Thread: first time honing

Hey Newbies!

Just wanted to let you all know that I honed my first razor. I did my best to follow the techniques described here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tll72KFPdrM

I really liked how detailed he was in his description. I have a Norton 4k/8k, and then stropped on English Bridle leather. My razor was far from shave ready before I honed it. However, after following this guy's instructions (4k/8k/strop vids), I had a razor that was quite comfortable. Probably not "shave ready" by most standards, but I came away with no razor burn, but some drag/skipping on my stubble. The shave was close, but not perfect. Obviously I have quite a bit of learning to do. My only point is if you are thinking of straight razor shaving, and are giving honing some thought, I'd say go for it!

BTW, I have a feather ss, and like it a lot. But it is very aggressive, and I truly feel if I can hone my razors to a shave ready sharpness, I'd go straight razor 100%. It was enjoyable.

Awesome work. I just got into this sport of SR shaving. I would love to get to this point of honing and even restoring razors. Thanks for the inspiration.

Sounds like you did a workable job. Congrats.

Nice. There are many many paths that lead to shave ready. I am glad you found someone to follow to find your way. I have heard many times about people trying to follow two or three different people at the same time. Walk one path until you are able to understand it and then you can try different paths. Congratulations.

This is good news for sure! You will end up dumping that feather as the shaves with a straight are just mmmmmm good!

So I honed my FW Engels Lucky razor this morning. And already I noticed an improvement in my technique. The first blade I did (mentioned in my initial post above...) was a Kanner Razor. Bad technique revealed uneven spine wear, and the heel was consistently on the hone as well - resulting in unnecessary heel wear. Nonetheless, I was able to get the Kanner razor to shave.

I was much more mindful of where I was putting the FW Engels on the hone this time. There was no heel wear, and even spine wear (newbies if you're reading this, to prevent heel wear, always be mindful of where the heel is on the hone before you begin each stroke - keep the heel off the hone). So my honing technique has already improved after one try. Again, I followed the process outlined in the video I posted earlier. Went straight to 4K/8K Norton though, and then to the strop, no chromium oxide. - Pulled some hairs from my wife's brush, and it was cutting hairs off. I had to coax it a few times to make it cut a single hair, but in some cases the hair came off with no coaxing. I had about 1/4" to 1/2" of hair hanging over the edge, and PLING! PLING! PLING! hairs coming right off. However, with about 1" - 1 1/2" of hair hanging off the blade...I had to coax it. Not sure if this qualifies for HHT or not.

The shave with the FW Engels was good, but not great. Better than the Kanner for sure. But still not perfect. WTG felt fine. Like butter. Across the grain, and it felt OK. Against the grain, and uncomfortable-especially on my cheeks. Of course, this could be technique AND the razor probably isn't truly "shave ready".

So I pulled out my feather ss, and against the grain was like butter. Truly amazing how sharp those feather blades are. But the feedback you get with the straight is amazing. You really miss out on that with the feather. It simply cuts, and is not as forgiving.

So now I need to get some more straight razors, because I think I'm becoming obsessed. RAD anyone...?

Sounds like you are off to good start with honing.

It starts with RAD and then you get HAD to go with it. And then one day SWMBO complains that you have more stuff in the bathroom than she does.

According to some razor manufactures, apparently a 4k hone is considered shave ready. Your experience with the 8k honing sounds about right. You can shave off of an 8k honing, it will cut the hair, but I find it a bit rough on the skin. At the very least, I would suggest adding a CrOx stropping after the 8k, it will help smooth out those 8k marks and your face will thank you.

Keep at it!

The best demonstration of bevel setting I've seen (I'm not claiming that he is the best) is by DrMatt on YouTube. His use of a tomato as a final test method to see if the bevel is set is the best test I've ever come across.