Thread: As of today I can call myself a true straight razor shaver

Good stuff!

I'm in a similar situation. Still a newbie, but getting good shaves off razors I honed myself.

What a great feeling!

Mike

Yeah, I gotta admit I was getting very frustrated for a while because I thought I was doing everything right from all the reading and video watching but I think it mostly came down to consistency with my strokes and developing that feather light touch. I probably spent 12 total hours trying to get proper honing down and finally my razors are passable but I still have a long way to go.

My "eureka" moment came courtesy of Josh Earl. I bought a shave-ready razor from him to use as a benchmark, and we corresponded about it afterward.

I was having a tough time getting my razors anywhere near as nice as the one he sent me. I figured I needed a finer hone, a lighter touch, some diamond paste... whatever. He suggested just the opposite: probably need to get rid of the factory edge. Cut a new bevel and start over.

Exactly right. I was worried about finesse, when what I really needed was a fresh start. Thanks Josh!

Mike

Grats, Backpacker. I'm sure the paste helped loads; a shave of an 8k can be pretty rough. I think you'll also find that after you've honed a razor it needs plenty of time on a plain leather strop, so it should get better with time...until it get's dull again.

Congrats on the first good shave! It feels good when you finally get a good shave out of a razor that you honed yourself doesn't it??

Congrats on your shave!!! May it be the first of many...!

I just want to point out that the DMT hones come initially kind of rough. Only after some wear will the hone "settle in" on a finer finish, so what may have been happening was that you were polishing a rougher finish when you initially went to the 0.5. If you want to improve the results from your hone, get an "Old Hickory" carbon steel knife and practice freehand sharpening a knife on the DMT hone. After you get the hang of freehand sharpening (which takes a while to get truly good results), go back to your razor, and you should find that you achieve much better results.

Ben