Thread: How long does it take to learn to hone?

Originally Posted by mparker762

Asking this question is like asking "How many roads must a man walk down?", which I guess means the answer is 42.

Isn't the answer ALWAYS 42?

(Big Marvin fan, LOL)

J.

Thanks Ed for the encouragement reading some of the replys I was getting a little discouraged but I think I will "bask" just a little. The old razors I am working on all have too steep of bevels and will require a lot of work. So thanks to all who who encourged me and all of the others that have found this fine form of shaving and helping us get a little more in touch with our manhood and the ways of old.
Don

I too want to send a huge thank you for that info- this has been enourmousily helpful to me too. I've been wondering the same things and been almost afraid to ask what I'm doing wrong or not doing, because I really don't know for sure what I'm doing in the first place.

I'm personally, probabily introducing too many varibles in the equasion to begin with since I'm learning to shave, strop and hone basically at the same time.
I am producing a shavable edge that pulls, but could really be undoing my work at any point in the process. Now I have a better idea of where to start anilysing and how to do so.

Lynns thread on barber hones this week has also been enourmiously helpful.

Nice on the producing a decent edge but you're lucky X is on vacation!

Cheers
Ivo

Really hate to say this, but "it depends".
There are so many variables that what takes one a month will take another three.
So, there you have it, Grasshopper.
And yes, the answer is 42.

It's really not that difficult. I pretty much got it down in a couple of days. Now admittedly, I have been working with edged tools and knives for about 40 years, and when I started out my father insisted that if he was going to teach me how to use the tools, I was gong to have to learn how to take care of them as well. So I have been honing and sharpening things for a very long time. When I was first learning, it probably took me about six months before I could put a really good edge on a draw knife (and you don't want to use a dull draw knife).

So technically then, thats 6 months and a few days.

Don't you find it a lot easier to hone a razor than to freehand hone a knife? There is no worrying about getting the angle perfect with a razor as the blade lies against the hone but with a knife and different grinds you have the added problem of duplicating the same angle every time you lift the knife to check the blade, maintaining a constant angle and much more of a smile on most knives.

think it took me about 6 months till I was worth a damn.
I once honed the same full hollow razor for 11 hours straight without getting it sharp!

In the last month something changed and I got a lot better.

Mostly I changed the way I was using my finishing hones.

Also I got a microscope and started looking at lots of razor blades.

Since i didn't have a honemeister blade I took out like 50 DE blades and tried each one till I found one that pulled hard right out of the box.

Guess what? It looked just like my straights under the microscope !!

Now I have several Joe C honed razors and have tried as best I can to match the look.

Patience grasshopper, and remember 42.

Anyone interested in attaining skill in any field would do well to familiarise themselves with this study by a chap named Ericsson.

Among the gems of knowledge that this study offers is a unit of measurement. If we stand by the claim that it takes six months to learn to hone, then both of the following test cases will have an identical level of honing skill after a duration of six months:
1) George quits his job, lives in a cave and hones for sixteeen hours a day, every day.

2) Richard, on the rare occasions he's sober enough to handle a razor without losing a finger, puts steel on stone for half an hour a week.

HOURS of study are the unit of measurement with which we should be concerned. George would have 2928 hours of experience honing, whereas Richard would have amassed a paltry 13 hours. Given the choice, to whom would you send your razor for honing?

Another factor that might quicken the process is some knowledge of scientific method. Identification and isolation of variables, gathering of feedback, testing procedure and so forth. The more feedback you can gather, the quicker you can ascertain whether your efforts are helping or harming the edge. The microscope offers an invaluable source of visual clues as to the effects of the variable in question (pressure on blade, grit of hone, stopping technique...etc). Coupling knowledge of a good edge (as confirmed by visual examination of the edge) to the kinesthetic (sensation) and auditory (sounds) cues offered by the razor as it passes over the strop or stone. Conversely, when the feel or sound changes, you can look at the razor to see what changed.

Learn to hone without regular feedback is an exercise in endurance. Because nothing happens quickly (except for damage), every change in a variable must be subject to many, many repititions for microscopic change to define itself as a change for better or worse.

Finally, a wise man once defined insanity as "endlessly doing the same thing whilst expecting different results". I spent four hours honing my razor, but only made an appreciable difference when I thought to ease the pressure on the blade. I made more progress in the fifteen minutes after that epiphany than I had in the two hundred and twenty five that preceded it.
If what you're doing isn't working, change something.