Thread: Help me not give this up. I can't hone.

First off , don't even think you can't. You just haven't figured it out yet. You can do it I just think you let frustration set in before you got the hang of it. You may have a warp or something you have to work around. If they got dull that fast you may need some help with the strop too. I have razors going on a year with only stropping to keep them in shape. If the Vids and reading aren't doing it you need face time with someone close to you. Or send them to Mjsorkin and he may be able to look at them and tell you what your missing. I suggest go back to square 1 and develop technique and learn that strop. You have plenty of time to learn the hones. And do that with a practice razor not one your using.

Originally Posted by Jaife

I understand how you feel. I have tried numerous times to get my edge back to adequate but end up with tugging terrible shaves everytime. I have to switch over to my safety razor every time. No idea what I'm doing wrong either. Hopefully someone can give you some help on the subject.

Can't speak for the OP, but you are very close to hands on help, we have had a Meet in Yakima every Spring for the last 4 years and have had a Meet in Spokane in the Fall for the past 5 if you get up to the North of Idaho just fire me a PM and I would be happy to sit down over coffee or a beer and take the time to show you exactly how to hone... Gerritt is in Yak, Roy is in Walla Walla and both of them hone and have taught others also..

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Can't speak for the OP, but you are very close to hands on help, we have had a Meet in Yakima every Spring for the last 4 years and have had a Meet in Spokane in the Fall for the past 5 if you get up to the North of Idaho just fire me a PM and I would be happy to sit down over coffee or a beer and take the time to show you exactly how to hone... Gerritt is in Yak, Roy is in Walla Walla and both of them hone and have taught others also..

Coffee, beer, honing lesson from Glen, is anything better? Anything better? Tell us it then (to quote Yeats)...

Jaife, This is almost an intelligence test: "Coffee, beer, honing lesson from Glen, is anything better? Anything better? Tell us it then (to quote Yeats)... " Test: can you spot the opportunity you'd be nuts to pass up?

Heck I'm trying to convince my wife to visit friends in Spokane just so I can attend a northwest meet!

Ok so I'm new too, I took up honing because I was fascinated by the process (counter to the advice to wait). I struggled, and screwed up some razors, and had some fantastically bad shaves. One thing I learned to do as I've been restoring eBay type razors (they are almost never unwarped) is to use a black sharpie along the edge of the razor, essentially colouring the bevel and then making two laps. At this point look at the bevel under a good light and see if the sharpie has been honed off the bevel on both sides of the blade through the entire length. If it has then you've made good contact across the length of the bevel. Pressure is another interesting function, when I set a bevel (once I've determined where the warps are with the marker) I use medium pressure. It's common to here "weight of the blade" a lot but if your cutting a new bevel you need to remove metal. I also "torgue" the edge into the hone (don't need to get crazy with pressure, no white knuckles needed). After the bevel is cut your polishing the bevel you just cut so the pressure can be eased. Keep at it you'll get it for sure. As for determining shave ready, it's not exactly the same thing, but a DE blade will give you an idea. Take a DE blade and do the tests with it (thumb pad, thumb nail) and you'll get an idea of what your looking for when honing. As for the hanging hair test, try it with a DE, does it pass? I've noticed differences with HHT results using different people's hair (my hair is thin, my wife's is thick, I get different results). May not be the most accurate test to use, just my two cents. Good luck and let us know how you're progressing.

if you did several hundred strokes with each progression and you weren't sure what you were doing, my guess is your razors are seriously screwed up now. Send it out to get straightened out. You got an offer, take it.

Originally Posted by driftwood

I've noticed differences with HHT results using different people's hair (my hair is thin, my wife's is thick, I get different results).

I'm glad you mentioned that. My arm hair is thin, and getting any results from HHTs is nigh-on impossible.

Fortunately though, I have a shaving brush that's "generously donating" its own hair... never did like that Culmak "Fifty fifty".

You got some good offers of help and you should take them. Feel free to stop reading now, because you REALLY ought to take these generous guys up on the help they want to give you. And they will tell you everything I could tell you, and more. But I will throw my two centavos in the hat anyway.

Now...

You bought a whole progression of stones. Any particular reason? You started out with two shave-ready razors or at least one shave-ready and one probably nearly so. All you needed was a finisher. In fact, you didn't even need that. All you really needed was a piece of balsa lapped nice and flat, and some diamond paste or else some red/green paste. (I prefer diamond, .5 and .1 micron grits) Did you really take a nearly shaving razor all the way back to 1k? What that did was magnify your otherwise minor newb honing mistakes. It is like they taught young Kwai Chang Caine at the Shaolin Temple... only use that force which is necessary, and no more. You really ought to download the whole "Kung Fu" series. It will make you a better shaver, better honer, and better person. Plus is is really cool to see a guy kick so much butt without even getting mad LOL! But you could have brought that edge back with just a few dozen light laps on the Naniwa 12k. Master Khan would have approved.

The stickies ought to be required reading. I hope you read LOTS of newbie honing threads before you ever touched blade to stone. But I guess you didn't. Well, we all do stuff like that. My Grandpa always said every man is entitled to make one screwup per day. But we still have to pay a price for it LOL! You did... you paid with frustration and a worse edge than when you started. Learn from that. Honing isn't hard as long as you do it right.

The sharpie advice is spot on the money. But also paint the spine, too. The sharpie test results on the spine are almost as important and almost as revealing as what you get on the edge.

A lot of guys lay the stone on a bench or table or counter and hold the razor with two hands. I was taught to NEVER do that unless I need to put a lot of pressure to do a serious steel removal like with a big edge repair or a serious spine mod. No, I hold the hone in my left hand, lightly and loosely, so it sort of floats. The razor and the stone align themselves. If you are mashing the razor down on the stone with both hands, you are forcing the blade into an alignment with the stone that might not be a very good one at all. Let the laws of physics do that for you. Try it, anyway, next time you hone something-- let that stone float and let that blade float right down onto it. What happens a lot is a newb will force more pressure on the toe than the heel, or vice verca, and only get an edge on part of the blade. Or stand the spine up off the stone. ERK! Or let the shoulder ride up on the stone, which is just like picking the heel up off the stone. A stone, BTW, that must be absolutely flat. Did you lap the stones before you use them? Practically all stones need lapping before the first use, and periodically afterwards. Unflat stone = sucky edge.

You NEED to read more honing threads. You OUGHT to also watch as many honing videos as you can find. You COULD get a pretty good DVD from Lynn the site founder. You SHOULDN'T try to hone again without doing some homework. Make that' "MUSTN'T" LOL!

You're gonna get this, don't worry. You got lots of guys here eager to share their knowledge with you. Keep going and listen to the Masters. And even other newbs like me who have done this enough to know better LOL!

You should contact a local mentor for help. I think it would radically change your honing and by extension, your shaving.