Thread: non-shave ready razor needs honing

Newbie here, I bought a new Thiers-Issard straight razor that wasn't "shave ready" and have since bought another that came shave ready. I now see that my first razor needs to be honed before I try using it again. My question is, should I try to learn honing and do it myself or should I send it to someone to have it honed? If the consensus is that I would completely destroy it by trying to hone it myself, does anyone have know someone that will hone razors that I didn't buy from them? Also, do long time users generally learn to hone themselves or do they have them honed by a pro when they get dull? Thanks for your help! Dave

Most of us learn to hone at some point. Though there are a few guys who haven't bothered and send them out every time they need it.

Since you have a shave ready benchmark, you have a decent chance of being able to learn to bring your TI up to that level. It is really up to whether you want to or not. Honing is another skill set that is just as hard to learn as straight razor shaving itself. It's also a bunch more toys to get interested in buying

Theres a lot of information on here about various hones and how to use them. I favor the Norton 4000/8000 and the pyramid method as a good place to start.

If you don't already have a copy Lynn's video on straight razor shaving covers all the topics pertinent to shaving with and maintaining your razor and other gear and is a good investment.

The simplest and cheapest would be to send the non-shave ready razor out to be honed. There is a not insignificant investment needed in hones for one to be able to make the non-ready, ready. Additionally, there is also a not insignificant learning curve to travel before one can say that one is able to hone one's own razors well. Once you've decided to try honing your own razors and get the hones to do it with, it's probably best to try it on a razor that you don't hold dear, just in case the outcome and the outcome and the outcome (there's that curve again) don't come out exactly as anticipated.

Good luck

You will enjoy your razor much more if you get your razor professionally honed.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I do like buying toys so I think I'm going to try my hand at honing. I bought an old Genco Geneva razor off of ebay that's in fairly good condition and I figure if I can get that one into shaving condition I'll feel more comfortable trying to sharpen my Thiers-Issard. I looked up the pyramid method mentioned above but I have some questions. 1) Can I use the norton stone you mentioned on my knives as well as my razors or will this ruin the surface of the stone? 2) Should I paste the razor too? If so, what sort of paste would you recommend for a newbie?

Thanks,
Dave

If you decide that you want it professionally done since the honing curve is pretty steep (honemeister in training here), I highly recommend messaging Josh Earl or Joe Chandler. I'm sure the other honemeisters here are just as good, but I've only had razors honed by those two gentlemen. I don't know that I've ever felt anything sharper in my life since getting my razors back from them.

Good luck with honing! I'm stumbling along with my learning. It's one of those things that doesn't sound complicated but ends up giving you a lot of respect for those that can do it well.

Originally Posted by dregan

Thanks for the replies everyone, I do like buying toys so I think I'm going to try my hand at honing. I bought an old Genco Geneva razor off of ebay that's in fairly good condition and I figure if I can get that one into shaving condition I'll feel more comfortable trying to sharpen my Thiers-Issard. I looked up the pyramid method mentioned above but I have some questions. 1) Can I use the norton stone you mentioned on my knives as well as my razors or will this ruin the surface of the stone? 2) Should I paste the razor too? If so, what sort of paste would you recommend for a newbie?

Thanks,
Dave

1) No, 4K is much too fine a grit for most knives and 8K would be WAY overkill. That is unless you are talking about ultra high end Japanese knives.

2) Paste is used by most people to put an ultra high finish on a razor that is already very sharp. Most people really like .5 micron Chromium Oxide.