Thread: Why Beginners Shouldn't Try To Hone

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Where most knives are called spooky sharp...that's where we start with straight razors. I was one of those guys who could put scary sharp edges on knives & figured it would be easy...boy was I wrong. ....
Never give up on chasing a perfect shave or pushing an edge on a particular razor to the max...just because it's FUN!

After purchasing "shave ready" razors from vendors here and elsewhere it became clear to me just how relative that term can be. The best examples became touchstones for my own efforts while learning and the worst examples after my practicing on them became proofs of what had been learned.

I never again will call one of my knife sharpening jobs "razor sharp". My first open blade shave was with a pocket knife I honed beyond scary sharp as in too sharp to be a practical tool. It did shave down a cheek after a fashion but it prompted me to buy a straight razor and push for a sharper edge. After wearing out a couple of stones and grinding down some razors my edges are now so far beyond the best Japanese steel knives I own that I rather like to forget what I once thought was sharp. I just didn't know what I didn't know.

I learned how to get truly sharp from reading this site and lots and lots and lots of practice.
In about another 39800 blades I might try to turn pro.

That appears to be a fairly common thing with knife sharpeners. Unfortunately it seems fairly rare when one would check their ego at the door. Instead they usually come with a special attitude 'steel is steel', 'sharp is sharp', 'I am really special and I'm so good with sharpening knives and tools that razors are what I can no doubt do in my sleep', so they end up suffering for a while with poor or mediocre edges and having to unlearn stuff instead of using their existing skills with other tools as a leverage.

I'm also yet to see a relative beginner at shaving produce an edge beyond just the bare minimum that would shave. I think the problem in most cases is that due to their inadequate shaving technique they can't really tell a good edge from a barely shaving one that they've honed, as they seem to them to do about the same job.

Honing is really rather simple, it just takes a bit of practice and experience to learn what is what. May be it's not unlike reading - somebody who has just learned to recognize letters can piece them together, with much effort, to make words, but that doesn't make them even remotely good at reading poetry for example.

Of course, everybody is free to be as stupid as they want to be, so I really don't care if they have nothing too important in their life, and their time is so worthless that they would rather suffer through learning a simple thing like shaving and honing the hardest way it could be done. I've seen plenty of people who seem to think that's some sort of a character building exercise, or a proof of masculinity, though in my opinion it's nothing more than being plain stupid.

you know, gugi, I think I, personally sometimes take it wayyyy too far. I'm constantly trying to get the absolute sharpest blade possible - which really isn't always what you want. Some that know me know that I'm on an especially high dose of coumadin (due to a heart valve replacement), and it takes very little of a barely a "brush" with an extremely sharp blade to gauge my coumdin level (not a slice, cut, but barely even a pull on the wrong whisker). For me, I routinely use the same routine: coticule (sometimes a few passes on a BBW) to a ChroOx .50 to a felted (homemade) .25 diamond. Then the usual finishing technique. And, like I've said repeatedly, none of it's rocket science. So I agree, practice and experience is all it really takes. That and the addition of the all important electrical tape on the spine to allow for practice and errors.

Originally Posted by cflaageriv

Some that know me know that I'm on an especially high dose of coumadin (due to a heart valve replacement), and it takes very little of a barely a "brush" with an extremely sharp blade to gauge my coumdin level (not a slice, cut, but barely even a pull on the wrong whisker).

I was on coumadin due to a pulmonary embolism. I cannot imagine shaving with a straight while on it. I think I rarely shaved, using some clippers to groom my facial hair. I was way too paranoid.

Well...I'll say this much, it's actually good gauge as to my level; and make's every shave a tedious adventure. And not because I'm afraid of bleeding death, but when I nick myself, it takes forever to stop bleeding. Trickle, trickle, trickle, for as long as ten or twelve hours. How annoying is that!

Jesh, well, I hope to never be on it again. I could not imagine. Going to the doctor to check my levels was getting annoying. Luckily I was able to get weened off it and have not had any blood clots...so far.

Originally Posted by cflaageriv

Well...I'll say this much, it's actually good gauge as to my level; and make's every shave a tedious adventure. And not because I'm afraid of bleeding death, but when I nick myself, it takes forever to stop bleeding. Trickle, trickle, trickle, for as long as ten or twelve hours. How annoying is that!

Well good luck to you. Unfortunately, I'm only 44 and will be on this and a slew of other drugs the rest of my life. All the result of the residual effects from chemo/radiation trtmnt. I had over twenty years ago. The bright side is 23 years later and I'm still here to talk about it, but it has been a long and (somewhat painful) journey. I went to law school and was admitted to the bar less then 3 weeks when I had my first stroke (ischemic). Total paralysis on the right side, couldn't speak either. Then, less than two years later, a hemmorrhagic stroke (artery blew in my brain - almost killed me). Then a 80% clog to the main artery in my heart, at which time they noticed that my heart valve was acting funky - had to be replaced. Then, chronic pneumonia, aspirating food into my lungs causing spikes in fever out of the blue (to this day, mind you). All the damage was considered the result of the radiation trtmt. But hey, like Morgan Freeman said in Shawshank Redemption "you either got to get busy living or get busy dying, it's up to you." I chose to keep moving forward!

Originally Posted by cflaageriv

Well...I'll say this much, it's actually good gauge as to my level; and make's every shave a tedious adventure. And not because I'm afraid of bleeding death, but when I nick myself, it takes forever to stop bleeding. Trickle, trickle, trickle, for as long as ten or twelve hours. How annoying is that!

Yeah that sucks. I still have a little red spot at the corner of my moustache from one careless second shaving five days ago.
However, I must say it sucks nothing like if you'd be six feet under! Glad to hear you've beat that illness even if there are all these unpleasant consequences you've got to live with now!

Well Gugi,I am far from stupid,and my time is also far from worthless,My edges are drop dead perfect,are you listening to me? Have only been honing for two yrs and i am learning, the blades in my rotation, the blades I use cannot be any better.
The reason is:I put them in a flat rate box and ship them off to one of the site sponsers to be honed

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

The reason is:I put them in a flat rate box and ship them off to one of the site sponsers to be honed

I probably gotta do that too one of these days. It's so much fun when somebody else hones you a really nice edge. Plus I'm so lazy Glen has special title for me
Actually the other day I was looking at some razors and found one Lynn restored and JoeD honed for me a year or two ago, so I just have to take it to the bathroom as when I get out of the shower the coffee table in the living room seems far far away