Hello everyone!

I'm the guy that posted the other day about inheriting all the gear. Well, I decided to jump in and start using them. I have now 'shaved' twice. It was a rather grim experience. The blade felt like it just ripped hair and I did not really get a shave at all since I have a five o' clock shadow during and after the 'shave.' I believe that the problem is that the razor is not nearly sharp enough.

I picked what looked like the cheapest razor to sharpen, so that I did not mess up a nicer razor learning to hone. It is stamped Dixie manuf. company and had no obvious defects on the blade. I literally honed it for hours. I assume that the medium brown hone is the coarser grit, since it feels ever so slightly coarser than the black one I have. I put water on it and started to hone as the directions at classicshave.com instruct. The water did not stay on the hone for long, the razor pushed the water off. So at first most of the honing was dry. I then added some soap to the water and that allowed the water to stay on longer. I then honed the razor again for literally hundreds of rounds. When I ran the balde over my wet fingernail it seemed to pass that test in that it dug in and ran smoothly across. It could not pass the hair test though.

Today I shaved for a second time and the razor felt better than yesterday (after using the soap on the hone), but still dull (if it was a DE blade I would have replaced it). I have not stroped the blade either. I'm not sure what's wrong. It seems that it should be really sharp by now, but no. I know my shaving technique is rather clumsy right now, so that may be the problem, but I think the sharpness is a bigger one. Well, I just don't know what to do. I believe my honing technique is greatly improving from all the attempts to sharpen the balde, but it's still not sharp. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help.