Thread: please help me get my razor shave ready i have pics of my edge

i have a boker straight razor and am trying to hone it on a norton 4k/8k stone. soaked the stone got a good even scratch pattern on the 4k so then i started on the 8k but its not popping hairs after an hour on the 8k im using no pressure just the blade and using my finger to steady the tip as i cant get the blade to stay level on the stone with one hand.
the stone has been laped by a senior srp member and sucessfully honed to shave ready by that member on my norton i paid him to do it a while ago.
i have soaked the stone for 10mons before starting and cleaned/dipped it 3-4 time during the honing.
here are some pics of the edge at around 20x zoom

this is the tip:



here are some pics on the same side:

it wont let me post the rest but here they are:
http://i.imgur.com/s4V7rtH.png
http://i.imgur.com/WQ99SXx.png
and here is a pic of the other side of the blade it looks the same all along the edge of this side:
http://i.imgur.com/PKXt8Xe.png

any help would be greatly appreciated

To be honest.Send it back to be pro honed,most SRP members that hone blades will redo it for free,I do not think you are ready to hone Yet.JMO

Here is my opinion, You need to look into the Pyramid method, and make it work for you, I know it seems counter intuitive when you first read it but it truly does work. The main Issue I see you having is that you went to the 4k after having it set by a pro, then prolly went to the 8k too soon, this would mean it will take a very long time to make ready on the 8k but using the pyramid should alleviate that issue.

He made it look to easy didn't he. :<0) As suggested you could try it yourself but watch the video "how to's" 10 times first.

I'd avoid using the finger to steady the toe of the razor. Your photo shows that the toe might be getting more honing than the rest of the blade. Keeping the razor flat on the hone will be facilitated by keeping the elbow of your honing arm level with or above the level of the hone. Not doing so tends to allow the toe to rise as you've experienced. Not fixing that before you hone further won't allow the Pyramid or any other method to produce good results. To my eye, it appears that there is a convex quality to your bevel, meaning that the blade is not always flat on the hone and different areas of the bevel are getting honed variously.

Was it popping arm hairs on the 4K side before going to the 8k side?

Bob

in the last couple of the pics when you zoom in, it looks like there is still a micro bevel so you have missed the actual bevel set possibly.
was the razor honed with tape innitially? & did you hone without tape to change the angle slightly
learnt this the hard way also when honing with no success for ages

See my signature.... Lol

Originally Posted by ace

I'd avoid using the finger to steady the toe of the razor. Your photo shows that the toe might be getting more honing than the rest of the blade. Keeping the razor flat on the hone will be facilitated by keeping the elbow of your honing arm level with or above the level of the hone. Not doing so tends to allow the toe to rise as you've experienced. Not fixing that before you hone further won't allow the Pyramid or any other method to produce good results. To my eye, it appears that there is a convex quality to your bevel, meaning that the blade is not always flat on the hone and different areas of the bevel are getting honed variously.

i am trying to keep me elbow up my desk is quite high though maybe this is an issue

Originally Posted by BobH

Was it popping arm hairs on the 4K side before going to the 8k side?

Bob

no it wasnt popping hairs on the 4k should it be?