and it begins...

After watching and then touching & smelling some unknown & known hones/stones/laps folks brought to the last Greater Pacific Northwest Wet Shavers meet, my first meet, I was hooked. :nj

Studying the forum/library and collecting some inexpensive entry level hones, I spent the last few weeks familiarizing myself with and learning how easy some hones gouge/damage, then what it takes to clean them up, edge beveling, lapping and, polishing my hones.

I read where the Norton laps are not always flat out of the box and will additionally need correcting from time to time. That worried me. I notice, with cross hatch pencil marks, the lap repeatedly seemed to be high in the middle and or remove material in center of hones. Tonight I found a DMT 325/1200 10" for a good price. Can't wait to see what is true and what is not.

I'm hoping the inexpensive Imperia la Roccia 12K turns into a good finisher. It cleaned up nice and polished like glass on 2000 wet/dry. My novice nose smells a slate like for this stone. Anybody else get a whiff?

No razor to touch stone until they are just right and then to let the stone do the work. I'll be looking for a couple practice razors soon. Being as heavy handed as I am I have lots of work and practice ahead. gssixgun makes it looks so easy. :bow

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Sorry my writing skills are so poor. colon pee (:p)

Glad to see you jumping in to the honing game. Knowing your attention to detail I bet you will do great.

Matt

Advice from a fellow heavy handed shaver. It takes a great deal of conscious reminding to constantly think in light pressure terms. The mental image that gets the process going for me each time is a feather floating on the breeze. That gets my muscle memory to remember that hard learned lesson and I immediately lighten my pressure.

The way I also remember it is Muhammad Ali's quote, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." That equals light pressure and a firm attack of the problem. Increased my percent of getting good edges from a low of 5% to a current estimate of about 80% (only going back to the stones after the shave test fails).

As I stated on a different thread, I could now declare myself a genius and then I doused myself with cold water to bring me back to reality.

I purchased the same 12k and it showed up today. I'll be testing it out tonight, but from what I've read it is a good hone. Welcome to the club!

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Perfect. I can use that. Thank you.