Hi all - I'm brand new to straight razors - so new in fact that I haven't actually gotten a razor yet.
What's holding me up is trying to clarify issues related to honing/sharpening and how it relates to various razors.
Bear with me if this is an old news topic to you, as I say it's brand new to me.
In the first videos I watched related to honing my understanding is the vloggers were using a series of flat stones of varying grit. They emphasized the flatness issue is so important that a flattening stone is used to dress the honing stones as flat as possible. My initial impression was that's how everyone hones. I probably would have just gone online and gotten the series of stones that particular vlogger recommended except for what I describe as follows.
Then I ran across someone who indicated that certain razor makers factory hone the cutting edge of theirs with a slight concave to each side of the edge and that to maintain this concavity you have to hone it on convex stones - which require a labor-intensive process to make the stones convex. The reason being it gives a superior shave.
At the moment I'm just looking to get into straight razor use. Is it correct that many people do their entire honing process solely using a series of flat stones? Or am I misunderstanding this?
Is it possible to have a satisfactory straight razor experience without concave honing of the edge? I'm not looking to spend more and put more labor into it if it isn't necessary. I gather getting set up for concave honing is both more expensive and more labor intensive.
By all means feel free to fill in what your perceive as any misconceptions I have or gaps in my awareness - that's the whole point of this first post of mine!
Thanks!
What's holding me up is trying to clarify issues related to honing/sharpening and how it relates to various razors.
Bear with me if this is an old news topic to you, as I say it's brand new to me.
In the first videos I watched related to honing my understanding is the vloggers were using a series of flat stones of varying grit. They emphasized the flatness issue is so important that a flattening stone is used to dress the honing stones as flat as possible. My initial impression was that's how everyone hones. I probably would have just gone online and gotten the series of stones that particular vlogger recommended except for what I describe as follows.
Then I ran across someone who indicated that certain razor makers factory hone the cutting edge of theirs with a slight concave to each side of the edge and that to maintain this concavity you have to hone it on convex stones - which require a labor-intensive process to make the stones convex. The reason being it gives a superior shave.
At the moment I'm just looking to get into straight razor use. Is it correct that many people do their entire honing process solely using a series of flat stones? Or am I misunderstanding this?
Is it possible to have a satisfactory straight razor experience without concave honing of the edge? I'm not looking to spend more and put more labor into it if it isn't necessary. I gather getting set up for concave honing is both more expensive and more labor intensive.
By all means feel free to fill in what your perceive as any misconceptions I have or gaps in my awareness - that's the whole point of this first post of mine!
Thanks!