Thread: A Humble Hello

Steve is right. Put that stone away until you get an ebay horror. You might also consider getting a 4 sided paddle strop to sharpen it. Take a look on www.thewellshavedgentleman.com. He has great strops and a four sided paddle is easier than a stone.

First off, welcome.

When I first read your post I thought to myself "he forgot a 0 on the hone number." Then I read the description of your shave and thought "nope, he didn't forget the 0 - he really did just go to 1000." As has been mentioned, you do not hone before every shave- your razor will wear very quickly (especially on a 1000 hone.) You will also get an over honed edge that will be- well, I have to stop thinking of it- these thoughts have cause my face to start bleeding.

I understand your being hesitant to part with your razor just yet. If you post where you are from perhaps one of the members will be near and can put a good edge on that straight for you. It has to hurt. Failing that please do look on the classified section of this board and pick up one of the cheap razors that is shave ready (they will say if they are or not.) After one shave with the new razor the other will be off to a honemeister.

I would recommend this route even over just buying a new norton as you will still not get it as sharp as it needs to be and will have nothing to use as an example of what it should feel like.

JDB, it might be worth the investment to purchase an initial honing by one of the many honemeisters you can find in the classifieds. They will give your razor a proper edge while you practice your honing skills with inexpensive razors you can buy on eBay or at local antique shops/swaps. Just a thought..

It's probably been said elsewhere in this post but for heaven's sake get that blade off to a pro honer, pay the money and then you will have an edge to compare with when it gets back. You will also have a lot more skin left! to anyone who can scrape off (cos it ain't shaving!) the stubble from a 1k hone-and-strop session - I can see the tramlines in the blade edge from the photo! Get the hone recommended by the guys and I would also suggest a 12k chinese polishing hone too, and, when finances allow, a good strop - yours has seen better days.

I really admire your enthusiasm but SR shaving simply doesn't have to be so intense an experience!

Welcome to the SRP club. You have more patients than I do. When I got bit by the str8 bug I jumped right in. If you really want to get a good shave you have to pay attention to details in honing. This site is great and helped me a lot! Using a 1000k stone as your final hone will be like using a saw on your face. The object of honing is to get as smooth and continuous edge as possible on a microscopic scale. Honing cuts the metal like scratching it off. The coarser stones leave larger scratches hence a jagged edge. The minimum grit stone should be an 8000k water stone. Use a very light touch when running the blade on the hone. This is hard because we all have different concepts of a light touch. Best way to think about it is that you are always using too much pressure. Use lots of water on your hones. Put your hone on a something to collect the excess water, like several paper towels. Look for the water to go up the blade from the edge to the spine across the whole length of the blade. Then move to the next finest grit hone. The edge may not come to sharpness all at once. My learning have shown that if I do more than 20 strokes and the blade is not running water up the entire length of the blade I do several strokes spine first to break off any wire edge that may be forming and give you s false sense of sharp/correct edge. When think you have a good edge try to shave the hare on your arm dry with several locations on the blade. If all parts do not shave go back to the same or lower grit hone until you can shave arm hair with all parts of the blade. If you move to a finer hone too soon you will be wasting a lot of time. The finer hones remove metal a lot slower that the preceding grit. Lynn Abrams has a great video on YouTube on honing. They are worth watching several times. Everything he says is important for a good edge and should be studied well. Good luck! Let me know how you make out. After you get the hang of honing and later shaving you will enjoy it and be sorry you didn't start sooner. I did.

I think maybe you and I might have that OCD thing in common I read that part of your post with a smile...
To answer some of yer questions... Yes the 4/8 Norton is worth the money but I would just get it off Amazon there is a set on there for $120 that includes the lapping stone the 220/1k and the 4k/8k I know you already have the 220/1k but I'll buy that off of you, if you don't want the extra one, I was planning on getting another anyway and cutting it down, PM me if you are interested in that...
You are going to hear all about higher grit stones and I agree that sooner or later you will probably get one, but there are tricks with the Norton 8k that will give you a fine shaving edge, and with the OCD I bet you can work that stone to it's fullest potential.... A simple balsa bench strop and .50 Cr paste will take you to the next step for pennies....
Many people add the higher grit stone 12k-40k in between the 8k and the paste, some add 2 or 3, that is a personal preference.... and for comfort...

Your strop needs to be conditioned, Neets foot oil, available at most shoe shops does a great (inexpensive) job on the leather.... (any good leather conditioner works)
The linen could improve from a stiff nylon brush...

Most of what I have recommended I would have said beside that fact that you want to keep the budget down........ You can always add more as you progress.....