Thread: Hi Everyone and major (for me) accomplishment

Hi. I switched to straight razor shaving about a month ago and have really enjoyed the learning experience, except for a maybe a couple shaves, so far. The videos on youtube and forums such as this one are just a tremendous help in cutting down the learning curve.

Last night my razor got away from me and ended up with a big nick in the blade from dropping it into the faucet. Well, I've been trying to teach myself to hone and this seemed a pretty good exam.

The 1000 wouldn't touch it so I had to go to a 220 I keep around for restoring kitchen knives. About an hour of circles and x strokes got me to a fairly even bevel with no chip. From there it was just follow Lynn's standard procedure of 1k circles, 4k circles, 8k, 13k and felt and leather and bam coming off the leather it passed hanging hair test first try. This is the first time I've been able to get a razor sharp enough to do this. The 13k stone and felt were the new additions this time (they just arrived) and it's good to know that my technique, while still needing work (my bevels could be more even), is getting to the point where it's good enough to shave with.

I can hardly wait until tomorrow morning to try it out!

Cheers everyone
Mark Levin
Encinitas