Just done my first hone! Phew!

[Nxspam]

Got a 3000/8000 hone shipped from Germany today. After studying plenty of videos I thought, sod it, lets give it a try. I taped the spine of the dovo special and did my best. I took the sharp edges off the stone first with some 400 grit wet/dry paper then used that on a wet kitchen surface to lap the stone.

The dovo blade is new. In fact it's gonna be my Christmas present along with a strop. It definitely was not shave ready. I tried it on my arm and it tugged more than it cut. Now after my first attempt at honing I've got nice smooth bald patch on my calf. It felt similar to shaving with a DE.

I haven't stropped it yet, but I will before my first shave with it. Can't wait! It's like being 10 years old again, waiting for my Christmas present.

I think the honing went well for my first try, but I am nervous about stropping. I don't want to screw up when I'm flipping the blade on the spine.

There's a picture of the hone and the dovo in my profile album.

 

[tomjr]

nice razors, i allways wondered about those stones. hope it goes well for u. welcome to the dark side!

 

[Obiwan]

Congrats. First honing under your belt before stropping? Way to dive right in. Just be careful. Stropping is not a race. You could also lay it flat on a table and strop that way to make sure you don't roll the edge. It's just like you did honing, only reverse.

I posted the photo for your profile to save the next guy from the extra click (hope thats cool).

 

[Chico]

Nice work! Which stone is it exactly?

 

[Nxspam]

Congrats. First honing under your belt before stropping? Way to dive right in. Just be careful. Stropping is not a race. You could also lay it flat on a table and strop that way to make sure you don't roll the edge. It's just like you did honing, only reverse.

I posted the photo for your profile to save the next guy from the extra click (hope thats cool).

thank you Obiwan. The force is strong in you you're right on the money, I am worried about rolling the blade. I might try to find something else razor shaped to practice the flip, before I talk to the blade. But yes, I will take it slow. And I'll try to breath at the same time ;-)

Thanks for the help with the image. Couldn't figure how to include the gallery image, and I didn't want P any body off by double posting.

Thanks again. And thanks for the encouragement Tomjr.

 

[Nxspam]

Nice work! Which stone is it exactly?

On the stone it says Waki, I think. The German store calls it Nass. They have a store front on Amazon.de. Here is a link to the stone on th German amazon site.

http://www.amazon.de/Nass-Kombi-Schleifstein-3000er-8000er/dp/B0053F4ESQ/ref=pd_sim_k_4

 

[AjaxLepinski]

Congrats on the first hone! My 4000/8000 arrived a few days ago and I'll be having my first go on a crusty Wade an Butcher. Life doesn't get any better than this!!!

 

[Chico]

Thanks. Have looked at those also. Maybe adding a 5k to it would make a nice set.

 

[Nxspam]

Forgot to mention, I had to do the x stroke during the honing, because the stone is just about a half inch ( 18mm ) too narrow for a comfortable straight up and down stroke. But once I got going, it didn't feel like I was in over my head. Lapping the stone gave me the enthusiasm to go on to the honing. I saw a vid on YouTube and a guy did a lapping using this technique and I followed that to letter and I got the same results as in the video. First he soaked the wet an dry paper and it pretty much sucked its self fast on the kitchen surface, allowing him to quite effortlessly lap the stone and take the sharp edges off. It worked for me exactly the same way.

I then mounted the stone in the rubber shoe that it came with and that also held it firmly in place for the honing. I soaked the stone for at least 5 min before working the wet 400 grit paper. I put a single strip of electrical tape down the spine of the razor. I saw that in another video, and the great Lynn mentioned the same topic when he was honing a blade that was in need of a bit of TLC.

With a bit of the 400 grit paper, a worked up the faintest slurry on the stone's 3000 surface then carefully started honing with the x stroke. I must admit that I was constantly drawn to apply pressure, and I caught my self doing it a couple of times. I kept telling my self, keep it flat, weight of the blade only!

i think I did about 40 strokes until I could see the water on the surface of the stone start to pollute with the steel being ground off the blade. I then rinsed and flipped the stone to the 8000 side. I cleaned the blade off - which was muddied up with the now thicker red slurry of the orangey red 3000 side of the stone. The white side with the Japanese writing on is the 8000 side.

same routine here. Faint slurry. Gentle x strokes, and forced my self as best I could not to apply pressure. Weight of the blade!

after about 25 round trips it shaved my leg and arm hair without tugging, giving very smooth feel. I have't stropped it yet, and I will try to wait until I actually get given it, because along with the dovo strop, it is my Christmas present from the misses.

Now I don't want to upset anyone, but I'm not a man of any particular faith, but I do like Christmas presents. And I like Christmas parents even more when they contain a dovo special razor and a dovo XL wide Russian leather strop.

i love the holidays as my US shaving comrades would say.

 

[Obiwan]

Try a butter knife without serrations if you have one.

 

[Nxspam]

Life doesn't get any better than this!!!

Amen!

 

[Nxspam]

Try a butter knife without serrations if you have one.

Yes Obiwan. Will do

 

[johnmrson]

Congrats. Shaving with a razor you honed yourself is a great feeling

 

[Nxspam]

Congrats. Shaving with a razor you honed yourself is a great feeling

i hope so. But if you don't hear from me after Christmas, well, it was nice getting to know you all

 

[Rekonball]

Take your time, you don't want to damage your strop.

 

[tinkersd]

One way to insure that you don't roll your new beautiful edge is to put a couple of layers of news paper on a flat table top and do your stroping on it, it will NOT roll your edge and will put the final smoothness to you edge your will notice with that 1st shave!!

IMHO, that is!

tinkersd

 

[Nxspam]

... it will NOT roll your edge and will put the final smoothness to you edge your will notice with that 1st shave!

tinkersd

thanks, I'll give it a try.