Thread: Newbie Honester Advice

I've been wondering why so many newbies are having a hard time getting their razors shave ready after using a pyramid, which is supposed to help, not hinder the newbie. Here's what I've come up with:

Rinse off your razor, stone and the top of that cool little blue Norton box with the honing tray, between 4k and 8k use. Any time that you go from a coarse (generality) stone to a finer stone without cleaning you are simply contaminating the finer stone. The razor will also carry bits of the coarser slurry to the finer stone, which also, necessitates rinsing. Think of it as throwing gravel on top of a nice smooth asphalt driveway. (The best I can do at this hour. My analogical skills won't hit for another eight hours or so!)

I just haven't seen this stated much, and if it has then this new post may save someone from walking away from this great sport!

Good point Nekst. That, and a really light touch!

Good points Gentlemen!

Also you should remember to lap your stone before the initial use of it , even if it is brand new. This will ensure that you have a perfectly flat stone. The way to do this is by having a perfectly flat piece of granite or glass tile. I have a 6x4" piece of granite (it is a broken tile I got at Ikea for $2 ) Soak your stone and then take it out and place it on the norton case, where you will now draw a 3x5 grid on the stone lightly.

Take some Wet/Dry sandpaper (180 grit) and wrap it around the granite, and start some figure-eight patterns until you see the lines coming off mostly. Then switch some a lighter grit paper (1000 grit) and keep going until you see the lines totally disappear.

From there you will do the same on the opposite side of the hone (either 4K or *K depending on which side you started on).

Hope that helps, and if someone does find fault, please acknowledge.

Cool! Thanks for the tips. Just in time to be of use to me with my new stone! Looks like I need some sandpaper from Canadian Tire and a glass tile from somewhere....

-W.

Speaking of Newbie honing... I finally got around to honing one of my new Wapi's. Did the "conservative" honing pyramid in the X pattern as the razor seemed close to keen right out of the box. After honing, I gave it a few swipes on a pasted paddle strop and then a good stropping on my hanging strop. I then did a quick pass on my arm hair and the hair seemed to just jump right off my arm like it was trying to get out of the way! I have never had a razor do that. At least one I honed. That is scary! The big test will be tomorrow morning for a real shave. I heard these razors were easy to hone and make newbie's look like professionals. I think they are right!