Thread: Honing newb...Feels like my blade "bit" the hone

I really feel that a 3/8 is one of the most difficult sizes to hone. It is very easy to "stub" the edge while honing. Paying very close attention to the evenness of the pressure and going slow has worked for me.

On the new razors that I have honed ALL! have needed to have a new bevel established. The factory does not perform any operation that forms the bevel while the razor is laying flat. They raise the spine just a bit to avoid creating a wear pattern on the shoulder of the spine.

Put electrical tape over the spine and perform 25 laps on the 4K to establish the bevel then move on to a conservative pyramid.

Hope this helps,

New razors come in varying degrees of sharpness. Some are very close to shave ready and some not. I have about 10 TIs I bought new and all save the damascus were very good shavers out of the box. Unless you got a really bad sample my opinion is you should NEVER have to use the 4K on a new blade. The 8K or higher is all you should ever have to use. On average I use about 60 passes on the belgian coticule with most of my new razors. Some a little more and some a little less. It depends how much pressure your using.

If you hit the stone with the blade your technique is off. Either there is too much pressure or your stroke is uneven. I hope you first practiced with a junk razor before starting with a good blade.

I'm with Randy on this one. The one new razor that I've honed--a Dovo--had a weird bevel on it. I messed with it for a long time before I realized that the bevel was too steep and needed to be reset. I had to work it for a while on the lower grits before it would come up to shave-ready.

Josh

I got it!
I think my major setback was lack of confidence and fear of the overhoning I'd heard of and my inept handling of that small paddle strop, undoing the work I'd done on the hone.
I got the 3" hanging strop from thewellshavedgentleman.com and it's excellent.
After 30-40 passes on that thing the shave is a completely different experience after the hone.
(the bonus beginner strop is appreciated as well).
...think about what's happening to the blade as you hone, strop pretty much went through my head.

I stuck with 8k and finished with a few strokes on a barber hone and my TI Super Gnome and Filarmonica 7/8 Doble-Tempe each shaved so-so on first try then much improved after honing on the barber stone and stropping once more. Each finished 1/2 of my face just fine. Now I get to hone lightly and try again until it stops improving, which is where I was hoping to be. I like the 7/8 a lot.

I go have the 3/8 to contend with, the bevel isn't evenly sharp, and an old ebay buy with a spine that isn't very even, probably out of my hands but it's gonna be fun seeing where I can get with it.

Lynn's DVD is excellent btw, indispensible, IMO; dollar-for-dollar the best investment I made in this endeavor. With the DVD, some time, facial cells, and finally a self-honed blade or two I shaved comfortably with, I finally feel like Im catching on. Since I feel like I'm learning, I will be sure to send out future acquisitions to be honed by th resident experts. (sometimes I like learning the hard way I guess).