Thread: new razor, what do I need more in order to hone it

Yes your right it slipped my mind

Send the razor out for honing so you get to know what a good edge feels like

Originally Posted by janivar123

When you know the difference of a sharp and a sharper edge theres no need in dulling the edge before honing
But for a beginner i think it can be a great help in determening that the honing reach the edge not just polish the bevel
That razor may have a sound bevel wich should let you just start honing without dulling
But how do you know when it improves if you have no experience in testing for sharpness?

If i put air in a tire i wont flatten it
If i put ten gallons of water in a barrel its easyer to know the amount if you start empty

If you're talking about a factory bevel set too steep (the edge doesn't contact the hone w/o adding multiple layers of tape), you can use the magic marker test first to see if that's the case.

Pretty sure it's in the wiki, but basically, run a permanent marker along both sides of the bevel, do a few strokes on something like a coticule w/ just water & check under magnification & see if you have any ink remaining at the tip. If you do, you have to reset the bevel & here the downstroke on glass method would work well, since you'll eliminate any false positives from the old bevel when you do your sharpness tests. If you have clean steel all the way to the edge, than it's not necessary & you'll just be making extra work for yourself. The trick then is to determine what stone to go to to pick up the edge & finish the job.

Basically, I wouldn't automatically dull a razor before honing unless I determined that I actually needed to. On a factory edge, I might go to the 1k to clean up the edge a little bit, but that's different from completely resetting the bevel.