Honing old razors is almost as much fun as restoring old plane blades!

I'm new to straight razors, but I've been combing this site for a while.

Jumped in with both feet, so to speak -- bought some finish stones and started accumulating straight razors to hone up. None sharp enough to shave with yet, probably doing this backwards, but hey.

What I've learned so far is that razors are HARD -- much harder than plane blades or even Japanese knives. Takes forever to remove much steel even on a fast stone (Bester 1200).

I've also found out that cheap razors are usually poorly finished or badly honed even if they aren't rusty -- I've got a J. Torrey with a badly worn toe and an almost unused heel that won't ever have a straight edge again, and a Bergamini of unknown origin with a tapered spine that is going to need some serious grinding to have an edge ground on it -- appears to be NOS and never actually honed for use at all. I know why, too!

The other razor I currently have is also a J. Torrey 5/8. Decent condition other than some pits too close to the edge, so I'll have to grind it down a bit more to get a clean edge. The bevel is set, although it's not as sharp as I'd like, it barely cuts arm hair, so I think I'll use very little pressure from here on out on that one. It actually cuts beard hair, although it pulls like crazy, so I'm on the right track.

I'm sure I'll be asking all kinds of questions.....

Peter

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Honing old razors is almost as much fun as restoring old plane blades!