worker. I make teak garden chairs so my router and cutting blades need to be very sharp. I dont as yet own a straight razor but I do own a sheppenhaur tiger wet grinder with a leather stroppin wheel for my tools and do carve green wood for various projects and strop my carving and spoon knives . Do you think that getting these blades good for carving wood will give me the skills for putting a proper edge on a razor?
 
toastwars said:
I have been interested in starting to use a straight razor for a while now, thing is I am a chef so I understand the pricipals of a keen cutting edge. I also , as a hobby am a wood worker. I make teak garden chairs so my router and cutting blades need to be very sharp. I dont as yet own a straight razor but I do own a sheppenhaur tiger wet grinder with a leather stroppin wheel for my tools and do carve green wood for various projects and strop my carving and spoon knives . Do you think that getting these blades good for carving wood will give me the skills for putting a proper edge on a razor?

The edge on a straight razor is much more fragile than a woodworking tool and I have not yet come across any examples of machine honing or stropping. Everyone agrees that the lightest touch on the hone and strop is required in order to get an acceptable shave ready blade - maybe you could experiment with a cheap blade to see if your equipment works - I'm sure there would be a great deal of interest in your results.

If I've mis-understood your question and you intend to use normal hones and strops - the same advice applies regarding a light touch - there are loads of videos on youtube showing how it's done. One other thing to bear in mind is the grit rating of the hone which needs to be prettu high (8k plus) to get an acceptably smooth edge. Neil's subsequent post on Hones has all the details.
 
Its quite different learning to hone a razor than learning to woodworking/carving tools, as such some people who come to razor honing from wood working and knife sharpening come in with an expectation that they will find it easy and don't.

I've done a fair bit of turning tool sharpening on a grinding machine but find honing a razor very different, I don't think I would put a razor on any powered sharpening tool as I want to retain total control and if something is rotating independently then its not under your immediate direct control in the same way as a stone held in the hand is.
 
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