I'm new to straights (1 month now), and hit a newbie problem, where I dinged the blade, in my early shaving tries, while rinsing it during shaving. I used to have my lather in a cup, in the sink, full of water. Well, I now use a scuttle and keep the straights away from the sink.
In any case, this posed an opportunity for me. One where I'd love to hear feedback from experienced honers, on my technique, procedure/process.
The blade is a new Dovo Best Quality 5/8, 1/2 hollow from SRD. Rather than use the free hone coupon, I decided I'd try to rescue it myself (and if I fail, send it in). I have a second straight that I can use in the interim.
It has a easily visible ding about 1/4 of he way from the toe, and one right on the corner of the toe(rolled a bit).
I had posted on another thread about this an the suggestion was to do a few passes on the Ninawi 12k (after flattening with the DMT), and then strop with cr-ox and then leather.
I put on one piece of tape (not sure if it was used on it originally, but figured I'd want to save the spine, and I'm a beginner at this). Made a puddle of water on the stone, and did 10 passes, with very light pressure (finger/thumb of left hand on toe, right hand on heel end. I tried to ensure a wave of water was flowing in front of the blade, and it did most of the time. I was very care that I kept the blade straight and flat to the stone all the time.
Well I didn't seem to notice much of a difference, so I continued in sets of 10, wiping the blade after, checking with my magnifying glass, and resetting the stone.
Around 40-50, I started noticing that the ding was getting smaller. So I kept going. Around 150 strokes, I could see that the ding was getting much smaller. By 280 strokes it was a very small shiny spot under the lighted magnifier and barely visible by the naked eye (only under a light).
I continued for a total of 340 strokes, until I could not see the ding any more under the 40x magnifier. I wiped off the blade, and washed the stone under running water rubbing it. Total time was close 2 hours, so I went really slow about 2 seconds in each direction (and a lot of time looking at the edge).
My next step will be stropping with cr-ox, which using it is new to me too, but I need to wait until tomorrow, as I just pasted the strop today (webbed strop).
I realized by 30-40 passes, that I probably should have gone down to the Norton 8k, but it was my first time honing, and I was happy to practice the stroke (ok to take long).
I can't wait to see if this works out OK. I'll likely strop tomorrow and try Monday.
Let me know your thoughts on my process, technique, etc. I'd love to hear where I can improve!
Thanks!
PCM
