I'm very new to the world of honing (& shaving with a straight, to be honest). I recently bought my first hones. Shapton glass 4k, 8k & 16k. After "honing" for half an hour on the wrong side of the hones (doesn't it make sense to hone on the glass side of a "glass" hone?), I had a go at my good, birthday razor. Was worried I may be doing more harm than good so I decided to practice first.
I got a gold dollar razor from eBay that wouldn't shave a hair on my arm. I looked at it through a jewelers loupe - I have no idea what I'm looking for; just for comparison as I worked on it.
I gave it about 100 strokes on the 4k stone & looked through the loupe again. I could clearly see where I was hitting the blade. There was an obvious second little bevel forming but it wasn't consistent along the edge.
I gave it another round of 100 & had another look. Slight difference but still miles from covering the entire edge. There was good wear near the heel & toe but the heel & toe, themselves, were untouched, as were a couple of spots near the middle.
I've read that you can set/reset a bevel on a 4k; you just need 4 times the strokes as a 1k. Also read you shouldn't have to guess when the bevel is set; if you're not sure, it's not set.
So I just went bananas on it, checking every so often to see if I was gaining ground. I lost count. After about a gazillion strokes I decided to call it a day. The edge was still totally uneven but I figured I'd had good practice.
Against my better instincts I decided give it a few strokes on the 8k & 16k anyway, & then I stropped* (which I also probably suck at). The edge still looked like absolute crap.
But here's the thing. I attempted a shave with it. It was awesome! Smooth, no irritation, no problems at all! I guess it goes to show that I seriously have no idea what I'm looking for when examining an edge under magnification.
I'm not patting myself too firmly on the back until I do it again on a different razor to see if it was beginners luck but I'm pretty chuffed :)
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