Thread: Honing help needed pls.

Short summary, so you won't get discouraged when reading: I can't hone a razor, it seems to be curved (sideways).
Later edit 3: if this problem showed up already and is discussed elsewhere, I apologize for not reading thoroughly enough, I kindly ask you to redirect me to that post and I will read everything there and come back to my topic only if I have further problems.
(Or... yet another newbie with a HUGE problem.

Short background: against all the advice read on this forum, I went for a 6/8" black horn scales TI from CS as my first new (and real) razor, which I ordered without a honing from Lynn... If any of you want to say bad things to me about this, I can understand and I won't complain So, the razor arrived (along with a Dovo XL strop - another bad choice I believe), of course not shave ready. It would not shave, I was able to scrape some beard with it, when trying it on my arm, it would simply go over the hair - very thin hair indeed, but the DE just removes it - so the TI is not shaving it at all. The beard being a little stiffer (still, I have a somehow light beard), some of it would eventually go off, but very very little at a time and the razor just gets stuck in it. No problem I thought, since I was wise to also order a coticule, so I will simply sharpen it. Well, the rest you can read in the real "post" part of this posting)

So, the facts and then the problem:
Fact 1 - I am a total newbie in the straight razor area (I shaved with a DE razor for more than a year now, so I can say I can prep before the shave, no particular problems there, also not very tough beard), I'm not very patient, but I can concentrate at least on the razor, so I promise to try everything you say and not rush things;
Fact 2 - I have the following:
- a 6/8" TI (Sheffield Silver Steel) from CS - arrived not shave ready
- a 20x4 cm coticule (half as wide as razor is long, and five times as long as wide, I thought it would serve me well if it's longer and not so wide)
- a DOVO XL strop (wider than the razor, so the whole razor fits)

Problem 1 - I can't sharpen the razor, no matter what I try. But please also see Problem 2.
Problem 2 - it seems to me that the razor, when moved over the hone, has a particularity: on one of it's sides, the middle part of the blade does not touch the hone. The hone is not perfectly flat, but the other side of the razor seems to do fine. To expand the description:
- I generate some slurry
- On the left to right stroke, with the razor perpendicular to the hone, a very nice sound is heard, exactly like in the videos I saw on sharpening (woosh like - I don't really know a word but it just sounds how I was expecting it to sound). Also, I feel what I believe was referred to as suction (the razor seems stick to the hone's surface, you can move it sideways easily and it's harder to lift)
- On the right to left stroke, it starts the same, but when the blade's middle comes to the hone (to the middle of the hone I guess, the movement is uniform), the sound is gone, the feeling is gone, and if I look at the blade on the stone, I can see that it only contacs it on the stones sides and not in the middle. I wasn't able to find a way to make the blade's middle touch the hone. If I just slide it along the hone without the X motion (honing the heel and just to the middle) things do seem better, but then I need to hone the entire blade, and still it's not like on the other side. I tried turning the coticule, I tried only honing on it's left side or right side (let's say the left is where it has a small spot), tried only in the middle - different, but not like the left to right stroke. And this is happening with no pressure and also with a little pressure.
- Putting the blade on various surfaces that I can say they're flat (or somewhere near flatness), the razor seems to be curved, on side convex and on the other concave. Clearly, on the concave side, it does not contact the hone in the middle of the blade;
- the same seems true on the strop, on one side it does not contact the strop with the middle of the blade (but an X pattern does seem to help here). But I ordered the widest strop...
- Further problem: I live in Romania, so sending it over to the US for honing would be somewhere on the bottom of the list of the choices (expensive and possibly unreliable postal services). Only if there's no other way for me to do it myself will I resort to this solution (and furthermore, if the blade is curved, I won't be able to touch it up once it gets dull again). But, there would be something good in it - I would have a properly sharpened razor! Well... you tell me please...

So, please try to help me out I'm open to any suggestion, recommendation, and as I said, critiques Thank you!

Sergiu


Leter edit 1: the heel seems to sharpen somewhat, not "there" yet, but I can see some progress... But I would like all the razor to sharpen... And - sorry for the very long post, I felt that skipping any part would not show the whole problem.

Later edit 2: Alternatives (as I see them now, please send new suggestions): 1) Get a new coticule, long and very narrow (I saw this advice several times for this kind of problems and it makes sense); 2) send the razor to someone to sharpen - this makes even more sense, with the difficulties I mentioned; 3) give up the whole thing, draw a line, sum up the expenses (justify to my wife) - you see this is not realistic

Send it out. There are a few people in Europe who will help you. I sent razors to Bruno and was very happy.
I would offer to hone for you but I have limited access to my stones at the moment as I am away from home.
Other people to try might be Lx emergency, and I think poona also is offering honing now.
Don't give up, once you have a sharp razor it all gets much easier!
I think your coticule should be fine for honing. It is much larger than my one and I manage ok. Get your razor sharpened and consider buying a cheap ebay razor to practice honing on. It is a worthwhile investment. The wapienica razors are great to learn to hone on.

My advice would be to send it to a honemeister and have him hone the razor for you. You can learn to hone on your own after you learn to shave with a "shave ready" straight razor. If you insist on learning to hone and shave at the same time then you have a very large learning curve ahead of you.

+3 on the sending it out thing. It sounds to me like your razor has a slight warp, which is really pretty common, from what I've seen. Once the razor has been properly honed, you should be able to touch it up on your coticule with little difficulty.

It is possible to sharpen a razor with a problem like this using just a coticule, but for a newbie it will prove very, very difficult.

You've got some first-rate gear there.

Welcome to SRP,
Josh

If the razor is warped enough that one side doesn't touch in the middle on a hanging strop, I'd send it back. A new razor should be very close to straight.

Hello all!

Thank you for your replies! I'll try to ask for more details on each item... Just to be sure...

Anyone seconds SteveS on sending the razor back? I would only send it back if it really has a problem, and not because my knowledge is *very* limited. Just let me know what's your opinion (of course I would contact CS and ask theirs, but I won't do it unless you indicate that it's really the case to do it). I don't want to bother people with warranty claims and then to find myself being wrong about it.

About sending it to a honemeister... It seems I'll do it, if I find anyone in Europe to want to do it for me - very good (I'll describe the problem), if not..... ( (but the alternative would be to give the whole thing up)

As for having first grade shaving gear... I had lots of alternatives, mostly cheaper. But... if my wife agreed... I went for something I really dreamed for (Christmas and birthday combined gift). I just hope things will work out and I'll be able to shave and not only admire the razor.

Draga Sergiu
Dont change the coticule (it is the ideal size)
Send the TI to someone who knows honing
Buy a second razor to learn honing knowing from the first, how sharp must be a straight razor.
Hone the second razor, test shave,
dull it with different methods(corc, match, writing chalk, one pass,two pases etc), hone it, test shave, dull it, hone it, test shave etc. , etc until you feel that the results are not luckily and you are confident that you have the possibility to produce a fine edge if a razor is dulled.
Probably for this, you need and a coarser stone.

Bun noroc si bune rasaturii (if I remember well Limba Romana after 25 years...)

Well! Now that's a surprise! Glad to see I'm not the only one speaking Romanian on this forum (it would have been much easier if I knew someone in my hometown familiar with honing, but I don't really think I'll find anyone, maybe some old barbers... with their old methods). Thank you again for the advice, I believe I will look for a way to send the razor for honing to someone knowledgeable.

Originally Posted by xxscorp

Well! Now that's a surprise! Glad to see I'm not the only one speaking Romanian on this forum (it would have been much easier if I knew someone in my hometown familiar with honing, but I don't really think I'll find anyone, maybe some old barbers... with their old methods). Thank you again for the advice, I believe I will look for a way to send the razor for honing to someone knowledgeable.

From 1976 to 1982 I was student of chemical engineering in Politechnical Institut of Iasi