Thread: Practice makes perfect?

So here is my question, what should I practice honing on before I lay my razor to a stone? I was thinking and old knife that is snapped off at the end to give me the appropriate length. I have never been happy with how knives turn out when I sharpen them, so I am sure a would screw up my razor.

This may be overkill, but I cut a blade-and-tang shape out of stiff cardboard, and "honed" it up and down on a hardcover book. Kept my elbow up, got the feel of flipping the tang and doing x-strokes with good contact the length of the "blade." I'm sure a butter knife would do: anything with a tang-like neck and a flat blade.

If you want to practise honing strokes, you'll need a razor. Buy a Gold Dollar or a cheap rusty old thing from eBay and you've got something that will allow you to develop the correct muscle memory

BUT

Gold Dollars and rusty eBay razors are hard to hone to shave ready, because both come blunt and require bevel resetting (unless you're lucky with the eBay razor). A dull razor to practise stropping with is a very good idea, though, as it won't nick your strop.

because GD are alleged to have geometry issues when they are new you may want to get one that someone else has already reworked. What I'm trying to say is be picky and get something inexpensive without geometry issues.

Try using and practicing on a barbers hone. You need a barbers hone anyway to keep the blade sharp indefinitely.

Originally Posted by RezDog

because GD are alleged to have geometry issues when they are new you may want to get one that someone else has already reworked. What I'm trying to say is be picky and get something inexpensive without geometry issues.

Agreed. The poor geometry on some GD razors can make it more difficult to get a good and even bevel on the edge. The first one I tried was very uneven, so I just taped the edge and induced a fair amount of hone wear on the spine to level it out, then honed and that helped the edge. It is worth mentioning that the razor is not in any way pretty after this treatment. Not that GDs are pretty to begin with...