Thread: It's Here! Now then, to hone or not to hone?

Behold! The magnificence that is my first straight razor. Many of you have seen it in a previous post here, but this post has a different matter to address...

I have failed to locate a sharpening service reasonably close to my home, and the idea of packaging up the blade and sending it off with the mailman after finally laying eyes upon it is hard to consider.

Now, I am no stranger to sharpening stuff, I am no stranger to patience, and I am not opposed to spending the necessary buck to do a job right. So I ask myself, and by posting this, the community as well, "Would it be unwise to purchase a 4k-8k stone and some chromium oxide paste and give this sucker a personal honing myself?"

The condition it arrived in is not great. The shave it gives is coarse and the bevel is visibly uneven. However, it does cut hair, so I bet I can start right off with 4k. Otherwise, I already have a nice arkansas stone to set a bevel. Still, I am unsure of the technical challenge of sharpening such a fine blade beyond that of sharpening a chef's knife. Perhaps it is too great…

I can sharpen my knives free-hand to shave hair from my arm, and those are 20+ degree bevels. That's with either a granite slab and sandpaper or my arkansas stone, as well as a pasted strop I made. Perhaps that offers perspective on my sharpening skills.

What do you think, community? Foolish? Worth a shot?