Thread: This was a triumph!

Short: I honed my first razor today!

Long: Been sitting on a few auction razors I got. Polished them up and categorized them; one full restore, a few need new scales, one "project" razor, and then the rest were in pretty good shape and just need to be honed. I sent some to Utopian to hone and left one for when I get brave.

Ordered the DMT 80th anniversary set, which comes with 600- & 1200-grit whetstones (with the swarf pockets) and a D8EE. Bought a Norton 4k/8k from the classifieds (thanks, Sandcounty!) and I have a 3-line Swaty from the aforementioned auction.

Been working on the project razor the last few days and thought that would be my hone test. Some advice in my thread persuaded me to first try one of the better blades, so I did that.

Wife is at Bonnaroo until Monday so I have free reign. Got my work space all set up, played some Beefcake on the stereo, loaded up the pyramid cheat sheet site on my laptop, and went to work on a J.F. Ganley "Ganley's Gula" (pic). Set the bevel with DMT 1200, worked the pyramid on the Norton, ran a few laps on the D8EE, a few on the Swaty, and then hit the strop.

Got a bit of lather from an old Colgate puck (also from the auction), put it on my neck, and then the moment of truth; it cut pretty smooth! Now it was nowhere near honemeister smooth, but it didn't tug which is a victory in my book. I was a bit worried because I had read that the DMT 8k leaves the edge a bit more coarse than the Norton 8k -- that might have happened but it cut regardless.

Thanks to all for the knowledge, advice, brutal honesty and positive reinforcement!

I'm making a note here:

HUGE SUCCESS!!!

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

Originally Posted by commiecat

Short: I honed my first razor today!

Long: Been sitting on a few auction razors I got. Polished them up and categorized them; one full restore, a few need new scales, one "project" razor, and then the rest were in pretty good shape and just need to be honed. I sent some to Utopian to hone and left one for when I get brave.

Ordered the DMT 80th anniversary set, which comes with 600- & 1200-grit whetstones (with the swarf pockets) and a D8EE. Bought a Norton 4k/8k from the classifieds (thanks, Sandcounty!) and I have a 3-line Swaty from the aforementioned auction.

Been working on the project razor the last few days and thought that would be my hone test. Some advice in my thread persuaded me to first try one of the better blades, so I did that.

Wife is at Bonnaroo until Monday so I have free reign. Got my work space all set up, played some Beefcake on the stereo, loaded up the pyramid cheat sheet site on my laptop, and went to work on a J.F. Ganley "Ganley's Gula" (pic). Set the bevel with DMT 1200, worked the pyramid on the Norton, ran a few laps on the D8EE, a few on the Swaty, and then hit the strop.

Got a bit of lather from an old Colgate puck (also from the auction), put it on my neck, and then the moment of truth; it cut pretty smooth! Now it was nowhere near honemeister smooth, but it didn't tug which is a victory in my book. I was a bit worried because I had read that the DMT 8k leaves the edge a bit more coarse than the Norton 8k -- that might have happened but it cut regardless.

Thanks to all for the knowledge, advice, brutal honesty and positive reinforcement!

I probably wouldnt use the dmt 8k after doing the norton pyramids.

One thing you can add cheap that will add that little extra bit of pizazz to you edge is some CrO from ChrisL. $4 shipped for a baggie. Look at the wiki for info on making a pasted strop.

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I probably wouldnt use the dmt 8k after doing the norton pyramids.

One thing you can add cheap that will add that little extra bit of pizazz to you edge is some CrO from ChrisL. $4 shipped for a baggie. Look at the wiki for info on making a pasted strop.

Yeah, I've read about the difference in coarseness between those two hones but decided I'd try the DMT after the Norton anyway. Next time I'll swap them and see how that works.

I got a TM latigo strop about 2 months ago so I've been meaning to pick up some CrO to paste the linen on my original strop. That's my next step. I was also reading that 12k Naniwa/16k Shapton thread -- but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Hey, congratulations on your success!

Would you rather I just send your razors back to you?

Just to avoid potential confusion on your part, the thread you referred to was a discussion about the Shapton 16k and the Naniwa 12k, not the Chinese hone, which is an entirely different beast.

Glad to read of your success. Be careful. Honing can become habit forming.