Thread: Learning Curve

Im new to SR shaving. Is there a significant learning curve to honing or am I better off just leaving it to a professional?

For now leave it to the professionals. Get at least 6 months in at shaving.

you can start any time but ya there's a learning curve, and the better you know how to shave and strop the better you will understand the edge your trying to achieve. And while your learning to shave its best to do with a great edge. Thus let someone keep them ready for you. But if you shaving technique and stropping is spot on your edge will kast so long you won't get much honing in. I don't drag the hones out in so long they are dusty and need to learn them all over again. Tc

Just to add to the good advice already given. When you do begin to learn how to hone approach it as if you have never sharpened a knife. They are similar but different enough to begin like you have never sharpened anything in your life.

So yea there is a fairly big learning curve to honing and it is easier to get your shaving down first, leaving the honing to the pros in the meantime.

Bob

I agree. Learn to shave and strop first. Put in 6 months or more of daily shaving with a properly honed razor so you will know for sure what it should be like. Then think about honing 8f you want. But if your not getting into restoring or collecting then there really is no need for hones or learning them. Like if you only plan on having 2 or 4 great razors for use then dont bother as a razor when properly managed will last you for months of daily shaving.

What they said. Ha.

I'd say start honing whenever you like, but also be sure to have a professionally honed razor on hand to compare your work to.

There is a learning curve to all things related to straight shaving. Like many others, I believe you should acquire some shaving skill before plunging into honing. However, if you really want to start learning to hone, make sure it is with a spare razor that you don't shave with. It should be a razor that you don't mind making mistakes with. And approach honing as if you know nothing about it.

I agree with the advice given so far(though i didn't follow it myself) but i got into honing because i was into collecting razors and wanted to restore and save money on paying someone else to hone for me. Yes, it is challenging and not for everyone the easiest way to learn is to have someone show you.

Start to learn to hone once you have the hang of stropping. There's little or no point in honing before you can strop as you will need to strop any blades you hone!

That been said there are only 2 real way to get into honing. You find a mentor and let them teach you, Or you buy rocks and start a process of trial and improvement.

You will need a selection of hones. There are a few big players who's hones are trusted. Norton, Naniwa, Shapton, And to a lesser extent King. Anything that is not one of those names you should avoid, once you know what you are doing then you can get cheap rocks to play with, To learn however you need to reduce variables. And one of the worst variables is hones that are made with poor quality tolerances.

You will need a rotation of stones and a loose guideline is 1, 4, 8K.

1K is the bevel setter, It's the least important stone, but the stone that also does all the work. All 4 of the names above produce acceptable 1K stones. Cheaper stones tend to act a bit muddy and auto slurry as you work them, but for a razor this is minimal and can be controlled. Speed is only desirable if you hone a lot. A King 1K is a perfectly capable stone and fits a very tight budget. The Naniwa professional in contrast is fast and shallow cutting, but significantly more expensive.

The middle grits are a bit of a playground. Some like to add a 2K stone. I don't bother. I go from 1K to 5K but that is generally not advisable. 3-4K is the spot most people aim for. Naniwa make a decent 3K speciality stone, Norton make a benchmark 4K stone. Both stones are acceptable after a 1K bevel setting.

After that you move up again, to 8K. All of the major brands make 8K stones including king. However the King is not widely regarded, and because it has probably the least razor honing threads of any of the brands it is best left avoided. Naniwa, Norton and Shapton all make acceptable 8K stones. And you can shave at this level quite comfortably after some stropping.

After 8K you have fewer and fewer options. Norton do not make anything beyond 8K, King are best avoided due to lack of literature. Naniwa professional is prohibitively expensive. So the only real options are Naniwa speciality stones or shapton. The Naniwa 12K is regarded as one of the best finishing stones for a beginner that has mastered the 8K level. It's a fast well graded stone, that works with virtually no fuss and produces a very good edge. Going higher than this is preference, but most people would agree that 12K over 8K is a better finishing point and should be the long term goal before HAD sets in.

Personally I like my stones to all look and feel similar, I knew the 12K was my goal, so my rotation looks like this, Naniwa professional 1K, Naniwa speciality 5, 8, 12K.

Norton 1, 4, 8 is a good option but you will need to have the 12K by another company if you want to progress past 8K.
Naniwa speciality 1, 3, 8, 12 is also perfectly acceptable
So too is shapton professional 1, 2, 5, 8, 12
Or shapton glass 1, 3, 8, 10 the glass series also add a 16, and 30.

King offer significantly less, 1, 4, 6, 8 all from different stone sets.

After you have your hones you then need to flatten them. Don't be tempted with a flattening stone. The only options that work well are wet and dry paper on a flat surface, or a good sized diamond plate like the DMT D8C (325 grit). Wet and dry is cheap, and works as well as the surface you use it on.

Once the hones are flat you can then start to experiment. There are loads of ways to go about this. You can ebay cheap vintage blades, Ebay chinese blades and deal with potential bad grinds and poor steel (more variables), Or pick a razor you already use. Whatever you pick it's going to look like a bag of spanners when you are done. The spine will get flat, the bevel will extend.

It's only once you have messed up a couple of edges and got a feel for everything that you will start to be able to put a use able edge onto a razor. It's very much trial and improvement at this point, and every razor done is more information that will speed you up, reduce spine wear, and produce better and better edges. It takes significant time to get to a point where you don't even think about what you are doing anymore.

There’s a learning curve, but it’s mostly the same few rookie mistakes. It’s actually quite easy to learn to hone, especially with synthetic progressions. It’s just important to listen to the right advice, i.e. low pressure on your stones and make sure the bevel is set all along the edge. It’s pretty much as simple as getting a good bevel on a low grit and then just polishing out the low grit scratches. The mistakes I made in the beginning were from honing with pressure or a lack of patience. Definitely learn to use and strop your razor for a good while before honing, though. You don’t want to be learning how to hone when you haven’t gotten the ability to consistently and comfortably use a straight to begin with. If you are already comfortable with it, though, then go for it. May be a good idea to get a cheap test razor for learning like a ZY.