Here's the deal, I've used straights off and on, mostly off for over 25 years. the first one I got when I was 16 at an antiques mall, and my grandfather honed it up for me with the stuff he used for his woodcarving tools and did a marvelous job getting it so it would easily pass the falling hair test.
Fast forward to recent years I got a Wade and Butcher in like new condition form a flea market and had a friend who is a barber hone it up for me. She didn't actually do that great a job, it was still a tad dull for my tastes, but I managed to finish it on a cork paddle with green rouge, and now it's great. I don't use the straight much, because it's just too time consuming, and I can't really do my head with it because I lack the feel for blade angle to safely do the back of my head. As that's like 70% of my shave I don't use straights much. So my wade and Butcher is set for now, but my barber friend moved to Tennessee, & I just got a lot of 5 straights and a DE off craigslist for $25 plus shipping, thinking I would clean them up and likely resell most of them. More than making them pretty though I want to try and get them all to a shaveable edge, and I don't know of anyone locally who can do that for me, So I'm thinking I should learn to do it for myself, but when I look at the array of honing tools people talk about on here I get overwhelmed.
I'm hoping someone can lay it out for me what's the minimum hardware I need to refurbish a razor. I have a DMT 3 piece set with small diamond stones in medium, fine and extra fine which I use for my kitchen and pocket knives. I know it's nowhere near fine enough for a razor blade, and I have a cork paddle with green rouge, and an old horse hide strop. I figure minimum I need at least one razor hone, but what type am I looking for? This is where I get overwhelmed with the wealth of info on this and other shaving sites.
Fast forward to recent years I got a Wade and Butcher in like new condition form a flea market and had a friend who is a barber hone it up for me. She didn't actually do that great a job, it was still a tad dull for my tastes, but I managed to finish it on a cork paddle with green rouge, and now it's great. I don't use the straight much, because it's just too time consuming, and I can't really do my head with it because I lack the feel for blade angle to safely do the back of my head. As that's like 70% of my shave I don't use straights much. So my wade and Butcher is set for now, but my barber friend moved to Tennessee, & I just got a lot of 5 straights and a DE off craigslist for $25 plus shipping, thinking I would clean them up and likely resell most of them. More than making them pretty though I want to try and get them all to a shaveable edge, and I don't know of anyone locally who can do that for me, So I'm thinking I should learn to do it for myself, but when I look at the array of honing tools people talk about on here I get overwhelmed.
I'm hoping someone can lay it out for me what's the minimum hardware I need to refurbish a razor. I have a DMT 3 piece set with small diamond stones in medium, fine and extra fine which I use for my kitchen and pocket knives. I know it's nowhere near fine enough for a razor blade, and I have a cork paddle with green rouge, and an old horse hide strop. I figure minimum I need at least one razor hone, but what type am I looking for? This is where I get overwhelmed with the wealth of info on this and other shaving sites.