Thread: Get a razor honed by a guru. Really. I mean it.

Recently Glen aka gssixgun made me a very generous offer; to hone one of my razors so I would have a benchmark to measure against. Needless to say, I took him up on it.

When I got my razor back, it was sharper than I thought physically possible. I cut the sh1te out of myself trying to use it. I had no idea how to shave with something that sharp.

By the 3rd shave, the edge had calmed down enough (or I got used to it enough) that the bloodbath ended. But seeing what a really sharp edge is supposed to be like opened my eyes, & revealed many problems with my honing technique. Since I suspect these mistakes are common, I'll list them in order of importance.

-- Not doing enough work on the 1K to establish a good bevel. You should be able to shave with it (albeit not comfortably) right off the 1K. If it won't shave hair, it doesn't have a bevel yet. Make sure you test it at several points along the edge.

-- Not doing enough work with each hone to erase the scratch pattern of the previous hone. Use a jeweler's loupe. Look at what you are doing. It may only take 5 laps to freshen an edge, but it might take 50 to remove a scratch pattern. The work will decrease as you progress through the grits because the scratch patterns you're trying to erase are getting finer & finer.

-- My finest hone was not all that fine. A Lithide barber hone feels smooth to the touch, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 8K grit. Rectified by buying a Chinese 12K at my local Woodcraft.

-- Thanks to Puffah, I discovered that barber hones are particularly prone to raising a burr. Finish with 2-4 back-strokes, toe leading, then 3-5 forward strokes, to remove the burr.

-- Using pastes to mask problems with my honing.

My edges are starting to get much better. If any of you have never had a professionally honed edge to compare your own work against, I highly recomend getting one.