First Attempt at Honing

[Doug57]

I've been shaving with straights for a while now and decided to take the plunge into honing my own. I picked up a few cheap razors for practice, bought a Norton starter set, and a pasted balsa strop. This afternoon, after watching some videos multiple times, I decided to jump in with both feet. I prepped the 1k, 4k, and 8k with the Norton flattening stone using grid marks with a pencil. I can tell already, that I'll want to get a diamond plate, but that's for later. I did use a good straight edge and the stones looked flat.

I chose three razors from among those that I picked up. They are in pretty good shape (no rust or serious pittling), but would not cut arm hair or pass the thumb test at all. I honed a Rogers XY Sheffield, a Boker King Cutter, and a Wester Bros. Anchor Brand, No. 20.

I followed a video on setting a bevel on a 1k (figuring out the pressure needed on the 40 circles is tough), and videos on finishing on the 4k/8k with circles and x-strokes. I then did about 10 passes on the balsa strop, then stropped on plain webbing and, did about 60 passes on black latigo.

All three razors were lopping off arm hair at 1/4" after the 8k.

I will do a shave test tomorrow on all three. I shaved three passes today with a DE Rocket so there is no beard to try tonight.

More tomorrow after the shave test. I am looking forward to the Mile High Meet Up next weekend so I can get some mentoring.

In the meantime, we'll see how tomorrow goes. It seemed like it went well....but I know I'm an absolute newby....

More to come...

 

[lightfoot]

You can keep the 8K by the sink for little touch-ups during the shave. Just add some lather to the hone as a cushion and do no more than 3 or 4 little strokes if the edge tries to stall out. No need to strop mid shave after this kind of touch-up either.

 

[Jnatcat]

Congrats on the honing, one suggestion and that is you might consider adding another stone to the mix in the 10K-12K range it will smooth out the edge to make it very comfortable, an 8K will shave you but it's a rough shave for alot of us.

 

[Doug57]

Congrats on the honing, one suggestion and that is you might consider adding another stone to the mix in the 10K-12K range it will smooth out the edge to make it very comfortable, an 8K will shave you but it's a rough shave for alot of us.

I'm sure that will be next. I know the jump from 8k to pastes is a big one.

 

[Jnatcat]

I'm sure that will be next. I know the jump from 8k to pastes is a big one.

You could pick up and inexpensive Bout from Jarod at TSS, JNATS are fairly expensive and there are also some stones from Mat at Griffith Shaving but I know nothing about what he carries.

 

[Doug57]

You could pick up and inexpensive Bout from Jarod at TSS, JNATS are fairly expensive and there are also some stones from Mat at Griffith Shaving but I know nothing about what he carries.

Thanks. I'll check them out.

 

[Kev Kev]

Congratulations on getting started! Honing properly, just as straight razor shaving, required practice, practice, practice. Establishing a good bevel is key to any successful result and is really the key area of focus, especially for newcomers. Considerable attention (and money) is spent on the finishers, but the quality final edge is often more dependent upon the start, not the finish. The number of strokes (or circles) is a good starting point and certainly NOT a standard as some steel will require more, some less. This is where one learns to get a 'feel' for how the edge is responding to the stone/hone and not rely on a strict formula. Good luck!

 

[Doug57]

Congratulations on getting started! Honing properly, just as straight razor shaving, required practice, practice, practice. Establishing a good bevel is key to any successful result and is really the key area of focus, especially for newcomers. Considerable attention (and money) is spent on the finishers, but the quality final edge is often more dependent upon the start, not the finish. The number of strokes (or circles) is a good starting point and certainly NOT a standard as some steel will require more, some less. This is where one learns to get a 'feel' for how the edge is responding to the stone/hone and not rely on a strict formula. Good luck!

Thanks. I know that getting the bevel properly set is 90% of the battle. So I did a shave test with the King Cutter this morning and it wasn't too bad. I just did the right cheek from the sideburn down and the whiskers came right off with no skipping or dragging. For comparison, I finished with another razor that I know is quite good. I think the King Cutter shaved whiskers as easily as my Imperial, but it wasn't as smooth. It is certainly usable though. I think I must have gotten the bevel set fairly well. I'll test the other two tomorrow and the next day, and then decide where to go from there. Maybe it was just beginner's luck. I hope I can repeat it.

 

[Kentos]

Congrats! The more you practice the better you will get, and concurrently you will figure out what technique gives you the edge you most like. Eventually you might "outgrow" the 8k, or maybe you will start searching to further enhance/refine your edge and venture into higher grit stones or even naturals.

 

[Gamma]

Congrats - keep up the good work! Just keep honing, hone a lot and then hone some more.
The more you hone, the more you can learn - and that's what it's all about.
Arks, pastes, Jnats, Cotis - all good stuff. None of it replaces learning the groundwork though.

8k to pastes is not a big jump - it might seem that way numerically, but the grit numbers don't tell the story correctly here.