Thread: First time honing

You may have overhoned your razor. Usually it is recommended you go back to a coarser hone to get rid of the overhoning. As you do not have one you could strop it very gently with the spine lifted a few millimeters off the leather 3-4 times on every side. This is highly controversial on SRP but works a treat as long as you apply only minimal pressure doing so.
After doing so give it 5-10 times on the 8K. After that you need to strop before you shave. Keep the angle to your face at 30 degrees and go gently.

Here is what happened IMHO...
Your Dovo had the factory edge on there, some of these actually can shave (very freaking few) when you were just stropping you were keening up that factory edge, and you were doing OK, not great but OK... Now when you ran the 8k on the factory edge you are actually on 2 different bevels because they lift the spine at the factory, which you didn't do when you honed it,(which is correct) so you lost that factory bite, and don't have enough stone to re-create a real edge....
Get it honed, and get more stones, if yer going to actually hone razors, at least something in the 4k range... One of the reasons that we recommend the Norton 4/8 so often is it works, might not be the best, but it is a perfectly serviceable set up....

Thanks gssixgun! This sounds like pretty much what happened because i did notice the edge was pretty much non existant.

+1 on what Glen said. The first new "out of the box" Dovo I got was almost sharp enough to shave with. I about wore myself out doing pyramids on a Norton 4/8k and the more I honed the duller it seemed to get. It wasn't until I realized that Dovo had set some bevel angle other than what flat on the spine would give and got a 1k hone to properly set the bevel that I began to make headway.

The one recommendation I could give is if you want the practice you might get results if you taped the spine. The 8k stone is fine enough you shouldn't have to worry about overhoning. Start with 2 layers of tape on the spine and do 40 laps and see what happens. If it's getting sharper keep going. If it's not getting sharper add another layer of tape. As I recall my Dovo needed 3 layers before I saw results.

Originally Posted by AusTexShaver

+1 on what Glen said. The first new "out of the box" Dovo I got was almost sharp enough to shave with. I about wore myself out doing pyramids on a Norton 4/8k and the more I honed the duller it seemed to get. It wasn't until I realized that Dovo had set some bevel angle other than what flat on the spine would give and got a 1k hone to properly set the bevel that I began to make headway.

The one recommendation I could give is if you want the practice you might get results if you taped the spine. The 8k stone is fine enough you shouldn't have to worry about overhoning. Start with 2 layers of tape on the spine and do 40 laps and see what happens. If it's getting sharper keep going. If it's not getting sharper add another layer of tape. As I recall my Dovo needed 3 layers before I saw results.

Thanks for the pointer about taping the spine on a new razor.Paul

I will try that tonight after work. One question. Are both sides of the bevel going to be the same size or is it going to look diferent on the front side than the back side? I looked under the microscope here at work and one side appears to be a little wider. Is that normal or do I have to give the smaller side more work? Thanks for all the help.

Originally Posted by RAZOREDGE

I will try that tonight after work. One question. Are both sides of the bevel going to be the same size or is it going to look diferent on the front side than the back side? I looked under the microscope here at work and one side appears to be a little wider. Is that normal or do I have to give the smaller side more work? Thanks for all the help.

It depends on the razor. In a perfect world the bevel would be the same width on both sides the entire length of the blade. But because of slight imperfections that normally doesn't happen...especially if the blade is warped.

It's not that important to have even bevels as long as both sides meet at a sharp point.

If you are using a microscope you should be able to see what's going on and in your case (new unhoned razor) it might be a little easier if you coated the bevel with a magic marker...that way you could see if the metal you're honing off is going all the way to the edge or not. Using a scope is an art of it's own so be sure to vary the angle of the light source (I use a pen light) until you have an optimum image.

I did use the black sharpi and honed it until there was no more of it left. when i viewed it under the microscope i didn't see any trace of it. you think i should keep honing like it is?

Originally Posted by RAZOREDGE

I did use the black sharpi and honed it until there was no more of it left. when i viewed it under the microscope i didn't see any trace of it. you think i should keep honing like it is?

An 8k stone is normally use to "refine" an already sharp edge so if your edge isn't sharp yet you will have to do a LOT of honing with that stone to get it sharper.

I can't really tell you what to do or not to do so I'll make the following recommendation.

If it seems like it's getting sharper then by all means press on...but if it's not then I think you are wasting your time (unless you just want to practice) and would suggest getting a coarser stone.

Originally Posted by RAZOREDGE

I did use the black sharpi and honed it until there was no more of it left. when i viewed it under the microscope i didn't see any trace of it. you think i should keep honing like it is?

The magic marker test (MMT for short) is not without it's faults. It's possible for the marker to be removed by the slurry even though the edge is not making full contact with the stone.

More important is when using the microscope to inspect the bevel to make sure the scratch marks made by the stone go all the way to the edge.