Thread: 10k messed up my edge!

Hello everyone!

This is my first post here (I've been a lurker for some time). I got my first straight a few months ago and had it honed by Lynn. It shaved wonderfully and I really did enjoy the whole experience. I ended up getting a really close shave with no cuts, no irritation, and no tugging for probably the first time in my entire life.

Now, for the last few shaves the blade had become a little duller (probably from a combination of number of shaves and mediocre stropping technique). So I pulled out a 10K water stone that I use for my kitchen knives and gave 10 X-stroke passes with no pressure. The blade was completely dulled!

I could hardly believe it, but it wouldn't even cut my skin with a slicing motion on the thumb. I figure the stone itself must be bad because I didn't put any pressure on the blade.

So, stupidly, I decided to try to re-hone the think from scratch on a 1k to 6k to the same 10k, which of course didn't work and now my blade is duller than a butter knife.

I would appreciate any advice as to what to do next. I suppose the only thing worse than having a dull straight on my desk is knowing how well it once shaved. AHH.

Well there is hope! You can get it honed again. :-) honing a razor is very different then honing a kitchen knife.

Many things might have gone wrong. Perhaps Lynn used tape, and you don't. Perhaps your hone needs lapping... Not to mention pressure

Luckily there many treads about honing if you those to learn that craft. But for now, my advice would be to get it honed again and practice your stropping technique.

Cheers

what 10k hone are you using?

So first of all, photos of the razor would help.

What brand of razor is it?

What brand is your 10k and your other stones?

Did you lap the 10k before honing your razor on it?

Did you keep the spine on the stone? Did you watch any videos prior to the honing try? Sorry for all of the questions, we are trying to help as mentioned above, pictures would help us help you!
By the way... Welcome!

I will be able to get photos of the razor a little later, but here is some of that other info.

The razor is a Dovo Forestal
The brand of the 10K was WeiWei (link here: Amazon.com: WEIWEI® 10000 Grit Whetstone ★ Bonus Card Wallet Knife ★ Waterstone Knife / Razor Sharpener Super Fine Sharpening Stone for Sharpening and Polishing Edges: Kitchen & Dining)

The other stones were a 1K and 6K Combo King Sharpening stone (http://www.amazon.com/King-Sided-Sha...wa+stone+fixer)

I lapped the stones with a Naniwa stone fixer (http://www.amazon.com/Naniwa-Stone-F...ds=stone+fixer)

I had soaked all the stones for about 20 minutes, and when I initially lapped the 10k with the fixer there were a bunch of scratches. I lapped again with my 1K and the scratches went away FWIW.

And yes, I did keep the spine on the stone the whole time - I've spent an embarrassing amount of time watching videos on this stuff

And thanks for the welcome!

I have inferred that you have never honed a razor before. Please let me know if that is correct.

Moving on, there likely are several things at fault.
First, you shouldn't use a knife hone for razors unless you lap first. Odds are that it is no longer flat and may have odd gouges in it.

Did you keep the spine on the hone?

What was the hone?

What is the razor?

If you dulled the razor on the 10k, I figure there was something "hinky" about your honing, so I am not surprised that dropping down to 1k did not fix it.

Please describe more of what you did.

(Sorry I walked away between starting and finishing this and so many others jumped in ahead of my response!)

There seems to be a rather strong Texas contingent. Have you thought about one on one help? Truly it is the fastest way to find out what went wrong ang learn some good skills.

Possibly - my biggest issue with any one on one help is just timing and schedule. I am consistently very busy, but I appreciate the offer.

Here are some photos of the razor, I can already see that I screwed up and took a lot of metal off of the spine unevenly. So consider it lesson learned for not trying to just "jump into" honing.