Thread: The Full Honing Arsenal (pics)

Originally Posted by sarahbella

I am a little concerned at the stone purchase(s) that Mark will undoubtedly place when he gets home.
Sarah

If his purchasing of Razors is a tell, I think he is about to get into a shopping spree with HAD and OCD... Some online store is about to become that much more wealthy.. And all I have to do is sit back and watch.

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

BTW I don't think you have HAD. If you had HAD then you would have doubles of some stuff, but I don't see many doubles.

-----Michael

Thinking about this post again made me wonder how many 8K or the equivalent there are??? I think it is HAD!

Tim

I hope I have a fraction of a collection of what Glen has someday. *drools*

OK GSSIXGUN,

You are on an island and can only take three stones.

Which ones would you take?

Gammaray

My aresenal!!!

Have fun!

Originally Posted by Gammaray

OK GSSIXGUN,

You are on an island and can only take three stones.

Which ones would you take?

Gammaray

Originally Posted by sarahbella

Well into the morning and I am wondering how Mark and Glen are doing. I am a little worried that Mark may have passed out from excitement, much like a kid in a candy store, he was so excited this morning.

Have a great day you two, we all want a report on how the day went. I am a little concerned at the stone purchase(s) that Mark will undoubtedly place when he gets home.

Happy Honing!
Sarah

Honestly Sarah, I told him not to buy any new stones until he masters that Norton 4/8 that he was honing with today, or at least until after the Yakima meet, let us know if that works

It was a great time and we are both really hoping the vid of Mark's first time honing comes out, if it does it might actually be more helpful to some of the other new guys then my normal honing vids.. Like Mark and I found out it is one thing to watch a vid of me honing, and then watching somebody honing who is making all the ineveitable mistakes but learning how to correct them, so we are hoping that it might be very good for other new honers... Hope to have it edited and up this week...



g

Originally Posted by Gammaray

OK GSSIXGUN,

You are on an island and can only take three stones.

Which ones would you take?

Gammaray

If I am on a damn Island,, I ain't shaving

OK, Glen, so I lied about posting a full report tonight. I'm beat. You don't live in Sandpoint. Hell, you don't even live in Laclede...you're further north still. LOL. I had a nice 2-hour drive home, and I managed to avoid pasting a small family of 4 deer at 70mph (dusk). The adrenalin shot was lovely tho and saved me a can of Red Bull.

Anyway, I can't thank you enough for the lessons today, and I hopefully me looking a bit foolish taping blades in front of the camera makes this all worthwhile in the end. I would've felt too selfish keeping all that learning to myself. Thanks to you a lot of folks will see like most things the pros tend to make it look a wee bit too easy.

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thanks!!!

Where to start, wow. The full arsenal at Glen's place was a sight to behold. I've never seen so many hones in my life, and all nicely set up on the dining room table. Your wife is an angel, Glen. Definitely a keeper, and I haven't even met her yet.

Anyway, I liked Glen's idea. Instead of of me watching him hone and restore my razors, Glen went the opposite direction...and ramped it up a notch. The first blade I honed was my Dovo 6/8 Flowing carbon on the Norton 4/8, and we video-taped the whole session for razor nerd posterity. I was nervous to say the least.

First off, man, taping a textured spine like on the Flowing is not nearly as easy as Glen makes it look. Straight off the bat I wrinkled the tape near the toe, forcing me to start over again. Did I mention I am nervous in front of the camera? That was a small price to pay fortunately. Another common mistake I made was resetting the blade not fully onto the stone. That quickly improved though as I gathered confidence in my strokes, keeping my forearm parallel with the ground as Glen advised.

Another thing Glen had to remind of frequently was to pull the DMT325 out and lap the stones prior to using them. This method seems great for keeping the stones perfectly flat through their lives, but I kept forgetting due to nerves or something. I need to buy my chosera 1k and a DM325, and keep HAD at bay till Yakima.

Back to the honing, Glen let me choose the finisher on the Flowing, and hearing about Thuringens quite frequently, I decided to go that route. Man, those finishing strokes felt so buttery smooth. Finally, my excitement was overtaking my nervousness. I was having fun and had honed my first razor, ladies and gentlemen! Yeehaw! With the master happily giving me pointers instead of beating me down a la the dojo scenes in Kill Bill; Glen is awesome to learn from folks. He's a great teacher and cares about passing on his knowledge. I am still pinching myself.

So after wrapping up the Dovo, Glen decided it was time to put me to work on my barber's vintage Fromm which had a slight frown according to Glen and many chips as seen through the loupe. Let me say right here, I thought this razor looked like junk, but I wanted Glen to check it out. Glen did me one better and had me restore and hone this Fromm 4/8. Here I learned how to use force to get to different areas of the blade like where the toe was damaged.

Glen had me pull the blade across the corner edge to the 1k ever so gently for a few strokes till those chips disappeared at the heel and toe.

By the time we were done with that blade, wow, she was an amazing sight to behold. Glen allowed me to finish this one on his lovely Arkansas white...WOW! This piece of crap razor now looked liked some shiny steel that I wouldn't mind shaving with. Heck, a buddy of mine threw down a 4/8 challenge, so my next shave will be with my barber's razor. I'm slightly afraid of skinny blades and much more comfortable, say with my Lewis 8/8. LOL. So I'm weird that way. I will post a picture of this blade tonight when I get the chance.

Anyway, the next incredibly valuable lesson Glen gave me was in stropping. I was still doing it wrong, and I had no idea that the palm of the hand needs to be rubbed on the strop to raise its temperature and bring the natural oils to the surface so the strop can do its work. This was invaluable advice which I also later noticed on the stropping pamphlet that accompanied my T-I Oak Wing. No wonder my paddle strop wasn't giving me much draw.

Glen also showed me thumb placement and had me confined my rolling moves to the hand area rather than involving the whole arm. This new trick will take practice, and the thumb-notches on several of my razors make stropping all the more challenging for this noob.

Lastly, Glen honed my T-I 7/9 Carbonsong on the Naniwa progression, telling me I will be comparing all of my shavers to that one most likely as he laughed his famously evil laugh.

Did I forget anything? I'm sure I must have, but that was the run-down as I see it. Quite the learning experience. I can't wait to see Hollywood Speedster in action, and see all of those dorky mistakes he made.

LOL.

Cheers all and thanks a 1,000x over Glen!

Good Times Speedster!!! I can't wait to hear what it's like for you to shave with a 4/8!

Hey - can I send you my blades now for honing?