Thread: Honing fears

I've yet to take that first straight razor shave though I'm very close. I've spent the last two weeks absorbing all the information related to straight razor shaving. One of the main concerns I have is honing. I know that it will be a while before I have to worry about that as I intend to buy a couple of "shave ready" razors from an experienced member on the classifieds here.
Everything that I've read has stressed the difficulty in honing correctly. And I've seen many people recommend sending a razor out to an expert to be honed. Is this something that I just need to expect to have to do. I know that this is a different beast but I have been a knife hobbiest for fifteen years and love to sharpen and restore knives. I commonly use diamond stones to 3 micron and then I have different strops with diamond paste down to .5 (some .25) micron. I understand that I'm not sharpening a micro bevel on the razor and that there are other significant differences, but it seems to me that this experience should allow me to be light years ahead on the learning curve.
That being said, I would like to know if I should worry about ruining a razor by honing myself.
I would like to add that this is a great website. Thank you to all for helping us newbies learn the great tradition of straight razor shaving. I can't wait to get started. I hope my next post isn't : WHAT THE H... WAS I THINKING. I'VE CUT MY G.. D... EAR OFF!!!

Welcome to SRP. Give yourself time and focus on preperation, lathering and shaving technique. Stropping as well. These come before you have to worry about honing. Getting a truly shave ready razor pro honed will not only give you something proper to shave with but also something to compare your efforts with when you do begin honing used razors you pick up in antique shops or flea markets. To avoid nicks and cuts read my sig below. The old barber's advice still works for me.

Hi smgunn,

Your knife sharpening skills should help you a lot with razor honing. Just remember that a razor is more delicate than most knives, and that a light touch is very important. Don't be fearful; just relax and have fun!

Jeff

This is all new to me as well. I've purchased many razors from ebay which to practice my honing skills on...

Good luck!

You'll be right honing if you do your research. Just bear in mind some razors will not tolerate diamond plates but may hone up just fine on something else

JimmyHAD said:

Getting a truly shave ready razor pro honed will not only give you something proper to shave with but also something to compare your efforts with when you do begin honing used razors you pick up in antique shops or flea markets.

You can buy _not shave-ready_ vintage razors for less than $20 each, either at antique shops, flea markets, or eBay. Practice with those. You'll know when you get a 'shave-ready' edge on your own.

IMHO (really humble), once you understand that you _shouldn't_ put a compound bevel on the edge, razor sharpening is just like knife sharpening, but with a much smaller edge angle, and finer grits.

Charles

Concentrate on learning to shave 1st, I've managed to hone 1 razor to a shave ready state from blunt but I have 3 which were pro honed and after a several months of using them none need honing yet.

If your edge starts to dull one of your pasted strops will refresh the edge extending the time before they need re-honing.

If you want to learn to hone then the route I've taken is to buy a cheap but reasonable vintage razor on ebay to learn on before I have a go on one of my "good" ones.

Don't worry -- it really takes a hell of an effort to cut one's ear off.---
V. Gogh