Thread: How to find good razors to practice honing?

Thank you. I have been getting that advice, so I am slowing down trying to collect what I think I need and getting more information first. I am at either 22 or 43 shaves with a straight (depending on if you would count using a Feather AC or not.) I have a good sized collection of strops, in both paddle and barber style and vintage and new. After I rolled my first edge from stropping like I would a knife, I seem to be doing well with my stropping technique. My five current shavers have all been professionally honed, and I have three more going out soon for some work.

Just trying to use the collective experience here to gather more information, prior to gathering more stuff I might not need.

The very best way to learn to hone is to find a mentor for some one on one time. The next thing is to attend meets. If you do both you will have the very shortest learning curve. I doubt that there is another member in Canada or the US that has as high of travel costs as I do for getting to meets. However if you want to be good you should find a way. Anyone can hone, but to hone well takes good teaching, and practice, practice and then a little more practice. You don't need many razors to practice on either, you should have three. Good razors are not expensive razors.

Originally Posted by RezDog

The very best way to learn to hone is to find a mentor for some one on one time. The next thing is to attend meets. If you do both you will have the very shortest learning curve. I doubt that there is another member in Canada or the US that has as high of travel costs as I do for getting to meets. However if you want to be good you should find a way. Anyone can hone, but to hone well takes good teaching, and practice, practice and then a little more practice. You don't need many razors to practice on either, you should have three. Good razors are not expensive razors.

A huge +1 to all of that.

The advise already given is probably the "BEST" advice for a newbie just learning.

Me? I guess I went against the grain. That would be except for going to a mentoring session with some damn good honers in NYC. The mentoring gave me an idea of what I should be doing. But I jumped in with a bunch of junk ebay razors. But I'm a hard headed guy and don't give up easily. The guys here on SRP in the honing section are more than happy to give suggestions and techniques to overcome a problem with a blade. When I got stuck on a blade I posted up pics and asked what do I do with this? Always friendly responses from guys wanting to lend a hand to an idiot like me. Sink or swim I just jump in. Probably not the best option for most, worked for me. If you easily get discouraged, don't be me.

I have reached out to a few people who are local to me, I just need to see if I can set up some time to go see them and talk with them. I just didn't think people use thier actual shavers to learn on. If thats the case, I should have enough razors to play with while learning.

If it is not worth shaving with it is not worth trying to learn to hone with. The goal is to get a fantastic shaving edge on your shavers, what better place to start. Tape the spine to save the wear in the beginning and Robert is your mothers brother!

Oh yeah, another +1 for RezDog! Keep one, or two sharp to have something to shave with. That's how I rotate at the moment because I got some new hones, so until I learn what they can do, I am being careful.

I would go to Larry they aren't pretty but it cuts out allot of the headache on the bay just to get practice worthy blades Whipped Dog Straight Razor Shaving Equipment

What type of stones do you have to hone with? As has been said start with a good blade and learn from maintaning a sharp edge down to setting a bevel. Save the problem blades for later. Good luck.

Right now I have a Naniwa 1k, and a set of three Welsh Natural stones with slurry stones. I will be looking to pick up a Norton 4/8k, and a lapping stone to get a basic set to start with. Then I need to figure out how to use them.