Thread: Getting started with honing

For what it is worth, I currently have 3 "different" honing setups:

-DMT 1200 followed by coticule(s)
-DMT 1200 followed by an oil stone, followed by a CrOx strop
-local slate with varying levels of slurry

The first two setups give me consistent results on most razor blades and the local slate is hit or miss... it works better with old silver steel, India steel or old tools. The local slate slurry excels at removing rust, so I am using it a lot on my hand tools or as a first stone on rusty razors. It also successfully put a bevel on a razor that had been baffling me for years.

Tech you just started ,, please learn to shave first and strop well, it takes many shaves to become good at it , this way you will know if your edge is right , then take up maintaining a blade ,, pastes or the 12 k will do it and also a barbers hone is even less money, As rezdog said you can get quite a few pro honing so done for what a set of stones cost and if your not restoring razors ,well after you learn to shave and strop , honings are few and far between ,, I,m doing this for over a year now , and I still don't hone , and I shave with the finest edges around, have sent my razors off twice , the first time out it was my stropping ,, So just a few words of wisdom , here , Tc

Wow, lots of "don't do it yet" posts. Personally I have no issue learning more that one thing at a time, actually I believe that I thrive when doing so. And yes, I understand that I should concentrate on the shaving rather than the honing.

Wasn't planning on honing my Razor, at all. Actually I bought the one I shave with on the Classifieds here and I believe the seller stated one free honing came with it. I also already dealt with another member here who I trust, and will gladly have him hone for me again.

I have been watching the video's and reading the posts on maintaining your razor, and one such that I found stated to strop till it doesn't shave well anymore, then touch up with the 12k, and move to a pasted strop and back to normal strop. I've been shaving now for close a month and haven't done anything other than strop and shave. Still doing well.

I do have the interest in learning to hone, so when I order the 12k stone, and crox paste. I might as well go ahead and buy a hone set or the stones to make one up. I also love to go to flea markets, antique stores, "picking" so I sure will be keeping an eye out for Razors to practice with, also read that one way to learn is to buy 3 Gold Dollar razors or similar and practice on the first two, then when ready attempt the third and give it a try.

There are two types of people in my opinion, those who pay $20 for someone to do it for them when necessary, and those who spend $400 on the tools necessary and put forth hours and hours of time learning to do it for themselves. I am the second one.

The Gold Dollars are reputed to have geometry issues. If you want to learn on crooked razors then those are the ones to get. I think you should get an inexpensive vintage or two in nice shape. The come up in the classified here often for 30 to 50 and I think they are prime candidates. Basically you are going to waste a little extra steel getting the hand motions figured out. I don't think they will get ruined and there is no reason not to start with a razor that you should be able to get a great edge on with no geometry issues. Start from a known good spot and you will know what is happening. Start from a sketchy spot and...

Are we talking honing or shaving here!

Oh, and I'm western PA so if there is anyone in the area that would like to share their knowledge, I'm Game.

I kinda thought that was the point of honing, to take a razor that has issues (will not shave properly), and make it a usable razor.
Apart from a razor that is improperly ground, nearly any razor should be able to be honed. Even junk steel razors should be able to be honed, although the finished product may not hold an edge.

If a vintage razor is available cheaply then yes, and as I stated I will be watching for them.

For the shaving, I will only be buying razors that are worth while, and I do now know several people on this forum that I trust enough to bounce a potential purchase from.

FYI. Gold Dollar post was from http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...0-12000-a.html by member iceni

I know a to of guys say to learn to hone on a razor shaped object. In my mind the end game is to get an edge to a point where you can achieve a comfortable shave, and then repeat it. If you are using a razor that you don't expect to ever be able to shave with exactly what are trying to achieve. In learning to hone I shaved with my razors to judge how good the edge is or in some cases how bad is was. I'm not saying don't do it, simply that I don't understand the point to it. I practiced on razor i wanted to shave with and did. Are you going to shave with an RSO, if the shave is bad how will you know what was good and bad about the honing. Will the RSO have grind, geometry issues. That was all I was saying. It sounds like you have a network you can go to to avoid pitfalls. Happy shaves.

Welcome Technoid: I combined learning to shave with a S.R. and how to maintain (sharpen) my razors at the same time. Did I make mistakes? (Yes). I also wanted to become self sufficient and not send my razors out for honing. I received lots of valuable advice on how to shave, hone and strop my razors from the members at SRP. I chose the Shapton Glass route and (Lynn's youtube video and CD were invaluable for learning.) If you already sharpen and maintain your knifes adding razors to the mix will not be that difficult.

If you want to learn how to hone razors, my advice would be decide which direction you want to go. How much money do you want to spend in the beginning. Learning to use lapping film on granite floor tile will be the least expensive route. Many shavers maintain their razors edge with just a #1 micron sheet of lapping film and a strop. There are excellent videos on youtube detailing how to hone with natural or synthetic stones, also lapping film. It's up to you to decide which direction to go, the members of SRP will gladly offer their advice in order for you to become successful.

Originally Posted by technoid

I kinda thought that was the point of honing, to take a razor that has issues (will not shave properly), and make it a usable razor.

Yes, but it's the same as saying the point of car repair is to take a car that has issues (will not run) and make it drive.
That may range from putting in some gas to rebuilding the whole car engine, body, transmission...

Well, honing is nothing as complicated it's just rubbing a razor on some abrasive, but there is still pretty significant difference between maintaining your already shaving razor to keep shaving and taking a piece of poorly ground steel or well rusted one and getting it to shave. I mean at certain point it's simpler to start from scratch and just grind a razor from a steel bar.

Originally Posted by technoid

Apart from a razor that is improperly ground, nearly any razor should be able to be honed. Even junk steel razors should be able to be honed, although the finished product may not hold an edge.

Junk razors can not be honed. You need a steel that is hard at least in the mid 50s Rockwell and has fine enough grain or you will have a knife type object that may 'cut' through some stuff, but will never be suitable for shaving.
That 'holding an edge' lingo seems to have come from people with little experience with honing and can offer only speculations of how bad 'razors' behave. In real life the steel simply can not support sharp enough edge - it's not a matter of creating an edge which then fails during the first stroke, the problem is that it crumbles before it gets in the range of necessary geometry.


So, you need to answer the real question - what kind of honing are you planning to do.
If you want to only maintain your razors after they are honed once then get that naniwa 12k that you want to get and you're done.

If you want to restore razors that come off ebay or antique shops then you need 1k level hone and then something in the 4k level and something in the 8k level (you can sometimes mix and match manufacturers, but if you don't your life will be easier).
3k->10k is a big jump that you should not attempt at this point and the one you want is 5k->8k, but if you have to alter one of them do 3k->8k because you already said you're getting the 12k.

Originally Posted by gugi

So, you need to answer the real question - what kind of honing are you planning to do.
If you want to only maintain your razors after they are honed once then get that naniwa 12k that you want to get and you're done.

If you want to restore razors that come off ebay or antique shops then you need 1k level hone and then something in the 4k level and something in the 8k level (you can sometimes mix and match manufacturers, but if you don't your life will be easier).
3k->10k is a big jump that you should not attempt at this point and the one you want is 5k->8k, but if you have to alter one of them do 3k->8k because you already said you're getting the 12k.

I would go along with that and I did. I use all Naniwa Super Stones in a progression of 1K, 3k, 8K and 12K followed by a Crox pasted balsa strop to try and bring old razors to shave ready.

If you are going to do a lot of old razors I would consider getting the thick,2cm/20mm, versions of the hones as opposed to the thin,1cm/10mm ones. At a minimum the thick version of the 1K as it will be your work horse in setting bevels on those old razors.

Whatever way you decide to go have fun at honing. It is an aspect of shaving with a straight razor that I am surprised that I enjoy now. It was plenty frustrating in the beginning though but I had no real experience in sharpening anything.

Bob

Originally Posted by technoid

There are two types of people in my opinion, those who pay $20 for someone to do it for them when necessary, and those who spend $400 on the tools necessary and put forth hours and hours of time learning to do it for themselves. I am the second one.

Tech
I lean toward the latter one myself, this is why I bought some crap razors to learn, I already have 220/1k and 4k/8k stones, I use them for my knifes, I like really sharp knifes. I am new to this whole SR thing myself, but I want to learn every aspect of it just because I like to learn. Till i can bring a "crap razor" to a shave-able edge I will be sending my 2 razors out to hone as needed. I would recomend looking on you tube for Lynn Abrams videos on the subject, not that my opinion holds any weight as I am a newb, but Lynn from what I understand is a God at honing razors. Lots of luck with your endeavors.