Honing success!

I've been working on my four razors for about 2 months with a set of Nortons and a Chinese 12K stone. Two of them were tolerably sharp, although one has a very very large smile to it. The third had a nick that I had to work out and the fourth, a new Double Arrow from eBay has stubbornly refused to become even tolerable.

In the past two days, I've suddenly found myself with four shave-ready razors.:rock:

I think (not 100% sure here) that the difference is using a properly lapped (flat) hone. I had been using the Norton flattening stone to do this for the 1k and 4k Nortons, and I had been able to get only parts of the edge close to sharp. Well, the other day, I pulled out my slab and sandpaper that I had been using to lap only the 8k stone. Wow! Big difference! The 1k and 4k hadn't been anywhere close to flat!

The second thing is that I've started using a DMT fine stone to do most of the work. Then I go to a handfull or two of strokes on the 4k before getting into the polishing. I don't know why I didn't figure this out earlier--I'd used this stone to get the nick out of the one razor and it instantly became a pretty good shaver over most of the blade.

It just seems like the 1k and 4k Nortons are slow cutters.

Cliff Notes Version:
1. Make sure the hones are flat
2. Do the bulk of the job on the coarser stones

This is good news

However, the flattening hone should be more than enough do flatten. Did you check with say a pencil grid?
And yes, if the two sides on the bevel don't met in an edge it can take a long time to do this on a norton 4k.

Admittedly, I don't use a pencil often. I did at first, then started going by the dark stuff that builds on the stone as you use it. I will try the flattening stone again, this time w/ pencil.

Congrats on your success, it's great when you can have your first comfortable shave with a self honed razor.It took me more than two months to realize that I should do the bulk of my honing on the lower grits, so you are way a head of me there, but that seems to be the key to honing, to spend enough time on the lower grits.