Thread: Ok I'm a Klutz, so what do I do now?

Ok, I may have used the wrong words.My point is this: ( At least to me) Its easier for me to get a good edge of one of my new Dovos, then one of my vintage blades.I'm not saying this goes for all blades, my dubl duck and all of my vintage american blades takes a wicked edge quite easily.But those blades have somewhat the original blade geometry intact.
And I think that is a valid point.It is not my intention to question your honing abilities, wich I am quite sure exeeds my own with good margin.I'm just that kind of guy that when beeing told not able to do something, just gets more motivated to do it.:-)

Kristoffer

I agree with Gugi.

I always advice people to not start honing before they have gained some competence with shaving. Usually, a few days later I find myself answering their honing questions in the basic honing forum.

Most people need weeks to months of trial and error before they can consistently get a decent shaving edge on razor with a serious issue. This razor obviously needs more than a careful touch-up.
If you planned on learning how to hone, get a not to expensive razor from the Classifieds or from Ebay. I still advice you to wait till you can honestly tell it's the razor and not your technique, if a test shave goes not so well.
Get your razor fixed, so you can confidently carry on with what you planned to do in the first place: to learn how to shave with a straight razor.

Good luck,
Bart.

Originally Posted by Quick

Ummm, but you took a long route. You decided to try with what you had instead of what you needed. I seem to remember that you came off of knife sharpening and you decided to try various sand papers and everything. YOU immediately came to mind in my previous post as someone who has experienced loads of fun and satisfaction in the trying . This is not true?

and some people get lucky: http://straightrazorpalace.com/basic...g-results.html Maybe not typical, maybe just lucky in the selection of equipment (not inexpensive) and maybe because I had a lot of reading under my belt first, but I've never honed anything before.

but he had a benchmark before he dinged it. it's not like he doesn't know the end goal.


?? I'd think that's exactly what you want. Think of those poor guys who tried to learn on a zeepk.

Yup, it's true that I went about fixing (and ruining) many blades right off the bat. All of them very cheap ebay specials. I only own one razor that you could really consider "nice": a NOS Hess 44 stainless. I attempted to sharpen it one time, and after that, it went to Lynn. And if I ever chipped it's blade, or if it ever needed any type of repair, it would go to either Glen, Lynn, or Ken for repair. I'd never touch it.

But yes, I do have a good time learning/repairing/screwing up razors. Old cheap ones that aren't a needed part of my rotation, not expensive, and certainly not my benchmark.

As far as the end goal.... To me, it's easily forgotten. If I go a few days without using one of my benchmark blades, I have to use it again to really be reminded of where my work is, and what really is attainable.

I really enjoy tinkering around with my Dodge Charger. I'll tackle just about any repair job on it. But when my buddy came to me wanting me to work on his M3, I kindly deferred him to the local BMW shop. A man's gotta know his limits.

You ain't the only klutz james. I set my dovo on a shelf, closed of course, and if fell off and landed behind a night stand about half-way open. Apparently it hit the night stand on the way down and put a couple of nicks/chips in the blade, with a big burr on the tip.

I took a Col. Conk stone (about 1200 grit right?) and took the burr off. It would shave arm hair but pulled. Then a barber gave me a carborundum stone and I did 10 very careful passes on it. It doesn't pull when it cuts arm hair now, but under a microscope you can still see the "waves" or "dings" in the blade. And you can still really see the little chip at the toe with just your eye.

My microscope in not as good as the ones I used in college, it's only about a $40 one, but it works.

Gonna have a honemeister take out the chip and dings. I have the $3 razor I can practice on after I send it of to be reconditioned also.

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

I really enjoy tinkering around with my Dodge Charger. I'll tackle just about any repair job on it. But when my buddy came to me wanting me to work on his M3, I kindly deferred him to the local BMW shop. A man's gotta know his limits.

Hmmmm...

Did ya see my post in the other forum?

http://straightrazorpalace.com/finer...0580-toys.html

If I may ask, what year is your Charger? I'd love to have a '69 Camaro but I already had this one. A friend of mine's nephew had a '69 in about '78...350, Holly, Edelbrock, 202 heads, pop-up pistons, Muncie 4 speed, 4:11 rear end, etc.

Honing is way too much fun to be left to the professionals. It has taken me a year to get to where I am now, but it gives me such an enormous sense of accomplishment to finally be able to hone successfully any razor in my stable.

There is SO much great advice on this forum for shavers of all levels that, through trial and error and asking and learning, we can all get there.

My 2 cents would be: save your $20 and hop on the 'Bay. Snag yourself a bargain and use it to practice on. My first really smooth shave came a year ago with a $10 Henckels Twin from eBay (the seller had mis-spelled "Solingen" in the title, so I was the only bidder on a fantastic razor in its original box). I saved my Dovo until after I had got the blade on my Twin to optimal sharpness.

If you are anything like me, you got into this hobby not just for the smooth shaves, but for the entire ceremonial of hone, strop, prep n shave (and post-shave!). Jump in and enjoy (and maybe get yourself a courser hone for bevel setting, such as a 1000 grit)!

Originally Posted by simon1

Hmmmm...

Did ya see my post in the other forum?

http://straightrazorpalace.com/finer...0580-toys.html

If I may ask, what year is your Charger? I'd love to have a '69 Camaro but I already had this one. A friend of mine's nephew had a '69 in about '78...350, Holly, Edelbrock, 202 heads, pop-up pistons, Muncie 4 speed, 4:11 rear end, etc.

I missed that completely... very nice. I love muscle cars, old and new. My current Charger (I've owned three of em now) is an 08 SuperBee. Even though it's brand new, it's also a work in progress. By the time it's done, it'll have 750 at the wheels, and still be a great four door grocery getter.

Ooop.. we just totally went off topic... man, I seem to be good at that...

To the OP... let us know what you do and how it turns out!

Oh my. '06 Magnum SRT8 here. C'mon over to The SRTConnection . Everybody is going from Vortechs to Techco twin screws. Can you say 11.4 no juice?

Wow! It looks as if I really got something going here!

I'll bet everybody is just a little curious as to what I'm going to do huh? So here's the scoop.
I'm sending my poor abused razor off to get honed by a pro pronto! Here's why. Right now I'm more interested in learning how to shave with my razor than learning how to hone it. And considering this is my only razor I think I would rather practice my honing skills a little farther down the road. If I had been shaving for a month or two already I'd probably give it a shot. As it is with just two shaves in I think I see the wisdom in getting used to that "Benchmark" edge so I have a little better idea of what I'm aiming for in the future. Maybe I'll keep my eye on the classifieds and pick up a halfway decent razor to practice on sometime soon.

Just so everyone knows I do have several 1000 Norton stones as well, the only thing I don't have that I think would be great is some stones in the 10,000-12,000 range. I also have some diamond stones, these are supposed to be flat within .001" and should work fine as lapping stones, although a genuine lapping stone would have higher tolerances. Also just in case anybody thinks I'm to scared to try honing my own razor I'm no dummy when it comes to sharpening tools. I LOVE high quality hand tools and I LOVE keeping them super sharp. This is one of the many reasons I've always wanted a straight razor.

I read something just recently you all might find interesting. There's this guy who lives in California called Len Brackett, who went to Japan when he was in his twenties and ended up apprenticing as a temple carpenter. (A minimium of five years training.) He now builds Japanese style houses here in the states. Anyway, in Japan he was helping build a six storie high main gate for Kanada Shrine. After each days work everybody went to the public bath to get cleaned up. The first time Brackett went he realized he'd left his razor in Kyoto so guess what? Brackett shaved for two weeks with his hand plane (Kanna) blade.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice!

Well, that sounds reasonable. Not very exciting , but reasonable. Good luck on the shave practice!