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