Thread: Intro & Hello, also working to fix a big mistake!

LouT,

It sounds like you're doing fine. I'm going to keep this post short:

1. You need to work at 1K till you can shave arm hair along the entire length of the edge.
It makes no sense going to a finer hone before that goal is achieved. Don't worry by overhoning, even an overhoned edge will shave arm hair very well.

2. You are most likely "over-rocking" your stroke. As a result the tip and heel develops much faster than the middle part. Try a more shallow rocking curve.

3. On 1K, it can take a long time, after "breadknifing" till the bevel is completely shaped again. Don't worry about that, you'll get there eventually.

Good Luck,
Bart.

Working on your suggestions, Bart. I hope I can get it sharp enough to shave arm hair on the 1k -- seems like it's taking a LOT of honing. I am rocking it less, I hope that will help.

LouT, it is very likely to be time consuming on the 1k if you have breadknifed. We all know this feeling & sometimes a coarser stone is better in the early stages but you will get there.
I think your Arkansas stones will be of little use if you find the Norton slow. Back in the 80's I used to hone with Arkansas stones.
W a s h i t a stones are relatively fast for low grit work but not a patch on say, DMT's..

I'd get a King 4k to go between your 1k & 6K but that's kinda stating the obvious. You could maybe try light strokes on the Hard Arkansas to finish after 6K but I used to find a Black Arkansas the best finisher.
A known progression of grits makes things simpler tho.

I guess I forgot to mention something in my original post. I used the blue DMT coarse pocket hone (my son's) to breadknife my razor after I nicked the blade. It's about 320 grit. I also then used that diamond hone to start on creating a new bevel.

So it seems that I have honed on the 1000 grit stone "forever" even though the bevel was all the way or most of the way there from the DMT (I think I also used my Gatco medium grit stone before stepping up to the 1000 grit). I spent more time honing on the 1000 grit yesterday. It seems that theres about 1.25 -1.5 inch section in center of the blade that does not get sharp via the TPT and shows the "glint" when I try to look right at the edge under bright light. Are some blades just tough to hone? I keep wondering if my stone is dished, but I have gone back and re-lapped it several times -- using wet/dry sandpaper, 1000 grit, while wet, and the sandpaper is on a black granite floor tile I bought from THD.

Am I just being impatient. My SWMBO is starting to think that I'm spending too much time with this and regretting the gift she bought me since it is becoming an obsession! I want to shave with my straight and don't want to wait much longer!!

Patience indeed is your problem.

Imagine 1000 grit sandpaper. Imagine a piece of oak. Imagine sanding with zero pressure on that piece of oak. Imagine sanding one (1) coarse scratch out, made with the point of a nail. Imagine how it would take you days to succeed in that simple task. Now imagine hardened steel, many times harder than oak...

We often tend to forget that 1K hones are usually finishing hones, when it comes to regular knife and tool honing. Creating a new bevel has little to do with honing. It's grinding. There is no need to jump to the next stone before you're finished on the previous.
After all this time, I still struggle with that myself. Yesterday I honed a razor for a member. I started out at 1K. After half an hour, I started to wonder if I shouldn't have started at a lower grit.
But doing so would have completely "futilized" the previous half hour of concentrated honing. So I stayed on the 1K telling myself that those bevel sides could be meeting each other any stroke now. An hour later I knew what a fool I was. But still I was not prepared to go to a lower grit, where I could have done in 10 minutes what I couldn't achieve in 90. The part of the bevel that was already keen, started to grow, so I reckoned I was nearly home. 5 minutes later the razor was ready to move forward. 10 minutes later the honing job was finished. This razor was not "breadknifed", there were no chips at the edge and the bevel looked complete. I forgot a simple rule: if 10 minutes on a certain hone isn't enough, always jump to a lower grit.

Tell your wife that your razor is learning you how to be patient and how to let go of pride. I'm sure she'll see the virtues of that...

Best regards,
Bart.

Fantastic advice, Bart. I wish I had realized (several hours of honing ago) that mantra you just stated -- " if 10 minutes of honing at a certain grit is getting you nowhere, go to a coarser hone." !!!!

I am seeing the glint in the middle shrink and the length of sharpness at the ends of the edge grow, slowly, but progressing, so I think I will heed your advice and will continue with patience.

Sadly, I won't be able to dedicate any time to the task today, unless I get lucky and have some time tonight. While it is a work holiday, we got belted with a lot of snow - so now that I've gotten it all cleaned up, I need to clean myself up, then update my resume to apply for a promotion at work , then the list of things to keep my wife happy, etc..

I want to say thank you to everyone that has posted so far --- thank you for the welcome to this forum, and thank you for advising me through my struggles with my first hone job -- sincerely.

I will be posting when I can shave with my razor, or when it's time for more advice!!

Originally Posted by Bart

Patience indeed is your problem.


After all this time, I still struggle with that myself. Yesterday I honed a razor for a member. I started out at 1K. After half an hour, I started to wonder if I shouldn't have started at a lower grit.
But doing so would have completely "futilized" the previous half hour of concentrated honing. So I stayed on the 1K telling myself that those bevel sides could be meeting each other any stroke now. An hour later I knew what a fool I was. But still I was not prepared to go to a lower grit, where I could have done in 10 minutes what I couldn't achieve in 90.


Best regards,
Bart.

LOL.. I can so identify with that.
It's a bit like expecting the stockmarket to turnaround when there is a full decline. It will eventually but how patient are you ? I'm guilty of that one too.

OK, I got the razor sharp enough to shave with, almost....
Not "shave ready", but I did do one side of my face WTG with the razor. It was pulling, but also doing a decent amount of cutting. So I know I have more work to do -- I think I will try to spend some more time on the 6000 grit King -- under the radioshack microscope I wasn't able to tell very much that I had smoothed anything vs. the way the edge looked during strictly 1000 grit honing. I also have read here that the Kings are very slow cutters. I will have some patience on the 6000, and then see if I can get a barber's hone or something with a higher grit than the 6K to bring this blade to shave-ready.

Meanwhile, slightly distracted because I have a few razors I bought from fleabay to play with. I'll probably post something up in the workshop forum along the way...

I'll also re-post here when I get this razor to a BBS comfortable shave-capable status Thanks again all of you for the help!!