Thread: Honing questions!

Originally Posted by jfk742

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...on-2012-a.html

this will give you answers to questions you didnt even know you had. I found a lot of the good techniques work well for other synthetics as well.

WOW, i only saw his youtube stuff, This is very informative, and clears up most everything about the norton, Is he a professional honemeister? Or dedicated hobbyist?

EDIT* I saw he is a vendor in the other thread, look forward to doing business one day!

A Norton 4k is an aggressive stone and unless the razor has issued, like a stabilizer that is hitting the stone, a common GD issue, should easily re-set a bevel not that much slower than a 1k, unless you are doing repair work.

Most any 1k will easily set a bevel, but the Nortons and Nanawia are proven performers for the money, though a King will deliver the same results, just different feel and smaller footprint, the price difference is not that much, it is a lifetime purchase.

Photos will help, as I suspect your issue may be the razor, not the 4K, which is why Gold Dollars are not recommended for learning to hone.

What magnification are you using?

An 8K to .3um (50K) is a very big jump, I would try 1um flim between the 8K and .03. Also using a sheet of copy paper under the .3 or 1um will better polish the edge.

I doubt that a Coticule will deliver a finer edge than your 8k and will be more difficult to learn.

Learn on a synthetic progression, then play with the naturals.

Ya I recently read that some coticules finish at a 6k equivalent so idk I think I got distracted by how nice they look and that natural edge hype. No magnification (for edge checking I assume?) I am definitely putting something before the .3 now that you mention it 8 to 30k probably will take a quite a few laps to get a noticeable difference. And again thanks for the input i will be at it again Monday. The shoulder on the gold dollar is getting ground down this weekend then I will dull and re-hone, any other lower end razors (sub 100.00) that are good for bevel practice?
Sorry for all the questions I'm long winded.

It's been said on SRP before you should be getting comfortable clean shaves off the 8 before moving on to a finisher. Glen himself would tell you that

+1 to the above. Check out the classifieds for a cheaper good quality razor

Thanks fellas went back at it again the past few days grinded the shoulder off of the gold dollar and re honed it and re did the wester as well decent shave, I'll get there one day if only my face would grow hair faster and I could shave 2x a day I would learn faster, also had a question about re-honing, if I'm not satisfied with an edge should I dull it (glass or side of the stone swipe) and reset the bevel or just try and touch up?

If you are sure that the bevel is set then just go from a higher grit the only reason to dull it is if you are unsure of the bevel

First of all welcome!

I'll address your points as you wrote them, hopefully this will be of some help!

1) I personally would forget the HHT as a test as its totally subjective. The example I always trot out is of taking one of my DD's (which take insane edges) and trying the HHT - I get a pass about 60% of the time, my dad got a pass 100% of the time and a mate of mine couldnt get it to work at all. But the shave was epic! So thats really the only test that matters, if it shaves good then its good. If it doesnt, it isnt!

I will also caveat that with the statement by saying that GD's can be a bit finicky edge wise and can be very difficult to hone due to the varying build quality. By no means am I an expert but I've honed ~35 of them and have found them to be very varied.

2) Re finishers, I've used coti's in the past and had one for a time (it was a coti/BBW combo) and I ended up not keeping it. I reckon Thuringians give much smoother edges (IMHO) and are of comparable cost. A finisher isnt really adding much in the way of sharpness but they do add the smoothness, so you want to get whatever adds the most smoothness for you. If theres someone in your area who can sit down with you and show you the edges on a few razors thats always useful!

I ended up getting an Asagi a while back which is my main go-to finisher, and that was purely off the back of a DD I got from holli4pirating which he'd honed on the same stone. Wicked sharp and an edge like butter.

3) I would be very picky with your bevel setter! Its the stone that does the most work and provides the foundation for every other stone in the progression to work from, so you want to make sure its a good one.

Ironically they're usually the cheapest stone as well, but we all get excited about Eschers and what not which cost 10 times as much hehe!

My picks would be either the Shapton on glass 1k or the Chosera 1k. TBH if I had to stick to just one it would probably be the Chosera as it plays well with every other make of stone (which the Shaptons dont, they work better with other Shaptons), they cut quickly like the Shaptons do and they dont dish out like the Naniwa SS do.

4) Balsa wood works well with CrOx as it has some give but not too much, so I think you should be fine with that TBH.

And re the Arkansas stones, I've not used them myself so sadly cant comment! Generally I would say keep those separate for your knives as you hone razors and knives in a different way, thats what I do and it seems to work for me! YMMV of course.

Hope that was of some help!

Thanks a lot for the input I'm putting less faith in the hht for sharpness and more for if I have done I should meet or exceed previous testing, and the balsa wood I'm going to repaste and keep on trucking. And I think my blades are sharp enough but I'm not sure if I'm getting a sawtooth edge or maybe the keenness of the edge off of the lapping film is irritating my chin after I slash away at my chin hairs of steel (seriously de feather blades tug a bit down there) and causes some irritation, I'm pretty careful with the blade and I've shaved a bunch (few months-every day) so Ive got so much hype on a natural edge everyone raves about irritation free shaving.

And lastly I did kind of pick up on the 1k stone prices I'm not really saving a ton by buying a king so I will definitely take up your advice on going for a chosera, or maybe a Norton 1k. And for the finishers sadly I know no one else who uses straights so I'm in the dark on this one.
You guys "rock" (are bad puns allowed?)

Bowne out

Update, got another strop and a sheet of leather otw to make some, threw some paste on it, .25 diamond.
Taped my edges and rehoned the gold dollar after being grinded, DFS afterward.
The one from Mr. larry still shaves like a champ after its initial re-hone by myself. Im getting the hang of it, thanks to all who gave advice and helped me out!

Also i ordered a coticule, it just bothered me not to have it... no clue why...