Thread: First setup

Update:
The gold dollar razors came in last week. Now I've heard plenty about these, however my intention was to practice honing with the blades. Well long story short I can't even do that. When the razor is laid flat part of the blades edge does not touch the hone. Now I'd imagine this is due to the razor being ground down poorly when it was manufactured. Anyways I will just have to practice on my other razors.

Well actually you may be able to fix this problem with a dremel. Is the issue in the heel and shoulder area? My gd had issues as well but nothing too crazy to fix; plus you learn something new for future razor projects.

Originally Posted by doug954

Update:
The gold dollar razors came in last week. Now I've heard plenty about these, however my intention was to practice honing with the blades. Well long story short I can't even do that. When the razor is laid flat part of the blades edge does not touch the hone. Now I'd imagine this is due to the razor being ground down poorly when it was manufactured. Anyways I will just have to practice on my other razors.

Actually, thats the point with practicing with GD's.

The idea is these razors don't have, generally, good geometry, and by using an ink marker on the blade, whether you use tape or not seems to be a personal preference thing. But the idea is you learn to use different angles, ways to do the strokes that you end up with a bevel and then you move up the ladder.

It is seldom you will get a perfect blade, and the idea is to use these GD's to learn how to approach honing razor's with less than perfect geometry.

I just got two new one's today, managed to get one to shave ready 1st try finally..the other one I have, brand new, unfortunately has pretty nice geometry, so it won't be that much of a challenge.

Others will chime in, but I'm slowly getting there myself....

It's a shame. Normally I would recommend a few ugly razors from eBay to start out with. Nothing great, but cheap. The things I'd look for are as follows. 1) that they are capable of taking a decent edge. That's important if you ever want to know success. 2) anything known to be geometrically challenging. It's enough to learn how to get the very basics down pat, the added problems of geometry and the need to perform intricate maneuvers is asking for a lot of frustration. 3) no wedges. Give yourself a fighting chance in the early going or be prepared to be frustrated.

Phrank,

You make a good point about the GD. But in my case I only have a naniwa 12k and from what I read that hone by itself will not fix a major geometry issue. Right?

Originally Posted by doug954

Phrank,

You make a good point about the GD. But in my case I only have a naniwa 12k and from what I read that hone by itself will not fix a major geometry issue. Right?

I have the Norton 4/8 and a Nani 12k. I've followed Lynn's extensive videos on bevel setting with the 4k and getting the blade shaveable on the 8k and on to the 12k. He also has an excellent video on refreshing razors overall, using multiple methods. All worth watching...

Now, I'm fairly certain you could set a bevel with a 12k, it just may take you several years...

Maybe down the road if I pickup a naniwa 5k & 8k I'll attempt it. But for now I'm focused on maintaining edge. I'll check out those videos.

Originally Posted by doug954

Maybe down the road if I pickup a naniwa 5k & 8k I'll attempt it. But for now I'm focused on maintaining edge. I'll check out those videos.

Here's the video I was mentioning where Lynn A goes through the various methods to refresh a razor. If you get your blade pro honed for the first time, and you're practiced and proficient with your stropping, you can probably go for a year at least, if not years, before you may require another full honing.

Think this is along the lines of what you're looking for.