Thread: Newbie ready to go!

Originally Posted by arbiter_dev

then did a few tests on the hairs on the back of my hand. I was able to cut through those hairs fairly easily, but only when lubricated with water.

Your mention of lubrication makes me worried that this means you were testing by running the razor along your arm or hand. If you're going to test with arm hair you should hold the razor off your arm and just touch the blade to the middle of the hairs - no lubrication needed because the razor doesn't touch your arm. And the test gives better results on me if I use the thinner hairs on the underside of my arm.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Maximum pressure, used when establishing the bevel: 2lbs
Minimum pressure, used when finishing off the edge: you're barely touching the hone.
I know it's easier for you to use a 2-handed technique, but it will make your control suffer. Fortunately X broke me out of that habit early on and I've been thanking him for that every time I looked at a hone lol.

I experienced the same thing, but for a razor that is curved (like the one I got from Nelson), the razor needs to roll from heel to toe while honing.
For the moment I control this motion by holding a finger on the toe while honing so that I can roll the pressure evenly.

Doing this one handed is a bit difficult. perhaps you can do it as well, but for that case I still use 2 handed rolling.

Any idea how Lynn does this?

When honing swaybacks, you are supposed to gently transfer the weight from heel to toe as you're going across. You an even do it with straight edges (especially if you're giving them a bit of a smile), but I prefer a straight x.

Originally Posted by mparker762

Your mention of lubrication makes me worried that this means you were testing by running the razor along your arm or hand. If you're going to test with arm hair you should hold the razor off your arm and just touch the blade to the middle of the hairs - no lubrication needed because the razor doesn't touch your arm. And the test gives better results on me if I use the thinner hairs on the underside of my arm.

You worried correctly, I was shaving the backside of my hand/wrist as if it were my face. I'll try it your way after I've re-lapped my 8K and done a few touchup passes with my razor.

I can't manage to shave anything without going close to the root of the hair, since I have very fine hair and it just gets pushed over instead of cut.

I lapped the 8K side of my norton again, then did 20-30 slow passes on that side, starting with some light pressure, and working down until I was barely holding it on the hone. The result? The hairs on my arm just slice off with no effort at all. I'm going to test shave tonight after my shower and see how well I've done.

I stopped doing the 2-hand hone, as it's slow as hell, but I think that for re-cutting my bevel it was invaluable for making everything even and nice. Thanks guys! I'll definitely start a new thread when I encounter some new issues.

Not so fast Matt You'll also give us a shave-report here

Originally Posted by arbiter_dev

I can't manage to shave anything without going close to the root of the hair, since I have very fine hair and it just gets pushed over instead of cut.

I have the same issue with my arm hair. It's fine and blond, even though I have thick brown hair and a tough beard.

The cutting-half-way-up-the-stalk arm hair test doesn't do anything, even on my honemeister-honed razors. So I'll shave it at the root, but that doesn't tell you the same thing that you'd learn by waving a razor through your arm hair above your skin. I can get a knife to shave my arm hair off my Spyderco Sharpmaker, and I wouldn't use that to sharpen my razors.

Josh

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Maximum pressure, used when establishing the bevel: 2lbs

I'm not being sarcastic here. I'm genuinely curious. When sharpening, unless one has a sharpening jig for razors that i've not heard of yet, we're all sharpening by hand. So how do we determine 2lbs of pressure versus 1lb or 3 or 5?

I've got a professional level scale hooked up to my pc for printing shipping labels and just the weight of one of my hands alone will tip 2 1/2 lbs. Add the weight of my arm and I'm having to hold my hand up to prevent more than 2lbs of pressure. I'd have to practice quite a bit there to get the "feel" of 2lbs of pressure down pat. What do the guys who don't have professional scales do?

Again, I'm not being sarcastic. If it sounds that way I apologize in advance. I earnestly want to know how I can better determine pressure when sharpening. That would be awesome and I'd likely get done much faster. Which would really help with all these razors coming in.

Glen F

Ofcourse this is not an exact science but a good way to estimate the pressure is to think how much force you would need to lift a quart of milk and use that to press down.
What I am really describing here is a range, more force than a gentle glide but less than a forceful press-down.

The results are in: my first full shave was so-so. I can compare it to a dull double-edge shave. It took off hair and it didn't cut me, but it wasn't the velvet squeegee of lore and myth I've heard described here on the forums

I also noticed that a small drop of water that was left on the blade made a pretty lame spot of rust up on the Dovo Astrale plating. I'll be much more careful when putting my razor away next time. What's the best procedure for removing this rust so it doesn't start consuming the rest of the blade?

I'm going to grab a magnifier or a cheap hobby microscope next week so I can see what I'm doing on my hone. In the meantime I'm going to stick with my double-edge with Feather blades, my personal sharpness benchmark

I'm considering buying an ebay razor just to learn to hone with, any recommendations? My Dovo was a gift and I'd rather not screw it up with my poor newbie honing.