Thread: I've got the stones, now what!?

I learnt without a mentor.

It's not easy but it can be done. The first thing is getting over the fear of the rocks. I played about with the back side of a teaspoon for a bit with my rocks. Learning how much force is needed to make them do something. It's far less force than you think, and you don't need to work at a fast pace. Slow methodical light strokes work very well.

I use circles and X stokes on most of my razors. Again it's learning to not only use the right force, but also to get all of the edge. Using a marker pen you can ink the edge. The hone will remove the ink and show you where you are missing.

If you pick a shaving razor and lightly kill the edge with a thumb nail. Then work up from the 5K. 10-20 light laps, inspect the edge, test it on arm hair. If it needs a little more ink up again and do another 10-20 laps. Once you have the edge tree-topping from the 5K, move onto the 8 then 12K doing the same. Because you are not setting a bevel it will take very little time to bring an edge back.

After the 12K Crox strop 10-20 laps, then 100 on plain leather and do a test shave. Your face will tell you instantly if you got it right.

You also need to flatten your rocks, before you do anything. 800-1200 grit wet and dry paper on the flattest surface you have. Counter top, float glass, picture glass ect. Get the paper wet, draw a grid pattern in pencil on the face of the hone, and do a few figure of 8's. Once all the pencil is gone, draw another grid, and do a couple of very light figure of 8's just to make sure the pencil comes off evenly.