Thread: A Begginer to Honing!

Originally Posted by edhewitt

In my opinion buy a decent 12k hone and lapping plate (or use wet and dry) and just maintain the edge you have, when the 12k stops cutting it buy a coarser hone.

Yup!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Robeth

I'm right there with you Bananaby. Got my first straight last Christmas, then got a Norton 4K/8K hone sometime afterwards. Pretty sure I rolled my edge right off the bat with my strop, but alls well that ends well. I got my Norton at a woodworking shop, since those guys have to keep their steels sharp too. Look around on your island for folks who work with wood. Check out Lynn Abrams videos on honing on Youtube. You'll do just fine. If you are like me and you don't have a grandfather to teach you everything, then honing is just like shaving; you will never learn if you don't start sometime.

Check out the Nick Shaves videos....he has a couple with Howard Schecter of The Perfect Edge, discussing SR honing...
Howard has been in the honing/sharpening biz for many years...if it has a cutting edge, he WILL make it "Perfect"....No kidding!!
I tend to agree with others here who have suggested a single 8K or higher stone for "refreshing" your ST...a QUALITY strop is also VERY useful...
And my own take --- Keep pastes, etc. OFF THE STROP!! HONE with stone, STROP with leather!!
ABOVE ALL ELSE.....DON'T RUSH ANYTHING!!! Learn from the ground up...and ENJOY THE JOURNEY!! It's a real EYE-OPENER!!
Good luck!!

Close shaves should SOOTHE ya....NOT SCARE ya!!

Originally Posted by dasstraightguy

Check out the Nick Shaves videos....he has a couple with Howard Schecter of The Perfect Edge, discussing SR honing...
Howard has been in the honing/sharpening biz for many years...if it has a cutting edge, he WILL make it "Perfect"....No kidding!!
I tend to agree with others here who have suggested a single 8K or higher stone for "refreshing" your ST...a QUALITY strop is also VERY useful...
And my own take --- Keep pastes, etc. OFF THE STROP!! HONE with stone, STROP with leather!!
ABOVE ALL ELSE.....DON'T RUSH ANYTHING!!! Learn from the ground up...and ENJOY THE JOURNEY!! It's a real EYE-OPENER!!
Good luck!!

Close shaves should SOOTHE ya....NOT SCARE ya!!

I cant understand where Howard Schecter of The Perfect Edge is coming from, or what he's talking about.
Obviously he has more experience than me but some of his ideas dumbfound me.
He doesn't strop because he believes it is detrimental to the blades edge.
He also says that he will take a coticule over a Jnat any day because Jnats have soft spots and basically he suggests they are all hype .

There are many opinions but at the end of the day you have to find out what works for you

I started honing the 1st day I started straight razor shaving lol I was freehand sharpening knives and was really getting into it so I started looking up other things to sharpen, that's how I fell into straight razors. One mistake I made was purchasing cheap stones my first run and spent about $179 for a set called taidea, 1k 3k&5k two sided 8k the stones were eaten alive from sharpening... Dishing out then when I would lap them they were practically nothing by the first month lol... I then purchased the shapton kuromaku series which was actually not much more expensive and I had a more complete set 320 1k 2k 5k 8k 15k which came to a total of $250 dollars... I have now been using these stones for the last month and you can't even tell they have been used aside from the writing being lapped off... i purchased all my stones from Amazon as a have a credit card I opened with them and have 12 month financing on everything so this new hobby wouldn't hurt much... You'll also need something to Lapp the stones with I oringinally purchased a Norton flattening stone which was okay but I recently purchased an Atoma 400 and it is a much better lapper... Like anything else that takes hand and eye coordination there is a learning curve and not to toot my own horn but I caught on pretty quick in terms of my technique on honing... I would recommend watching a TON Of YouTube videos on honing which is where i learned almost everything along with a micro-meet which was very informative so if you can find one in your area I would suggest going... Hope this helps

Fonz

“Check out the Nick Shaves videos....he has a couple with Howard Schecter of The Perfect Edge, discussing SR honing...”

Yea, that is an… interesting video, but not the video for a novice to base their honing technique on. It may work for him, but is a very aggressive technique and good way to grind away a lot of your razor.

Do begin with a light touch up with a quality synthetic 12K stone, do not buy ebay natural stones, it will just extend your learning curve.

Learning to shave and strop is where you should concentrate your learning, not saying you can’t do both, but more than one new honer, shaver have just, given up, it can be overwhelming.

Honing is not quite as easy as the pro's make it look. If all is well with the razor spine and edge, then yes it will hone quickly. If there is any warp or chips to deal with, things get challenging...

Did anyone mention a Swaty for a beginning hone?

+1 for the Naniwa 12k, it is a great stone for touching up an edge.

I would strongly suggest you get a SRD modular strop. If you try a conventional strop you could dull the edge real fast on your razor. I use the modular and it has interchangeable pads that fit on a wood base so there is very little chance of dulling the razor and it does a great job. Second, I would invest in a Shapton 12 k stone for refreshing then stropping. If you need the bevel set, send it out to one of the excellent members to set the edge and hone. You can pick up cheap razors on eBay to practice honing and stropping on. Once you feel comfortable, then you can invest in an 8k stone. I find the Shaptons are very easy to maintain and give a very good edge if used correctly.