Thread: Honing

Hi everyone, first post. I received a pearlex dovo for my birthday last month and have shaved about 5 times with it. Vast improvement so far, though left side is not great yet. I have grown so excited about this that I figured I'm going to do this and eventually I will need hones. I got a great deal on the spyderco 302F and 306UF, just received them today. About the same time I ordered the stones I ordered a ALWIN straight from ebay. Side note: Anyone know about these? I've found little on them so far.

So the Alwin has a slight hook on the last half of the blade, how do I go about honing this? I gave it a few strokes and tried holding the blade with my other hand while sharpening?

Hell it's my first time sharpening something with such a scary edge, maybe I'm not even close to doing it right!

Here's my equipment.

Cheers!

hi great razor and hones
Please don't hone your blades if you haven't hone anything before.you can buy pakistany razor and learn how to hone.you will destroy your razor's and that wont help .The best you can do is buy barber hone and it will keep shave ready razor in good condition for a long time. in that time period you can learn how to hone.hope this helps.

The Alwin is a squarepoint whereas the Dovo is a roundpoint and they are to be honed using the same technique, I am not familiar with these kind of hones, but I believe SRP member joke1176 is, you should PM him. I hope youve read the wiki and watched the honing videos. and WELCOME to SRP!

HA! Sham beat me to the post!

Hello and welcome!

Sounds like you're off to a great start with shaving with a straight. As far as honing goes, there is a LOT of information here on this site, not only throughout the forums but also on the wiki page.

I would highly suggest reading this first just to get you started Beginner's Guide to Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I haven't heard of ALWIN razors...where was it manufactured? There are a lot of old razor razor manufacturers that I'm unaware of...but almost all vintage straights shave well.

If you look in the classifieds section of the site under "Member Services" you'll see that a bunch of members offer a honing service. I think you should consider this for your ALWIN razor at least, then you have a bench-mark to aim for when learning how to hone.

Just do some reading here, don't be afraid to ask questions, and I'm sure you'll find a LOT of useful information.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

HA! Sham beat me to the post!

FINALLY I DID IT

You have a nice setup. I think that letting an experienced honemeister from SRP sharpen one of your razors is an excellent suggestion for the reasons explained. Practicing using a "crappy" razor is probably not a good idea because these razors do not take an edge and you would not be able to asses your progress. For that you would need a razor that can be brought to shave ready condition. However, I agree that you need to read a lot, watch honing videos and ask as many questions as you need before you start so that you do not destroy your precious razors. There are many experienced people in this forum that would be happy to guide you though the learning process.

Al raz.

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

hi great razor and hones
Please don't hone your blades if you haven't hone anything before.you can buy pakistany razor and learn how to hone.you will destroy your razor's and that wont help .The best you can do is buy barber hone and it will keep shave ready razor in good condition for a long time. in that time period you can learn how to hone.hope this helps.

I appreciate the advice. I've been sharpening my own knives since I was in grade school, because my Dad always told me that I would do more damage with a dull knife than a sharp one! I've got a good handle on sharpening knifes.

But straights are going to be cutting my beard, not my tomatoes. That's why they're layed flat on the hone correct? To keep a consistent edge?

The dovo was shave ready when I got it and I've been practicing my stropping and I've been getting better. Although I do have two fine nicks that I don't know where they came from!

I'd like to make the Alwin shave-ready, but when I lay it flat the whole blade doesn't touch, due to the curve. I was wondering how to hone it while keeping it flat. Do just adjust my angle like when I'm sharpening knives?

I do understand getting someone who knows what they're doing, but I'm too cheap and I figure I need to learn sometime!

Hello, welcome to SRP. As a pocket knife sharpener you will probably catch on to the "rolling X" method of honing. Go to the Wiki at the toolbar above and when you scroll down you will find honing tutorials including how to hone a warped or a smiling blade. There are videos here including honing vids by Lynn and Heavydutysg that will also be helpful.

Originally Posted by FarNorthAK

Hi everyone, first post. I received a pearlex dovo for my birthday last month and have shaved about 5 times with it. Vast improvement so far, though left side is not great yet. I have grown so excited about this that I figured I'm going to do this and eventually I will need hones. I got a great deal on the spyderco 302F and 306UF, just received them today. About the same time I ordered the stones I ordered a ALWIN straight from ebay. Side note: Anyone know about these? I've found little on them so far.

So the Alwin has a slight hook on the last half of the blade, how do I go about honing this? I gave it a few strokes and tried holding the blade with my other hand while sharpening?

Hell it's my first time sharpening something with such a scary edge, maybe I'm not even close to doing it right!

Here's my equipment.

Cheers!

The razor, From "Standard Guide to Razors." 3rd ed. p88

Alwin, Germany. (Ontario Cutlery, NY): 1920-1935


The hones: spyderco's will give you a great edge, but start out cutting fast after lapped with a diamond plate, and then turn into SUPER SLOW polishers.

The only bad thing about them is the super light feedback as compared to naturals. Once you get used to it, you can really finesse a razor.

If you have never honed before, make sure you don't lift the blade during honing, it's really easy to do and not notice it. Did I mention the lack of feedback from the stone? Yeah.

I really can't find much difference in edges between the spyderco Fine and Ultrafine, even when whippin' up a slurry to speed up the honing process. I bet they are the same stone, as some threads on the spyderco forums have intimated.

Hope this helps.