Sharpen a Straight Razor?

H

HoosierQ

Joined
Feb 9, 2010
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Buddy went a little nuts and cleaned his straight razors with CLR. Put a patina on that he had to buff off I guess. The chemicals dulled his edge.

How does one sharpen a straight razor? Lay it flat on the stone? 10 degrees on a side? I have all the equipment but I have never done it before. I have DMT stones...the XC, C, F, XF and strops with green compound.

Help will be much appreciated.
 
Razors sub probably is better place for this type of question. However I'm sure you would be told that your sharpening gear ain't sufficient for this task:foot: Here is my ignorant opinion based on limited experience with straight and medical objects.

Angle = lay flat, where the spine regulate the optimal angle for this straight razor.

Best: waterstone 500 all the way to 30K grit, strop...

Compromise: buy a combo SiC 400,600,1000,1500,2000 sandpaper package and some white-compound. Put SiC on your dmt E as flat & taunt as possible. Stroke back/forth. After 2000, put white-compound on printer paper, lay that on dmt E, strop away. Strop on green, then bare leather.

Lemonade: Dmt F, then E. Next use super light pressure and use violin stroke on E for 5 minutes. Strop on green then bare leather.
 
DMT F then EF, super lite pressure.

Then go to Ebay, search THK diamond paste Pick the 13 piece kit, which goes from 40 microns to 0.25 microns

POlish- Start at 10 microns and take time on each grit, Load it on paper set on a flat surface to mimic a stone. Clean very well after each grit.

You should have a smooth shaver after that, And a better setup for your knives too. I prefer diamond over CrO
 
I shaved with a Straight for years and did not use diamond stones for it. I used fine India stones CrO up to 600 grit. Then on to a Black hard Arkansas, on to the ultra fine Spyderco ceramic and on to Belgium yellow Coticule with H2O. Then stropped on leather with the green slurry applied 100-200 passes and on to plain leather the same number of passes. That should give you a decent shave. DM
 
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