Thread: First time honing

I need help! i just bought a new Dovo about three weeks ago. I've been doing some reading and found out that my razor really wasn't "shave ready" Anyway, after shaving every other day it got better with every strop and my face no longer burned. I decided to try and hone my razor for the first time to see what it felt like to shave with a real shave ready razor. So, I got a great deal on a Norton 8000 for 65$ and I couldn't pass it up so I got it. It's the only stone I own right now but I figured since there was nothing wrong with my blade it would be perfect. Well, after I honed it for a while it wasn't sharp at all pretty much. It wasn't rough on my face but just smooth and only cut a couple of hairs off my face. I then decided to strop it with my white Dovo paste on the cloth side then on the plain leather side and it got somewhat back to where it was before I tried honing it but not exactly as sharp as it was. What should I do? I 'm so bumed right now I love my razor and don't want to mess it up. I also just ordered a new Dovo 5/8 square point with the gold spine that is so beautifull. I definatly don't want to mess that one up. Please help.

I'll offer my advice, but there are others here that will probably give you better than I can.

First, take a deep breath and relax. It's normal for it to take a little time and practice to get the hang of honing. Not everyone uses it, but I did well using Lynn's pyramid system when first learning to hone - and I still use it sometimes. If you look in the help files, I think you can find the instructions.

If you're careful, I doubt you'll ruin your blade. Make sure your hone is lapped. You might also want to send one razor out for Pro. honing, so you have a benchmark. Be slow and methodical and you'll get there.

Jordan

If you only have norton 8000, you may need more hones. Generally we use the much coarser 4000grit one to get most of the sharpness.
BTW, I didn't know $65 is a great price for norton 8000, I thought the 4000/8000 combo was around $70.
In any case it takes some practice to get the hang of honing. You should send one of them to be honed so that you know what to aim for with the other.

There's some good video in the video section that can give you some pointers. I hear Lynn's dvd is highly recommended, but I have yet to see it myself. I would say the best advice I could give you is to flatten/lap your hone. If that doesn't improve the edge, then it could be your technique.

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.