Thread: Newbie ready to go!

Hello all! I got my 4k/8k stones in the mail today, and I sat down for some quality time with my Dovo Astrale. I soaked the stones in the sink for 15 minutes, then went to work on the 4k side. I had previously done 20 minutes worth of passes on my dad's knife hone. I know my razor is dull and uneven, but curiosity got the better of me and I wanted a try at the norton.

I'm going to lap the norton tomorrow with some 400/1000 grit sandpaper, then tape the edge and do some circles on the 1000 grit to get a better base upon which to sharpen.

I was curious about the honing pattern though. My norton is wide enough to accomodate the full width of my blade. Is it still wise to use the X pattern? It seems like honing back and forth without moving laterally would prevent wearing away the middle of the blade.

Is it alright to place my finger on the middle of the heel when honing? Keeping light pressure on the shank, I felt like the heel was getting more pressure than the point. With my pointer finger on the middle of the spine, the pass felt more even and without any rocking motion.

I'll get one of those radioshack microscopes tomorrow and see what the status of my blade's edge is. Thanks everyone!

Welcome aboard,
If you've already given the blade 20min of rough lovin' I wouldn't do any circular honing on the 1k. I might just do like 10 x-pattern passes to even out the bevel.
There are proponents of both systems (heel leading straight across and x-pattern) but I believe that x gives me more control.
I hone 1-handed and that gives me more control as well. I won't tell you it's the only way that works but it's the only way I'd personally recommend.
Enjoy the experience!

P.S. You may want to indicate your location in the user CP and your name in the signature (just a suggestion, not a compulsion)

Thank you Ilija, I appreciate the fast reply! I thought of another question in the interim: what steps are required to dry out the hone? I'm standing it on its side in the bathroom to air dry, but I'm not sure what will happen with regard to mold.

I just leave it on a dish drying rack overnight and then I keep it on a dry rag until I need to hone with it again. IE, no special steps need to be taken.

Some people leave it in a pitcher with a lid inside of purified water so it's always ready to go. Don't forget to flatten the stone before any major honing though.

I believe they also pour a little bleach in there (really low doses) to prevent mold from forming, but those are usually the ones who hone often and want to have their Norton ready on short notice.

I spent a good 30 minutes lapping my 4k/8k on 600 grit paper. I used a framed picture for the plate glass, which worked out pretty well. I did a few pyramids on the combo, and noticed that the point to middle were sharp, but the heel wasn't. I held the razor up to the light, and noticed that the edge was wider (looking down on the flat blade) in the sharp regions and very narrow in the dull regions.

I took this to mean that I needed to move back up to a lower grit to reshape the bevel. I did 50 passes on each side with the 600 grit sandpaper (with the slurry from the 4k lap pass) until each side of the blade had a nice uniform edge width all the way across. I attribute this to a poor taping job that I did on my first attempt at shaving, combined with an uneven hone.

I did an aggressive pyramid (heavy on the 4k passes) to get the blade back to acceptable sharpness, 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.

I did a standard 9-step pyramid and this time saw a bit of an improvement when wet. I decided I would try a test shave and see what would happen.

I lathered a small section of my cheek just below my ear and did a few short strokes. It removed the hair, but it wasn't smooth like it should be. I did strop before use, 20 laps on the cloth side (yellow paste) and 20 on the leather (no paste).

I noticed that during honing, the 4K side was getting pretty uniformly gray/black from the metal I was removing, but the 8K side was removing more metal in the center of the blade which suggests that it's still not flat. I'm going to work the 8K side for 10 minutes and see if there's any improvement in flatness.

What should my next step be? Any and all advice would be appreciated. Honing is pretty enjoyable and a relaxing way to unwind after a tough day, I wouldn't mind doing some more tonight.

Matt, I think you need to focus on keeping your pressure even. If it's pulling, tugging and/or not cutting hair, it's not there yet.Once you get to the final stages of honing, there will be virtually zero pressure on the hone. Less is more.

Pressure is still a gray area for me. Currently I'm pressing down fairly firmly in the interest of establishing and keeping a uniform edge width across the blade. On my touchup passes with the 8K, I was using just enough to keep it from tipping off the hone. I'm using three fingers across the spine instead of holding the shank, as it allows me to keep my pressure uniform (even if not the right amount).

What kind of pressure ranges should I be looking at? An actual amount is helpful, as "less" or "light" is all relative

Perhaps you would describe the pressure corresponding with a certain sound across the hone. With heavy pressure, the razor sounds like it is scraping, and with light pressure the razor has a little bit of a ring to it with no irritating scraping sound.

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.