London based honing mentor?

[dquelhas]

Hi all,

I've just started honing and it's going far from well. I got a Golden Dollar chinese razor to practice, but I can't even get the bevel right. My Dovo razors will be needing a touch up soon, and I don't want to ruin them.

I have a Norton combo 220/1K, a Norton combo 4K/8K and a 12K japanese stone. I tried following the videos here and on youtube and no joy for me.

Can any of you awesome honing masters be my mentor if you live in London, UK? Or via Skype? I could really use some help.

Many thanks in advance,
Dinis

 

[daflorc]

My first piece of advice: don't learn to hone on a Gold Dollar. It is the worst possible razor shaped object anyone can learn to hone on. Get a vintage straight off ebay and don't pay more than $20 for it. Me, I learned on my new Dovo, and I didn't ruin it...

My second piece of advice: get a strop with a cloth component and some .5 micron diamond spray.

 

[Oscroft]

I agree a Gold Dollar is not a good razor to learn on (though there are far worse ones out there!) A GD can usually be honed to shave very well, but most of them first need some grinding done on the shoulder - I've done one, but I waited until I'd learned enough to get good edges on other razors first.

I'd second the suggestion of getting something from eBay to learn on - there are plenty of them in decent condition going cheap, just make sure you get one that doesn't have too much hone wear or any chips.

 

[PapaFish]

I would second getting a few vintage blades. Buy them for $15-$20 shipped, then sell them for $25 honed up. It's not big money, it's more for learning. I have picked up a quite a few in the $20 range, honed them up and sold them to new members for basically the cost of the razor plus shipping. I wasn't out to make money, I was out to learn something new.

To maintain your Dovo's, I would get some Chromium Oxide and a piece of balsa wood. Flatten the balsa as best you can, and put a light coating of CrOx on it (mixed with oil). You should then be set to maintain the razors. In the meantime, learn to hone on something else, something that requires a lot less work than a new GD.

 

[blackhhawk]

I don't think there is anything wrong with learning on a GD... the shoulder has never been in the way on the 15-20 I've purchased.

 

[Oscroft]

I don't think there is anything wrong with learning on a GD... the shoulder has never been in the way on the 15-20 I've purchased.

Interesting - it was protruding into the honing plane on mine. Maybe I just got unlucky.

 

[PapaFish]

I've never owned one, I just go off other's experiences. I guess you could call that hearsay.

 

[daflorc]

I don't think there is anything wrong with learning on a GD... the shoulder has never been in the way on the 15-20 I've purchased.

Why would you buy 15-20 Gold Dollars?