Thread: Help with honing

Hello,

I'm new to the world of straight razor shaving as I've only had my straight razor for about 8 months. I bought a pre-sharpened 5/8 Dovo from Straight Razor Designs and after a few weeks of learning to shave I loved it. It gave me the closest shaves I've ever had. After about 4 or so months, I could tell the edge on the razor was getting worse as it wasn't cutting as close and the shaves were getting more painful. I put down the straight razor until I could afford to buy some norton waterstones for honing. Recently I finally purchased these stones and spent some time researching the proper way to hone. I did my first honing following the directions in this set of videos on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgJce7mpUEg

When I tried to shave with it afterward (with plenty of stropping) it had an even worse edge than the last time I shaved with it. It was very demoralizing to think I made the razor even worse, but I gave it another try today, this time really focusing on making sure the edge seemed even all the way through. I felt a lot better this time about my work and after a good amount of stropping I tried for a shave. The blade was even worse than the last time! I really don't know what I'm doing wrong here and I'm desperate to figure this out. I've dropped a lot of cash on this (as I'm sure you all know) and I wont be giving up this easily but it is getting very frustrating.

Any helpful advice would really be appreciated.

Thanks!
Jeff

I've seen this video before, it's good but I would recommend watching Lynn's video, that's how I learned to hone. Then from there I do a few of my own things that work for me. But Lynn's videos are a great place to start.

Also take a look at this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...on-2012-a.html

Lot's of good advice in there, and some very useful tips and videos to help you get the most out of the Norton.

James.

It takes a long time to get the hang of honing. Its not hard per say but its all about balance and knowing what to feel for and how to respond to the feedback between the hone and the blade. All of this takes lots of practice. It took me about a month before I could get a consistent shave ready edge on my razors. My suggestion would be, as much as it might pain you, is to send it back out to SRD for your free hone and buy yourself an older less expensive razor to practice honing. You can find one of these in the classifieds here or on ebay if you know what to look for. This way you can practice without having to worry about dulling your blade and making mistakes. I also suggest to continue to watch videos. If you have the Nortons try the Ja Norton videos on youtube by gssixgun and Lynn. It helped me to hone along with them as I was watching. I would watch one step and then pause the video while I repeated that step and did this all the way through the video. Good luck! One important thing is to not even bother moving to another stone until you know your bevel is set properly. If your bevel is not set, you will never get a good finish on your edge.

Hi Jeff,

Probably won't help you feel any better but honing without knowing what you're doing is similar to just beating the razor with a hammer.

I suggest you send the razor out to be honed and request some feedback on what the problem is. Learn to hone from someone nearby.

If you feel like sending the razor my way, you can.

Buy another shave ready razor to practice on and don't go lower than 8k, ever.