How do you know its time to hone your razor?

Hey guys, I've been wanting to hone may razor for a while only because I think it could be sharper, but I've always thought I don't know what I'm talking about because its my first razor and its probably ok, because I'm just entering my third month of shaving with it.

Now recently, at least in my mind, the razor has taken this huge reduction in sharpness. I mean if you were to graph the sharpness of a razor over time, vertical sharpness, horizontal time, I would think the graph would look like the cross section of nice beach, a gentle slope downwards. Well if so, my graph suddenly looks like a cliff off the side of a mountain.

Is this normal and if not how do you know its time to sharpen your razor?

It's quite simple: when it doesn't feel sharp anymore, it's time. :)


Sounds normal to me.

Well, when I ask if its normal, I'm refering to the drop off part. If its not normal I know I got to look at my stroping tecnique or something else.

Also I'd like to know when its normally the time, because after you hone it, I would think it loses its sharpness little by little. So after a week its not as sharp but sharp, after a month not as sharp but ok,...... Also because if its getting dull in half the time it should somethings wrong......

Often times the first sign of deterioration is the comfort factor starts to go even though you can still get a BBS shave. Then it starts to pull and finally won't cut. You should never wait until the last stage. The earliest you catch it the less honing you need to do. Of course there are some razors that seem to just deteriorate very quickly and some people are more sensitive to a deteriorating razor than others. Also as a razor starts to deteriorate and if it's the only one you have you don't realize the deterioration because it can be very gradual and thenb until one day it simply won't shave or it hurts to shave. If you switch off you know early on.

Lol, now your are overthinking things again Knife. :)

But I'd say there's a gentle slope at first, at which point you could bring back the sharpness with say a pasted strop, and eventually if not brought back, you'll reach a point where you need to hit the hones.

Yes there can be a huge drop off...

As the edge passes from the hair cutting side of sharpness to the non-cutting side the drop of would seem very steep but in reality it is still a gentle slope but your hair created that line in the sand so to speak..

Thanks a lot gssixgun, when you reach the drop off which grit stone do you need to bring it back to shave readyness.

I got a 4/8k stone, I'm hoping this is all I need. It'll be my first honing experience.

So far I have never found a razor that a Norton 4/8 won't work with, some take longer some take a bit of finesse but they all work...

If you go to google vids and search "gssixgun honing Norton" you will find a vid of a start to finish honing on that stone.. watching is good but I give a ton of hints as I yak :)

The light pyramid is also a fine starting point for a re-fresh of a razor that is no longer cutting good... You could try 20 8k laps first but honestly from your post I think you are past that ...:(

Much thanks, I've been seeing a few videos on youtube and with some, you just get the sence that they don't know a whole hell of a lot, which dosen't instill much faith in their work. Good to know I'll be getting infor from someone who knows what hes talking about. So I'll be seeing you I guess this weekend when I get my honing done.

Thanks again.

Well, I thought being that my hone is brand new that it was flat as can be I only needed a lapping stone afterwards. So not having a lapping stone, as I was doing last minute research on honing, I saw that you have to lap your stone even the first time. I read you could lap on a flat surface with 325 grit sandpaper, but that took forever. I figure eighted that stone for what felt like ten minutes and the center and two opposite corners on the 8k side were very smooth and visibly different than these two opposite corners that were rough. I just gave up and now I want to get a DMT plate. Which one should I get for the 4 and 8 K?

Gssixgun, I saw your video, very good I have to say. Straightforward just like I like it. But at this point in time, I don't know if I should get the holders I saw you have. The Norton stone's case has a stand for the stone, not great, but I guess it could work. Should I get a stand for the DMT plate?

Thanks

The stands that Norton does with the box themselves works rather well... Glue in the little rubber feet on the bottom of the case NOW :p they tend to get lost if ya don't, a drop of super glue does the trick...

The Adjustable holders are not needed they just are handy, try without first and see how it goes ...

The DMT 325 is the most used piece of honing equipment that I own :)

I would definitely recommend as Blix already stated, that you should try 10 light strokes first on a pasted strop and then do regular stopping to try to refresh the razor. If that doesn't work, try 5 no pressure strokes on your 8K and then the pasted strop or just the regular strop. Always do what you can to try a minimal approach before a full honing when possible.

Have fun.