Thread: Must newby know!!!!!!!

I have to share my experience as a newby with the rest of the world, even if this gets me some enemies....first of all excuse my spelling and grammar errors...no disrespect to the english lenguage ...i am still learning....



There is somebody that i must warn you about, his name is heavyduty135, not only he is very, very knowledgeable,....he is a matser honer...or honeimaster....his sin is that he is very humble....so he will never admit that he is a master of honing....as a person of a lot of free time...i have never ever met somebody who can get a razor so scary sharp.....honestly.....too sharp....to the point i cut myself senlesss.......if you are a newby ...take advantage of his knowledge...he will set an edge that not only will blow your mind and will be your best shaver ever...but will be and standard to match....
Today i enjoy very good shaves thanks to lynns and heavyduty s experience...i encourage yoooooooooooou ( anybody) to bother his asss about honing...it will save you sooo much time and learning curve....
To anybody...today i can compete and perfection any edge i get from local stores or "blade sharpeners masters" thanks to heavyduty teachings,,,,
sorry heavyduty....your knowledege is a virtue that must be shared.

Sergio, I really appreciate the kind words and am glad that you like the edges that I put on your razors (especially since you have some very nice professionally sharpened blades to compare to); however, I have only been doing this for about 8 months. IMO, nobody can reach a master status in that short amount of time because stubble just does not grow fast enough lol. I do love to learn about the art of honing and really appreciate the time that the real masters like Lynn and Randy have spent with me to get me where i am. As Lynn says, there is always more to learn; so I just try to improve with every razor that I do.

Thanx Sergio,

I suspected he was hiding the orb of sharpness.

While I feel very confident in my ability to put an edge on "good" razors, my trouble area is still getting even sharpness on blades with “issues” like an imperfect grind, slight warp, uneven bevel, etc. The masters can handle these blades much better than me, but I am trying to improve in this area. I would like to get some narrower hones (or possibly get some of the single grit 4K and 8K Norton stones to use the side of) to experiment with and see if it helps get a more even edge on razors whose entire edge does not contact the surface of a thick 3 inch or 2 inch wide stone. Allen’s ½ inch wide by 8 inch long coticule was very cool, and I am toying with the idea of seeing if I can get one from Howard to use on the imperfect blades that I get.

Originally Posted by heavydutysg135

Allen’s ½ inch wide by 8 inch long coticule was very cool, and I am toying with the idea of seeing if I can get one from Howard to use on the imperfect blades that I get.

Ooo that does sound good, I have one razor that has a less than even edge (pictured) and I'm looking to get a thin stone as well to deal with this.

I have also been experimenting with another technique which has been giving me very good results with some imperfect razors, but it has not worked for all. What I do is round the edge on a wide hone (this should probably be done anyway), then hone the blade on the round edge of the hone at a 45 degree angle (heal in front of toe on the horizontal plane) with the toe a little above the heal on the vertical plane. A VERY light and airy stroke must be used (I think that I might even use negative pressure) throughout the stroke because such a small surface area of the hone is touching the blade and you don't want to bend the edge. I have found that this does a very good job of contacting the areas that don't normally make contact on a wide hone. This signiture technique of mine is still in the testing stages though and is not ready to be released to the general public.

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

Ooo that does sound good, I have one razor that has a less than even edge (pictured) and I'm looking to get a thin stone as well to deal with this.

Hey DC , don't know if you know this or not but that razor of yours is close to 200 years old . If it were mine I would keep it as is and shave with something else . But since it's yours , you may do as you please with it .

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

Ooo that does sound good, I have one razor that has a less than even edge (pictured) and I'm looking to get a thin stone as well to deal with this.

It looks like you will need a much faster cutting stone than the coticule if you want to attempt to get that shave ready. I would probably use a DMT E until I got the edge straight then work a normal progression with the Norton and/or Belgian stones. A thin coticule would take FOREVER.

I actually use the edge of a barber's hone for one of my razor's that has an uneven bevel, but it always makes me nervous since it's completely flat.

I like this thread for several reasons:

• Obviously Dave is getting nice edges and it's nice to have recognition in the forum
• He is still humble
• Nice tip on using the edge of the hone - actually people here have done this before - certainly advanced technique

Cheers
Ivo