When I first started to catch on to honing, and finally got that horrible Dovo Best to shave without feeling like a medieval torture device, I was delighted. My shaves were now GREAT, (relatively speaking) after years of terrible. I thought that's all there was. This was before Al Gore invented the internet. Then after that, I learned that the big giant slab of rock I picked up in a hardware store in Mexico was not the state of the art for making razors sharp, and I learned to use the Naniwa SuperStone progression. WOW... NOW my edges were even better, I could hone a razor found in the wild in an hour instead of a month, and I thought I had reached the upper limits of sharpness. But, gradually I learned to use those stones more effectively, and to be more meticulous and nuanced. NOW I got it, right? Then, there was lapping film. At first, yeah, nice. But gradually I adapted to the new medium and improved my film honing technique. Most of these improvements were suggested by others in the straight shaving community. Then I started hearing about pasted balsa for finishing. After finishing in that medium for several years now, I think I have reached the physical limits of sharpness in steel. Or have I? Probably so, but from past experience, I know that there is probably some little improvement I can make, to eke out just a teeny weeny bit more cutting power and smoothness. And nearly everything was learned, from someone else, offering advice or suggestion. Some of those well intended bits of advice didn't work for me. Some did. Some formed the basis for my own experimenting and further improvement. By the time I found this forum, I had pretty much come to realize that there is a lot of knowledge out there that I would do well to incorporate into my skill set.
I'll add that if the advice given drives away a new member because of the way it was presented, what good does that advice do really?
The OP posted. How many others felt the same and just left the site without posting?
Many of the experts here, are HERE because they have been driven away from OTHER sites for what THEY believe. You would think it would be them that are the most welcoming to others.
No matter what level of expertise someone has at something, driving off new members is unacceptable.
I'd rather lose an "expert" than the numerous new members the expert drives away.
Be careful what you wish for. Have you been to the other “Razor Forum” lately?
The last Honing post was 3 months ago to an 11-year-old post, and the one prior was almost 5 months ago to an 11-month-old post.
Recent Post are on Fencing, Sausage Making, Wordless Pictures, Birthdays, Real Estate and Fragrance of the day, on a Straight Razor Forum!
No one asks razor questions, because no one responds, they don’t even post participation numbers anymore.
So, the OP was hurt that he was told that his honing could use some work, but then he asked for help.
I was about to offer to hone one of his razors for him, so he could have a frame of reference, even had the offer typed, when he tapped out.
It’s a razor forum and there are no trophies for showing up. It’s not for everybody, honing is not easy, but it’s also not rocket science ether.
I learned long ago, no matter what you say on this and other forums, somebody will take it the wrong way, just like folks will take your post.
We can agree to disagree.
OP.
“I'm going to be brutally honest here and say that's how it felt at the time.”
“Though re-reading the thread it was not harsh at all. I don't know what more to say so I'll say no more.”
I'm a Shaving Prodigy
Alright Phil, HBB... joke's over. We all know who's been stealing Slash's paragraph breaks. Let's just share them out evenly, so everyone can be understood properly and we can all be friends. Yh?