Spyderco progression for Vintage Blade

[Brad]

I am trying to get a Clauss I picked up on E-Bay ready to shave. This is the first razor that has not been made shave ready by someone else first, so I am pretty sure my issues are due to my lack of practice with hones.

First I removed the oxidation from the blade with Maas until it looked really shiny and nice. Then I did about 25-30 passes on the Spyderco medium in groups of 5 until it seemed to cut a few arm hairs (or at least tug on them). Then I did 20 passes each on the Fine and Ultrafine until it seemed fairly sharp and cut arm hairs reasonably well (but still not like my sharp razors). I then proceeded to do 15 passes on a .5 pasted strop and then 15 on linen and 40 on leather.

It glided cleanly across my face, but cut nothing still! It still cut arm hairs as well. Obviously I did a lousy job setting the bevel or removing the years of oxidation, but am not really sure how to hone this razor correctly.

Can anyone give me some good tips on using Spyderco hones to get an old blade shave ready?

[joel]

I am trying to get a Clauss I picked up on E-Bay ready to shave. This is the first razor that has not been made shave ready by someone else first, so I am pretty sure my issues are due to my lack of practice with hones.

First I removed the oxidation from the blade with Maas until it looked really shiny and nice. Then I did about 25-30 passes on the Spyderco medium in groups of 5 until it seemed to cut a few arm hairs (or at least tug on them). Then I did 20 passes each on the Fine and Ultrafine until it seemed fairly sharp and cut arm hairs reasonably well (but still not like my sharp razors). I then proceeded to do 15 passes on a .5 pasted strop and then 15 on linen and 40 on leather.

It glided cleanly across my face, but cut nothing still! It still cut arm hairs as well. Obviously I did a lousy job setting the bevel or removing the years of oxidation, but am not really sure how to hone this razor correctly.

Can anyone give me some good tips on using Spyderco hones to get an old blade shave ready?

Did you lap them?

[Sticky]

I'd stay on the medium until the edge passed the marker and TNT all along the entire edge.

Then I would go to the finer hones and use the TPT and HHT/mow hair tests.

I received an email from Spyderco (regarding the UF specifically) on 2008.04.10 that states "You can not lap your hone. Lapping it will upset the grit structure of the alumina and will void your warranty. Your ultrafine stone already has the tightest flatness specs we have.". I asked the question on 2008.02.20.

My UF was not flat enough to sharpen a razor very well, so I lapped mine anyway. It works fine now.

Good Luck,

[Brad]

I did not lap them, but they seem pretty falt and for either good or bad, the edge sems to be uniform when I run my TP across it. It also looked to remove a sharpie evenly across the blade, but maybe I did too many stroked before I looked.

Brad

[Sticky]

Passing the marker test doesn't mean the entire edge has both bevels meeting each other. The thumb-nail-test needs to also pass before going to the finer hones.

Once you have set a good primary edge, your lap counts for the finer hones all look good to me (for using Spydercos).

[randydance062449]

Stay on the medium until the razor passes the thumb nail test. If that does not seem to be working then use 1000 grit sandpaper, wet/dry, cut & laid on top of the hone. It can take me 50-150 laps on the 1000 grit sandpaper, sometimes more depending upon how dull the edge is at the beginning. If you have not been successful at removing the oxidised steel on the edge then it will develop microchips at the fine and UF level and you will have no choice but to go back to the medium or 1000 grit. This is the most difficult stage of honing.


Best of luck,:smile: