Thread: First razor & first hone/touch up

I just wanted to post this for people to have a reference for their first. I searched for this when I was going through my first experiences but many of the posts had problems they run into with great suggestions from members but no resolution in the end

i received my my first straight. A dovo 5/8 best quality which was supposed to be professionally honed but as I read in another post by Glen there were no signs of it being honed prior to shipping except that it was opened but no letter confirming and no sign of it on the razor and at any rate it barely passed a HHT-0 with a calibrated hair! The razor was tugging and I had irritation. I do have a lot of experience with a shavette and just felt the razor was not sharp enough (even after stropping).

I said to myself-"self, you ride a Harley, are a military veteran, and are married (scariest of them all). Don't be a wuss. Grab that razor and try to sharpen it. What's the worst that can happen? Send it out to get honed anyways?"

So I sat down with a cup of coffee and a Chinese whet stone (aka Chinese 12k) and spent some time trying to get the thing sharp. With all my experience with knives and from watching Lynn and Glens videos along with coticule.be videos I was able to refresh the edge to pass a HHT-4! That stone was very forgiving of my newb mistakes and it put a very very sharp and smooth edge on the razor. Hopefully when the time comes I can repeat this.

The shave was excellent and irritation free and I stropped afterwards and checked the edge and it was still passing the HHT-4! the result was a DFS (almost BBS all over!) and I am very excited about maintaining this edge and eventually venturing into bevel setting and possibly beyond. I treat my razor very different now. It's a ultra sharp razor that I put on/refreshed and I just look at it with pride and satisfaction along with that Chinese stone. What a stone! Very forgiving because it's slow but it handled the job extremely well and pretty quick for a newb.

My goal is always and has always been a consistent BBS shave and that is my next goal I am tackling. Thanks to everyone here that helped convince me a bit ago to go from shavettes to straights and thanks to all the guys that put up videos to help the rest of us.

CONGRATS on the success!

Feels GOOD doesn't it!

Yeah if you actually watch all the videos and follow the suggestions of the members here and have a halfway calm attitude you most likely can't go too wrong...LOL

Seriously though there is a TON of info and guys on here that are more than willing to help.

I feel LUCKY that I found this place!

Congrats on your first honing. The vids that Glen, Lynn and the rest do are the reason my razors are sharp. As a noob they are what taught me and are invaluable for those starting into honing. Cheers guys.

I absolutely could NOT have done this without this place here. Even the stone I heard about here. This place has taught me about lather, brushes, pre-shave oil, routine, shave ready razors, what a quality brand razor is, tips and tricks on getting trouble spots, angle, pressure, maintaining an edge, and more! Yup. Pretty much learned everything from here and YouTube

Confucius say: A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.

You have taken that first step and with one foot in front of the next advance down the straight razor journey.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You have taken that first step and with one foot in front of the next advance down the straight razor journey.

Well said.

Well done.

To further help all of the beginners can you tell us exactly what you did with the razor on the 12K stone to get it to HHT-4?

Thanks

Fantastic!... My first was with a barber's stone. Didn't really know much but did watch the videos. It was neat when I saw the things described in the posts here and in the videos. It took several hours for the first honing but I learned a lot. Sounds like you had a good time as well. Keep it up. It is now 3 years later for me. I brought back to life about a dozen razors, mostly antique store rescues and I am keeping them in rotation now. It is funny how much sharper those razors are now than they were 2 1/2 years back, smoother shaves too. Good luck!
Scott

What stones do you use now?