Thread: My first SR "shave"...beard 1, razor zilch zip nada.

Either my choice of moniker was prophetic or I may need more time on the hone. I was able to get my cheeks relatively smooth, but the neck and chin was where it all went awry. At first I thought I had sliced off a steak but quickly realized the pain was from hairs nearly being wrenched from my flesh. Those that didn't cut just bent obscenely or caught and pulled the skin upwards. No blood at least.

My thinking is that I simply didn't hone the blade enough. The blade I started with was rather dull with some minute chips. I took these out and established a bevel at 2k grit, then used a carborundum 103 until the blade passed the fingernail test (I started testing while the blade was dull so I could get the feel). This morning I stropped with linen then leather before I shaved my cheeks and plucked my chin like a chicken.

Am I correct in thinking that bad stropping technique would have prevented me from even clearing my cheeks? It may be that I had just the barest of edges going and should have kept honing. The 103s don't cut terribly fast, so going from 2k to a shave should probably take more than the 60 or 70 passes I took. The last 20 or so were on a wet then lathered hone. Any thoughts?

You really need more than just a 2k hone.

I also think you bit off a little more than you can chew here. Your first razor should be honed by a professional.

Then once you are comfortable shaving, think about getting a second razor and some more hones. But I would only hone a razor that needs touched up at first, not an ebay special.

The link below should fix your problems.

Member Services - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

You really need more than just a 2k hone.

I also think you bit off a little more than you can chew here. Your first razor should be honed by a professional.

Then once you are comfortable shaving, think about getting a second razor and some more hones. But I would only hone a razor that needs touched up at first, not an ebay special.

The link below should fix your problems.

Member Services - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

First of all WELCOME; I agree with slartibartfast, get a razor you can compare the sharpness with enjoy months of shaving with it and strop. After get second razor and hones and try again yourself.
See classifieds.

You are one of those jump right in kinda guys huh???

Remind me never to do anything dangerous, like skydiving, with ya

It is going to take just a wee bit more work than that to get it to shaving, every now and then you do run across one that takes an edge that fast, because somebody left it that way...

The guys are giving you good advice to get your first razor honed correctly so you have a razor to learn on then start on honing with touching that one up down the road on the #103...

Just send it out.

Stopping on a 2k and going to a barber hone. You may as well sit down for 2 hours and do 200+ laps on the carb hone.

You really need a better progression, or a coti if you want one hone.

I had a bad experience with a hone miester, bought a Inox and had it pre-honed, when it got to me it was so dull it could nto shave anything let alone my face. So I must humbly disagree with conventional wisdom, I rather get the honing job done myself and see that its done properly then to send it to a professional and have ti come back real real dull. Ok, there you have it a disenting opinion and advice is always worth what you pay for it.

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I had a bad experience with a hone miester, bought a Inox and had it pre-honed, when it got to me it was so dull it could nto shave anything let alone my face. So I must humbly disagree with conventional wisdom, I rather get the honing job done myself and see that its done properly then to send it to a professional and have ti come back real real dull. Ok, there you have it a disenting opinion and advice is always worth what you pay for it.

I don't doubt your experience but I would say it is the exception and not the rule. I have seen a lot of newbies here trying to save a buck in as creative a way as possible and expecting to get superior results. Some are lucky but most are disappointed. Next there are the newbies that can get the sharpest blade on earth from a honemeister and try cutting everything on earth with it except their beard then blame the bad edge on the honemeister.

I am not inferring that this is what happened to you, just making mention to all that read this post.

I agree with most replies in this thread, send your fist blade to a honemeister so you can experience a straight razor as it is meant to be. Be careful with it when you get it back. The cutting edge is very fragile and can be damaged very easily, even with improper stropping.

If you are concerned with who of the great honemeisters to send you blade to just send it to Lynn. There are othre here that do a great job honing and you would be very pleased with their work, but Lynn would be a no brainer to choose.

I have no doubt that jbcohen had a bad experience with a honemeister but I have to say that I do not feel his advise is good for a newbie to follow.

Please feel free to disagree with me.

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I had a bad experience with a hone miester, bought a Inox and had it pre-honed, when it got to me it was so dull it could nto shave anything let alone my face. So I must humbly disagree with conventional wisdom, I rather get the honing job done myself and see that its done properly then to send it to a professional and have ti come back real real dull. Ok, there you have it a disenting opinion and advice is always worth what you pay for it.

You know you keep repeating this one instance, and IIRC this was a classifieds blade was it not????

Tell ya what, I realize that it might not be worth the shipping to ya but here is an offer,,,If you pay shipping to and from I will hone one Hollow grind, undamaged, razor for free anytime you chose, even if you decide to order a new one from a vendor, contact me and I will hone it for you, just so you can see what one of us can really do with a blade..... Maybe, just maybe, you can see what these guys are talking about....

Originally Posted by Joed

I have no doubt that jbcohen had a bad experience with a honemeister but I have to say that I do not feel his advise is good for a newbie to follow.

Yes, let me quantify this, because I think it's important.

1) The chance of getting a razor dull from a honemeister is about 1:100 to 1:1000 i.e. 0.01-0.001
2) The chance of getting a razor dull after honing for a first time is 100:1 to 1000:1 or 0.99-0.999

These numbers are based on my observations on the shaving forums for the last 2 years or so.

Comparing the two opposite tails of the distributions as if they are the same is really bad for making good decisions.

But that's not all of it, suppose the bad scenario i.e. dull razor happens, compare the cost of recovery from this situation:
1) Sending it back to the honemeister - about a week of delay and no further effort or expense on your end.
2) Doing it yourself - well... that's at least additional 20-50 hours for just an adequate edge, that's still going to be far from the one honemesiter would put on it.

At the end of the day it mostly concerns your money time and face and you are the main one who suffers the consequences of your actions. Of course, making poor decisions would waste more time of those who are trying to help for free but that's probably not all that important.
I think the cost to benefit analysis is rather straightforward in most people's cases, except for those who derive extreme pleasure from being able to do everything themselves (and I'd argue that asking for advice here is cheating in that respect - a real hard core nut should be able to figure it out all by themselves).

So yes, the razor can most certainly be honed by that progression, but if you do so, please keep track of the laps and time because I am really interested in having the data for future reference.

Jesus I just realized something, I have to apologize to Ironbeard I just stepped into his thread and offered some other guy a free honing just to prove a point...... Ironbread I whole heartedly say I am sorry, and the same offer applies to you sir, send me that razor and I will sharpen it right up for you.....PM me for shipping info


Again I apologize for the