To hone or not to hone, that is the question...

Ok, I know this is a newbie question. I know that because I am a newbie. I've been straight razor shaving for maybe three months now. I bought a "presharpened" Dovo from Classic Shaving and having been using it since I bought it.

My question is: how do I know when it's time to use the barber's hone, when is it time to go to the 4000/8000 stone?

My razor shave pretty well, but I don't have any experience to compare it to. I can see a tiny nick in the blade. Plus, when I shave, I hear that rasping sound. I guess that's typical. But it seems like the razor is cutting some of the beard and leaving parts. So I'm wondering if I've over-stropped it (is that possible?) or does "presharpened" not mean "shave ready"?

Thanks,
Dean

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Originally Posted by ddibling

Ok, I know this is a newbie question. I know that because I am a newbie. I've been straight razor shaving for maybe three months now. I bought a "presharpened" Dovo from Classic Shaving and having been using it since I bought it.
I have to assume that it has been shaving fairly well until now???

My question is: how do I know when it's time to use the barber's hone, when is it time to go to the 4000/8000 stone?
Have you been using anything to re-fresh the edge until now???? other then the everyday stropping???

My razor shave pretty well, but I don't have any experience to compare it to. I can see a tiny nick in the blade. Plus, when I shave, I hear that rasping sound. I guess that's typical. But it seems like the razor is cutting some of the beard and leaving parts. So I'm wondering if I've over-stropped it (is that possible?) or does "presharpened" not mean "shave ready"?
The nick needs to come out of there, how big is it??? Just for this reason I would say it is time to get the 4k/8k out and get that edge back in shape....

Thanks,
Dean

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Dean I hope this helps but that nick needs to come out of there, you might want to do some reading and watching over at the honing forum...
There are plenty of threads over there specifically about using the Norton 4k/8k and if you have problems just post another thread over there asking for help on the honing part.... The preshapened Dovo was most like shave ready when you got it, but about every 3-4 months on average, you need to at least tweak that edge up.....

Yes, as glen said, you'll like your edge a whole lot better when there are no nicks on it. I am actually quite surprised you are shaving with this razor.
As far as when it's time for what, a barber's hone should be enough to keep your razor good practically forever. You use it when the edge is not comfortable to shave with, so it's rather subjective.
The norton is for when you have serious damage on the edge, like what you have now, or if you want to use the 'pyramid method'.
I don't believe there is such thing as overstropped razor and the leather isn't what nicked your edge.
Hope this helps.

I'll be the devil's advocate here. if the chip is in a non critical area and if there's only one and if its really tiny like a tiny fraction of a mm it probably will not be that big a deal and won't affect your shaving. But it has to meet all those criteria.

Otherwise it sounds like you razor is overdue for a touch-up hone job. Whether you want to tackle the chip is up to you but that will involve more that a touchup and if it really bothers you you might want to send it out for repair.

Thanks for the advice! I picked up a barber's hone from an auction site and used it on the razor and it shaves MUCH better now. Much closer and less irritation. It also took most of the nick out. The nick really was tiny...I never noticed it while shaving but, again, the honing really improved things. I've got a pretty tough beard...I was going through razor cartridges fairly rapidly before I started with the straight razor so it makes sense that I'm going to have to hone fairly regularly.

Thanks again,

Dean