Well, got to my second straight razor shave today in a round-about way. I went to Lee Valley this morning to get my Norton 4k/8k and lapping stone and came back eager to hone my Wapi to shave-ready shape. Thanks to HeavyDuty, I truly knew what shave ready meant (thanks again David!), so with my benchmark sharpness known, I set out to replicate it (or at least come close, because I don't have a coticule or pasted strop to finish off the razor).

So, I lapped my norton (fairly out of true, but that was no great surprize). I re-watched Lynn's honing section of the DVD, and set out to hone my wapi.

(Now, I must warn you that two of the following honing observations will probably smack of being wrong - so please feel free to correct me - I need to learn somehow!).

Firstly, I did a "normal" pyramid - I noticed that not much was being done, and that the spine seemed to be getting a lot of wear. I was also having a helluva time keeping the razor flat when honing away from my body. After the first pyramid of being very careful to keep the razor flat, the razor was just as dull as it was before. I decided to do another pyramid, but this time adjusted with a slight wee bit of presure towards the edge, which really seemed to work. I know everyone says "no pressure besides the weight of the blade" but I just couldn't get the edge to sharpen at all.

Secondly, I was still having a bear of a time keeping the razor flat, so against the advice of most, I opted to go with a two handed approach, with as close to zero pressure as possible on the "off" hand and have it there just for a little added stability. That seemed to work really well, although I'm going to have to revisit that at a later date.

Well, after two more pyramids, I got the razor to a point where I could shave with it (after 60 laps on the linen and another 60 on the leather).

I showered, and got my beared prepped - got out my self-honed wapi and had a really good second shave...no pulling, but not quite as sharp as David's honing. For a first honing attempt, I was pretty pleased.

It was just at this point that I lost concentration and banged my razor agains the faucet! I put a very small nick into the blade, about a 1/128th of an inch. So, back to the Norton it was! I taped the spine, and ended up doing close to 150-200 laps on the 4k before the nick was gone. It took me another 2 full pyramids to get the razor back to where I had it before my stupidity.

Moral of the story - keep the pressure light, keep your concentration, and even a newbie can hone a razor good enough to shave with (although not nearly as polished as a honemeister).

Sorry for another long post - it's all new, so there's just so much to tell! I also hope that other newbies can learn from my mistakes and successes.

Mark