Straight Razor Sharpening

[Thomas J Ekman]

I have a straight razor - Puma - that needed sharpening last week. I took out a translucent Arkansas stone and did about 10 strokes in each direction, always resting the entire blade flat on the stone. No excess weight was put on the blade. Then I used my strop, still it feels duller than when I started the whole thing. What can be wrong?

 

[Paracelsus]

You may need to raise the sharpening angle just a tad. You may also need many more strokes than 10 on an ultra hard translucent arkansas stone, depending on the condition of the razor. Try a courser grit stone first and work through one or two grades before finishing on the translucent stone. Stropping may also help you get the edge you want. Fool around. Take some time to learn to do it right, then it will become easy.

Paracelsus

 

[swede79]

You also might have put a wire edge on it with the hones, then stropped it off, leaving the razor dull. If you do that, put your razor flat on the hone, and push it away from the edge (like stropping). Do that 2 or 3 times (with NO weight), and the burr is gone, and you're ready to hone again.

It's easy to over-hone, try to get the feel for it. When it feels like you're slicing into the hone, stop. Too much, and you're bound to have the wire edge, and have to start all over again. The stropping should polish your edge, not remove a burr - you want no burrs when you start stropping.

It works best for me when I work slowly - let the barbers go fast, they've got a LOT more experience.

Good luck!

 

[Thomas J Ekman]

I tried the "backwards" sharpening motion, and did more strokes, followed by more stropping.
Tomorrow, I'll see if there was any difference.

 

[Thomas J Ekman]

I tried it this morning, and it was a bit better, but still not as good as new. I think I need more sharpening and patience.