Thread: New blade coming

I think of the pro honing as sort of a start up costs. As I told my mrs its easier for a new straight shaver to learn to hone with a blade that that has been honed once right then it is for a new straight shaver to take a dull blade and hone it to ultra sharp for a new straight shaver.

Here's the deal. Spend the $15 a pop, or whatever price you can find or bargain for (some people will sometimes offer to do it free) and you're golden for like 6 months to a year. You may only need a balsa strop with CrO (<$10) or a nice-ish, fine barber hone ($15-$30) to refresh the edge now and then. Both are good investments, even people with $1000s in hones will use either pasted strops or barber hones or some kind of touch up technique. All of these touch up techniques will be *reasonably* cheap. The exception being natural finishers, which are technically meant for finishing but I've had no problems touching up on them (though they really are too expensive for solely that reason).

If I am reading this right, he HAS a shave ready DA and MIGHT GET a $15 antique shop razor. Even if the DA is not SR, I would still advise to get one or both pro-sharpened and maintain it. This is cheapest for starting. I am at the point where I have RAD, but am poor, so I end up buying (comparitively) a lot of $10 to $20 razors that NEED honing. So I am investing in hones. Because in the long run, honing ten razors @$15+shipping a pop is more expensive than doing it myself.

Take the $15.00 you're going to spend at the local antique place for an unknown condition razor, add a few more bucks to the fifteen and have a professional hone up your razor for you. You've never shaved with a straight before, let alone a shave ready one. How will you know what it's supposed to feel like if you start off with one not shave ready?

Or, as suggested above, look around (maybe the newbie section or basic honing section) for generous offers of free honing. Then you could take that same $15, add a little more and get a barbers hone to help maintain your razor.

I too, would love to learn how to hone and sharpen my own razors. And I will. Just not yet. I've got a fistful in a box patiently waiting. Well, not so patient anymore. I can hear them starting to whisper and conspire.

But I figured first things first. Get one that's shave ready and learn to shave with it and learn how to maintain it and keep it shave ready. That's where I'm at now. But thats just me. Am I getting anxious to buy some rocks and start scraping? Sure I am. Am I ready? Pretty soon.

Cash outlay for hones is pretty steep also. Especially if funds are extremely limited. I interpreted your OP to mean money is kinda tight. Me too. Another reason I haven't bought hones yet.

So anyway, just a suggestion from one newb to another. Get your new one shave ready. Learn to shave with it and maintain it. The fun honing stuff can come later.

Good shaving,

Kev

Yea the DA won't be shave ready and will likely take quite alot to make shave ready and if you buy a vintage for the prices your talking about it will likely need alot of work too.

I would be suprised if someone would send a good hone to someone who is short in the experience dept any more than someone would send a good razor to someone first learning to shave with a straight. If you did want to learn to hone the best bet is buy a new razor, have it made shaveready and then you can do easy touchups which would be a primer in razor maint. But of course if you don't have the money for that so forget that. Probably you would need more than 1 hone for the vintage razor and maybe even the DA

So your left with having someone else do the honing for you one way or another. I don't see any alternatives.

Originally Posted by rcardon

K, I think this was not meant for this thread.

uhm, no, my post was actually to your situation.

you've already spend whatever money you've spent for your DA and you think if somebody just gives you a hone you'll buy another $15 razor, will hone both and will be set for life.

so, first of all wait for your razor to arrive. try to shave with it. if it doesn't quite work strop it on newspaper for few thousand passes and see if it makes any difference (my money is that it won't do a thing). next step would be to spend $4 and buy a small pack of chromium oxide from ChrisL (it's a lifetime supply if you do it right), put some on a newspaper and strop several thousand pases (check at 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 if it makes any difference).

if you can't get your razor sharp that way, it's very unlikely you'll be able to get it with a cheap barber's hone either.

of, course the razor at your local shop may be already well honed, but from my experience so far that's about a 1:500 chance.

Sorry for not posting this in the original post, but the DA will be SR, it's from a member here.
The one from the antique shop seems to be in good condition, no dings, or rust spots. It seemed fairly sharp, but not SR.
I hope this helps to clear the confusion about my reluctance to spend extra money.
Just to clarify, I was not asking for a hand out, just suggestions, leaving it open for people to make offers, one of which I have already had, you guys all know Utopian's standard offer, which I do appreciate.

if the razor is already honed well you can maintain it sharp indefinitely with just a strop or failing that a newspaper or chromium oxide.
the caveat is that you have to know what you're doing (both shaving and stropping), but a hone doesn't change that at all.

Originally Posted by gugi

if the razor is already honed well you can maintain it sharp indefinitely with just a strop or failing that a newspaper or chromium oxide.
the caveat is that you have to know what you're doing (both shaving and stropping), but a hone doesn't change that at all.

I'm a visual learner, and I have watched several videos on how to properly strop a razor. I have also read through the guide in the wiki. At this point, I have all of the theoretical knowledge I can get, it is time to make it practical.

I do, honestly, appreciate all of your advice, and will use it. Thanks again.

As someone who is very new to this myself, i wanted to stress the importance to you of actually KNOWING what SR is. When i first started over a month ago, i got a a blade from sham (Hi_BUD) that came very very sharp. But before that i picked up a Krieger from the local flea market to practice stropping with. The Krieger seemed very sharp to me, and like it could provide a decent shave...UNTIL i got shams blade in the mail. The Krieger was sharp...but a different "kind" of sharp.

Dont get in too far over your head, use a cheap strop and a barbers hone to keep your razor in good condition. Save up and buy a decent setup for honing. Itll pay off in the long run