Thread: Noobs - Get it Honed by a Pro!

Generally speaking if your here long enough, you'll see there is one piece of advice that's seemingly universal. That advice is to get your blade honed by a pro before using it, unless of course you buy it from a vendor who's reputable and hones their blades before shipping. For a noob, getting your blade professionally honed is especially true when you buy off eBay.

Ok - Great advice.

Then when people start to hone and then somehow damage their blade, or just before you start to hone, we say it again. Get it honed by a pro so you know what it feels like when you have a well honed edge. Again - great advice - kind of. Or maybe you should keep trying for a while.

Interestingly enough, the one time it really paid for me to get my razor honed, was after I thought I had honing behind me. I was getting great shaves off of my blades after honing them myself. Then I had one honed by a pro and came to realize that maybe... just maybe I had a bit more to learn .

My advice for a noob is that after you are no longer a "noob," and you have your honing down - get a blade you know well and have it honed by a pro. You might be surprised. If you hone with a natural, ask to have your blade honed with synthetics. If you hone with synthetics... ask for a hone off of naturals if you are inclined.

You might discover something interesting. YMMV

Well said, David!

Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Well said, David!

It's been a fun ride so far MLA lol... It's like you never stop learning .

Plus one or two.

I love, I mean LOVE honing and honed my first razor before my first shave...then proceeded to seek professionally honed razors from (now) 4 other sources just to explore the differences and depth of this rabbit hole.

Only after a few experiences with pro hones did I really feel I had improved...well not really. That first edge was quite easy to improve on, but hopefully my point is made that you will never understand what your target is if you have no idea what it looks/feels like

Great advice!

When I first started honing I thought I was doing good even though I was having some problems occasionally like sometimes after I shaved it felt like I sanded my face instead of actually shaving it. A member here I had sold a couple of razors to off eBay sent me one of his shave ready razors, a Frederick Reynolds, as a loaner so I would have something to benchmark my honing with. That loaner showed me "dam, I got a long way to go". When you first start honing it is always good to have something honed by a pro to use as a benchmark so you know where you are at.

Originally Posted by DoughBoy68

When I first started honing I thought I was doing good even though I was having some problems occasionally like sometimes after I shaved it felt like I sanded my face instead of actually shaving it. A member here I had sold a couple of razors to off eBay sent me one of his shave ready razors, a Frederick Reynolds, as a loaner so I would have something to benchmark my honing with. That loaner showed me "dam, I got a long way to go". When you first start honing it is always good to have something honed by a pro to use as a benchmark so you know where you are at.

That's what I am talking about right there! Your face tells you a ton but just like a bad car stereo... it's amazing what you get used too .