Thank you kindly :)

Thank you 🙏

Thank you! Cheers! 🍻

I haven’t tried many soaps. I got one particular brand i get locally and have stuck with it. Soap commander 👌

Yea i was worried i’d grind the hollow completely out. Never tried sharpening one before so this was a new experience. Happy with the results 🤘

It's different that is for sure. I got into safety razors, many years ago. The routine of buying disposables, with 3-5-7 blades, got old. They never seemed to make a difference, no matter how many more they added. Once I got a safety razor, straights popped on the radar. They can have a learning curve, and man it can be a deeper rabbit hole than knives. It has a charm all it's own. Good luck in your exploration :D

Once you have two straights then yes, you're done with buying blades. Stones, compounds, strops etc. is a different matter.

👊

It was a little aggressive, but not uncomfortable. I use the same strops on my standard straights, and they've never felt harsh in any way. Of course I take them all to fire hose, then a regular barbers strop, after this whole process.

Actually, I have looked around for cashew lacquer and could never find the stuff. I would def be interested! As for asking Ken, well, I try to avoid phone conversations with him. Not because he is unpleasant or anything, but man when he gets to talking sharpening, you can't get off the phone with him lol. A simple 5 minute conversation ends up being 2 hours! I don't know anyone else, other than perhaps tripleb, that is quite as passionate about anything, as Ken is to stone talk.

Alright bet, I’ll put some feelers out with my jnat frands. 🤣🤣🤣 ain’t it the truth! I’ve been on the phone for hours with him.

I forgot about this till now.... Did you ever find a spot to order cashew lacquer from?

It’s a pretty well used atoma 140 plate. As for the straight razor, i got it if ebay. The sellers name is april7th1989

Ty sir 🙏

How bad is the chip? If it is just a small nick i would just sharpen is like normal, till i moved past it. If the chip is deep, i would sharpen it like i do knives. I would lay the edge almost vertical on the stone, grind the whole thing down till it is removed, then reset the bevel like a normal sharpening. If it is real real bad, i would toss it, and just get a new one. 👍 search my channel for “chip”. I show a few knives and how i deal with those. Same principle

Thanks Jeff. It's a small chip on the edge of bevel. I read the Wiki about treating these chips, but it refers to European razors, not kamisori razors, so I am not sure if I can “breadknife” in the same way the kamisori because it has a very particular anatomy from both sides and I am afraid that “breadknifing” it will alter significantly the small curve of the front side of the blade (the one with the letters). If you own a kamisori you will understand to what I am referring at. I also have low grit 220/1000 Norton stone, should I start “breadknifing” from this stone?

If it is small, right on the edge, I wouldn't breadknife it. that was what I was referring to when i said grind it vertical. Just sharpen it like normal, and keep the ratio you choose (10:1, 7:1, 5:1 etc), working past it. This is going to take some grinding so don't be afraid to do it on the 220 stone. Once you get past the chip, and can no longer feel it, then go to the 1k, and progress from there.

I shaved with it tonight. It did well enough, although it wasn't as pleasing as I had pictured. The edge angle is a tad steeper than western style razors, I think. The small blade, is perfect for detail work. Removing large areas, however, requires several passes. All in, it was a clean, close shave. No tugging, no pulling. Just felt, as you describe, a bit aggressive. Perhaps, with few more sharpening, and wear, that angle will drop some more, and get better.

This razor was NOS. That is 'new old stock'. So the advertisement read. Not sure what you are referring to about the matte finish. Unless you mean the actual grind of the razor? That was done during the manufacturing, if so. I paid roughly $100 for this one. Yes, the stones can be expensive, but I already had them on hand. I am a knife sharpener, so I did not need to invest hundreds of dollars on that. Someone new to the scene, I would suggest sending the razor off to be professionally honed, the first few times. Get comfortable with the shave. See if it is right for you. After that, if the bug bites, then look into a set of sharpening stones. You can get a solid set up for razors around the $200 mark. Bit steep at first, but if you shave your entire life, it will pay for itself. Not to mention, I am sure you will go through many different razors over that period, and they will all need to be sharpened. Also, every kitchen knife in the house can be kept tip top too. The back ridge of the razor does indeed wear. It is thicker than the apex of course, so wears more slowly, but it keeps the angle, for the main edge. After years of sharpening, it will eventually get to a point, that it is no longer optimal, and will need a regrind. The nice thing is, once you get the main geometry set, touch ups, remove very, very little steel. So, unless you are regrinding it from start to finish, over and over, they can last almost a lifetime. If not decades, before something like that, ever becomes a problem. The backside flat, is actually a very shallow hollow grind. If sharpened repeatedly over the years, that hollow will slowly get much more shallow, and become difficult to flatten. At that point an entire regrind of the razor would be needed. Personally, I would probably purchase a new 1 long before that happened. Spreading the wear across multiple razors, for me, it would take a very long time, if ever, for that to be an issue.

​@@Jef Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough reply. Very much. I've since actually invested more time than I would've thought into the subject actually ... and I def. see what you mean about 'the bug.' I actually bought a 'fractional set' of Shapton Pro (basically chinese cut up full Shapton Pro into the sizes for fixed angle sharpeners so that I can keep the rough geometry as a novice) ... and it was pretty cheap for the 320, 1000, 2000, 5000 + a set of SATC to do knife profiling. As far as sharpening my own razor ... maybe I can send it off to get sharpened the first time and then (as you mention you don't need to reprofile it after) I can stick to just one stone like a yellow coticule and perhaps the 5000 Shapton Pro + some 1 micron diamond emulsion ..? Which I'm guessing will help with my other knives I like to sharpen also. I have to say ... stropping and diamond emulsion are kinda wizardry ... as it seems like you can go from 5,000 to 200,000 (I think I hear that's roughly what a 1 micron stropping is) yet still influence the edge of steel of all things. It just sounds crazy but we've all witnessed the effectiveness. Anyway ... the one thing I wish I could find when reviewing the process of people sharpening their straight razors ... was how sharp a 5000 equates to on the BESS 'C' Test ... vs 5000 + stropping at 1 micron on the BESS 'C' Test ... vs 5000 + stropping at .25 micron on the BESS 'C' Test ... vs 8000 + stropping at 1 micron tested ... vs 8000 + stropping at .25 micron tested ... vs coticule ... or JNAT Bess tested ... etc ... ad infinitum. 🙂 I know that had substantial redundancy in the formatting ... but some manner of quantification of grits, microns etc with a standardized test would be cool ... I'm guessing not only informative for me but for guys like you. I mean ... do you need to progress from 3 micron to 1 micron to 0.5 micron..? Or can you just use 0.5 ...? Bc there's no difference between 0.5 and 0.25..? Yes ... obviously ... it is a bug. :) Do you have contact info for your sharpening services..? May I ask how much to sharpen a razor..? Thanks again!

@@trumanhw That is a lot to unpack. I will start with the Bess C tester first. They have already given a guide on what the numbers represent. If you watch any of my knife sharpening videos, I post it at the end. A quick search of bess c in google images will produce the guide as well. As far as testing before and after stropping, those numbers vary so much, at these scales, it wouldn't be practical to try and qunatify it. Not with this machine. It measure a tiny microscopic portion of the edge. Every time you retest, you are hitting a different spot. Take into account, too, a large marshmallow, is 5-7g. So if a bess test measure 70 grams. That is equal to about 10 marshmallows in weight, to cut the media. There is currently a new tester being developed, by another company. KHKnives Switzerland is a part of the research and development of it. I have no doubts he will do us all proud. It measures actual slice cuts, and not just a tiny portion of the apex. Also, it takes the human factor out. The machine does all the cutting. So the same amount of force and speed is applied universally. I am very excited to see this come to fruition. I will leave a quick instagram video showing it in action instagram.com/reel/C0mZ2EGsl5n/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== instagram.com/reel/C0rhs4kM34j/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== instagram.com/reel/C0o874FMYAK/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

It requires stropping every time you shave. Sometimes even while shaving. If i shaved daily, it’d probably only last me a couple months, before i need to take back to the 5-15k stones. I do not shave that often, so they last me 5-6 months.

They can be found on ebay, with varying degrees of quality, but usually at a decent price. This one for example, I paid like $60 for. If it lasts a year, it'll have paid for itself, in terms of disposable razor costs.

Got it off eBay. Approx $120

Yes i do. If you would like to discuss just shoot me an email. jefjewell@gmail com

:D I would if I could. I shave my head, and my GF has baby fine strands. It is almost impossible to test with.

I got it off ebay. I think i paid like $125

Can still do that if you’re interested

@@Jef That would be nice. Curious about the refinement after all the fine grits.

@@darshankumardave7485 ill toss up a video here in a few 👍

The large bevel side gets 7-10. The small bevel side gets 1.

@@Jef large bevel side meanin what sid? looks like the biggest widest bevel is on the shallow curved side w shorter curve on it

@@jackhere4594 Yes, the widest bevel, with the most curve, gets 7-10 passes, and the other small bevel side, with a shallow curve, gets 1.

@@Jefbut it looks like the biggest bevel is on the side with the shallow curve so would that side with the stamp be down when honing 7x, meaning the larger plain curved side is up on 7 strokes? do u know where i can get a reasonably priced blade with hole in it for scales? ill do the restore and honing. i just cant find anyone sellin an old rusty one. i talkin to a guy in japan but hes on lockdown cuz or virus and his forge is like 2 hours away. so he cant go get me anything rt now

Time Mark in my video at 23:12 That is the large bevel side. That is the side that gets 7-10 passes. The other side gets one As for where to purchase. eBay. That’s the only place i know of. I’m not super knowledgeable about razors.

$60

@@Jef which vendor did you get it from?

april7th1989

@@Jef thanks brother

Yea i had another commenter leave a really detailed explanation on it but he deleted it immediately afterwards. Was full of info on why ratios are bs. As i stated in the video however, I’m not a razor guy. I make mistakes but am willing to listen to alternative methods. This was the last time i sharpened this razor so havent messed with it much.

Possibly. I stated early on I’m not a razor sharpener. I assumed it was because the main grind is thick in the areas where the bevel gets large. But hey what do i know? That isn’t meant to be sarcastic btw, so please don’t take it as me being snarky. It’s just a common occurrence i see on knives and when i feel i those areas with my finger tips the tapers do feel thicker in those areas. 🤷‍♂️ Regardless it shaves well enough.

@@Jef I have experience about that. Uneven bevel is owed to bad tempering or bad honing lifting the spine like in the x rolling strokes with a normal convex cutting edge! If you put more pressure on the less large part you don't make large the real bevel! But goes to remove material outside the zone of the "real" bevel!!!!😶‍🌫️😬🤯 that is where the cutting edge really hit the stone!!!! You should reset the bevel !!!! On 1000k! The old bevel will remain for ever until it will be replaced from the new ;one when you will refresh the bevel during years!!!!! Remove the bevel is not possible without cutting and dulling completely the cutting edge! You will need a regrinding on grinder and probably you will destroy the razor that will became very small! Don’t follow what people write on web!!!!! They are full of bad knowledges!!!

Yea for $100 razor that sounds like a lot of work 😁 Ill just keep using it in conjunction with my safety razors. They are my main shave these days. Just too easy to swap a blade in moments and not have to sweat stropping and sharpening