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

Well after spending on hones I realize the rock don't make the man. I understand there is a learning curve but how long? As for tools I have a 220/1K, 4K/8K, Bout with rubbing stone, a big chunk of marble tile to lap on, and even bought the RS $9.99 scope, oh yea and Lynns DVD. I guess you can't buy your way sharp. I thought I had it tonight I honed and got it sharp. I brought it in it shaved pretty good. I thought I would touch up with my Lynn honed Dovo and I wasn't near where I want to be with sharp on the old spike. The dovo just glides across my face the old spike I honed will shave but not near the dovo. Do the dovos just shave well or am I just that miserable with the rock? the dovo is a 5/8 the spike is a 4/8 wedge. I also know that any razor Lynn touched will shave better than my old junk. Will honing be like shaving and one day just click or am I destined to sending my blades back to be tuned up?

Thanks, Don

This is just my opinion, but don't get too caught up over honing. Honing is just one of the trifectum of straight razor shaving (honing, stropping, and prep/lather building), and trying to succeed at honing like Lynn is a pretty lofty goal. And, for what it's worth, you did say that it shaved pretty well, so I think you deserve a pat on the back for that. Honing does take time to learn and I think you'll notice like I have that your shaves will get a lot better with time just because you get better with honing.

Honing is one of those things that plateaus... ie, you make progress for a while as you perfect the technique you're using and eventually it doesn't get any better. To break through, you have to change the way you're doing something. The fun is discovering what

I'm a firm believer that what works for one person will not necessarily work for another. We all have different motor skill abilities, so the trick is to optimize your technique around your physical makeup. Within reason, there's no right and wrong... whatever gives you the best results is what's best for you. Whatever gives me the best results is what's best for me.

And more tools won't necessarily make things better. I have several friends over 75 years of age who have told me that their fathers shaved with a str8 until the day they died and they only had a razor and strop (ie, no hone). None of these guys ever saw their father take the razor to the barber (or anywhere else, for that matter) to be sharpened... they just stropped it til it shaved right... and sometimes that took a while. Now I'm not suggesting that you only use a strop... I'm just telling you that in the past that's all many people had and they managed to get sharp razors and comfortable shaves.

Joe - great post.

I myself will be trying to extend indefinitely periods between honing using just a strop + linen, Cromium, and maybe newspaper. So I am all with you on that one.(currently I have not had to hone a razor I am done with - but this is just because I have too many, and am still fine-tuning many of them, with only a few that I don't think I can improve)

However, I also happen to have a couple of old razors, which are far from comfortable to shave with, and I am pretty sure they were used like this. We don't really know how comfortable the shaves for many men were at the time

As for honing - I think Lynn said that if you don't have a decent handle on it by the time you hone your 20th or so razor - maybe it's not your thing.

If you persevere though - I am pretty sure that you won't have to send out razors for touch up all the time

Cheers
Ivo

Honing for me is the next step in my knife sharpening skills. I've gotten into japanese steel for kitchen knives and some of them are thin enough to be called razors. Big razors but hey It's alot of trial and error, sure you can watch the masters do it and glean some insight, but the skill is in the "Doing it!" I watch others and try a few things I saw. Did it work for me? Ok this part works but that part confused me. Watch again, try again. Pretty soon you have devoloped your own method that works for you. Practice is the key, never stop trying and never stop learning.

It took me about 4 years to feel good about the concepts and the strokes and the different blades, and feel confident in the final product.

I've only honed a few hundred razors.

From the guys I've read about on here it usually takes only about 6 months.

The big learning curve for me was actually knowing what I was trying to do. The concepts were there but the real understanding was not.

You can get any specific advice on here about honing and its always both right and wrong. Right in concept, but applying what you read to the razor in front of you, with your hand, using your hone, with your knowledge makes all the advice useless, and incorrect.

You've got to understand the concepts completely and know where your razor is on a sharpness "continuum" and know what a truely smooth edge that is ultra sharp actually feels like, not one that some guy thats been honing for a couple of months thinks is sharp simply because it shaves hair.

The biggest epiphany for me was looking at an edge I'd been working on that was shaving poorly under a microscope (and this was a year into the process). That alone, dramatically changed my view.

The next was examining the striation patterns and smoothness of various DE razors under a microscope and defining ways to replicate the edge.

The next one was understanding that any man that shaved back in the day probably understood the concepts; and they had to be easy for a barber to give good shaves all day. There is something dramatically missing from modern man, besides knowledge, that makes honing difficult and I'd say that this is patience. Grab a 4K Norton and no idea what your doing and you can hone for years and get nowhere. Grab the 8K side and spend an evening swiping the blade and it'll get sharp as sh*t eventually. Its the time involved that screws a lot of guys up. Honing should be quick, but learning to hone on a slow hone is so much more intelligent. Personally, I think the 4K side of the Norton should come with a disclaimer. "Warning: Each stroke on this side of the hone requires a permission slip from StraightRazorPlace.com moderators"

Originally Posted by junkinduck

How long does it take to learn to hone?

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

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.