Thread: did i just screw up a perfectly honed razor?

You should have stropped on leather as many strokes as you did on linen, I believe Lynn gives a free re-hone to new guys, for just such an emergency. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

For anyone else out there thinking about taking your razor to a knife guy......please don't!

Fortunately, I know a lot less than anyone else commenting here, so allow me to tell you the one simple thing that every beginner should know -- DON'T HONE ANYTHING!! Don't even think about it.

Just send you blades to a master sharpener like Lynn, and then use them for months. That's really how long a honing should last you -- many, many shaves and certainly more than 30.

When you get more experienced and actually know how to maintain your blades by stropping, then you can start to think about the other parts of the honing process, like a finishing stone, a mid-range stone, a bevel setting stone and so forth.

But seriously, don't hone anything right now. Your blade does not need it, really.

It must have been the stropping, IMO.

As Jimmy said, the death-blow was the subsequent honing - maybe you could have brought the edge back on the leather up to that point (if you didn't roll it, that is).

Just FYI, I usually do 30 on linen and 50 on leather. Linen is quite coarse - more abrasive than cotton, much more abrasive than leather.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

You should have stropped on leather as many strokes as you did on linen, I believe Lynn gives a free re-hone to new guys, for just such an emergency. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

For anyone else out there thinking about taking your razor to a knife guy......please don't!

I'll be more than happy to re-hone it for you. You can just pick up the postage.

Lynn