With my new-found knowledge that I was using too much pressure on my straight razor when sharpening, I set out to sharpen my Bismark Solingen from the beginning using the Shapton Glass Series Sharpening Stones.

I ended up sharpening the razor twice. During the first session, I progressed through the 2K, 4K, 6K, 8K, and 16K stones before finishing on the 30K Glass stone. By the time I reached 6K, the edge was already catching arm hairs as I passed it over them. At 8K, it was shaving arm hair with very little effort, and I was quite pleased with the edge.

However, after finishing on the 16K stone, I noticed a dull-looking section near the tip. The bevel in that area didn’t have the same polished appearance as the rest of the edge. Upon closer inspection, I found that the razor’s spine had a slight curve. It wasn’t severe enough to create major sharpening problems, but it was enough to explain why that section wasn’t polishing evenly.

Initially, I had followed Lynn’s sharpening approach, laying the razor flat across the stone so the entire edge contacted the surface at once. A curved spine can create a high spot using that technique. To compensate, I returned to the 2K stone and began using straight pull strokes, drawing the blade directly off the stone.

At the coarser grits, the results were encouraging. Yet when I reached 16K again, the same hazy area appeared. Curious about the cause, I purchased an inexpensive Lumagny microscope offering 60x, 80x, and 100x magnification. Under 60x magnification, I discovered that the cloudy section contained numerous tiny rust pits. These imperfections weren’t visible to the naked eye, but once magnified they became obvious. Considering the razor had been unused for several years in a humid environment, the corrosion made perfect sense.

I restarted the entire process using the same straight-pull technique, this time monitoring progress under 100x magnification. At 2K, I could clearly see the scratch pattern. Moving to 4K, I began with moderate pressure and gradually lightened my strokes until the scratches became uniform and all traces from the previous grit disappeared.

After progressing through 8K and inspecting the edge again, everything appeared consistent and well-refined. At 16K, the haze returned visually, but under the microscope I could see that the scratch pattern was actually gone. What I was seeing wasn’t poor polishing—it was the steel’s natural grain structure along with the remaining corrosion pits. This realization changed my perspective completely.

Once I completed the final polishing on the 30K Glass stone, the blade developed a remarkable finish. Looking at it under normal light, I realized that what I had initially mistaken for an imperfection was actually the true character of the steel itself. Examination under 100x magnification confirmed that the bevel had been polished to an extremely high level.

The process also made me think about scratch orientation. Pulling the blade directly off the stone produces horizontal scratch patterns, while other techniques tend to create more vertical scratches. I noticed that the edge seemed to grab hanging arm hairs more effectively when the scratch pattern ran horizontally.

Now all that’s left is the shave test. I’ll have to wait until the weekend to see how the razor performs, but I’m eager to find out whether these refinements make a noticeable difference. And after this experience, I may soon find myself shopping for another razor to restore and sharpen.