Thread: Been shaving two weeks, need help

Originally Posted by Joed

The closest honemeister to you is your mail box. If you send it out be sure to protect it well. The best I have heard is to wrap in bubble wrap, put into a small PVC pipe and tape the ends. This will prevent crushing from other heavy packages while in the post.

If you want to continue honing your own blade be aware of over honing and the wire edge that results from it. If you use the pyramid method (See wiki) or back hone (spine first for a couple of strokes) the wire edge will not be an issue. It make take a while for the full length of the blade to get sharp and different spots may arrive before others. Continued honing will develop a wire edge in the spots that are already sharp. Back honing will break the wire edge, then do several strokes edge first to restore the edge. Honing a razor is a bit more fussy than other edges like knives. Good luck.

Which mailbox? I looked in my private messages and my email but didn't see anything.

Originally Posted by gunslingor

Which mailbox? I looked in my private messages and my email but didn't see anything.

Your actual postal box, i.e snail mail. They were insinuating that you should send the razor out to be honed, with which I totally agree. I understand your desire to learn straights and honing, but there is sooooooo much information for the new straight shaver that it can be difficult to learn everything, and learning some things before others can actually inhibit your progress on the road of knowledge.

For instance, I applaud your desire to leap right into honing razors, but it is very different from sharpening knives, and so requires a new set of knowledge and skills. If you send out the razor you want to shave with for a honing, you will then have something to compare your honing skills to. Once it comes back, try out the tests like hanging hair and arm hair. Then *carefully* touch the edge and see how it feels, especially that "tickle" as jockeys correctly describes it.

Then pick up a bargain from the classifieds or eBay and make sure its dull. Then practice your honing on that one rather than the one you will be shaving with, and hone that one up to shave ready, such that it is comparable to the one you sent out for honing. That way, you can learn shaving, lathering, stropping, and good technique, as well as honing. And any honing errors and that sort of thing wont hurt your shaves.

Good luck and welcome to SRP!

I will send out my razor to get honed. I agree with everything you are saying, I suppose I am just trying to finagle a name out of someone in the area who can teach me the skills one on one. I assume that's the best way to learn. Anyway, I will await the snail mail.