Sometimes its easy. Often, its freaking voodoo.
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Sometimes its easy. Often, its freaking voodoo.
yes its easy, if you have the right material and the patience to learn.
Honing is one thing,but honing right is a other thing. I'm sure you can feel the difference, did it like a pro or do by a beginner honer.
It reminds me of when I learned how to stick (arc) weld. It was devilishly hard until I learned it. Then it became easy. Same with riding an off road bicycle, going over obstacles, logovers and such. Once you know how it becomes easy ..... or.... easier. Some razors make it seem easy, others, not so easy. :hmmm:
To tape or not to tape, there are two schools of thought.
One school says Tape! Protect the spine from hone wear. It keeps the razor looking better.
The opposition says, do not tape. As the blade gets narrower from honing the spine also wears down so that bevel angle says correct instead of getting wider over time.
Both ways work.
And herein lies the rub, if you are honing the blade correctly how often will it need honed. I tape to protect your spine, although the razor may need to be honed only once(not counting trips to the barbers hone) how much honing will it take to get the proper edge. In that honing how much wear will be put on the spine?
Taping is easy.
Forum posting is easy. Honing is an acquired skill.
honing IS easy, knowing when to stop can be tricky.
Dave,
Honing isn't particularly hard, but I would say that, as you are just starting out, focus on getting your shaving technique down. Stropping is of utmost importance, as well. Not to mention lathering! There are a lot of variables flying around and, if my personal experience is anything to go by, reducing them a bit is the way to go. I should also mention that I didn't do this, so I now feel qualified to give advice. The whole, "do what I say, not what I did" routine :D
But in all seriousness...sloooooooowwwwwww.
Funny. The first person that showed me how to hone said the same thing.
"Hone the way I tell you, not the way I am doing it now." :)