Thread: Newbie honing fail

Hello all, this is my very first post here. I'm from Montreal and have been unable to find a honemeister in my city so I decided to order a Norton 8k 4k and went to Home Depot to buy a tile and some 600 grit sandpaper to lap the stone.

So I used the guide on this site to perform two consecutive pyramids with a straight stroke since my 5/8 Simmons (Germany) fits just right over the hone. Unfortunately, my razor went from dull to being a suitable butter knife. I can't ever shave hair of my forearm without excessive scraping!

so I guess it's back to my old Mach 3 until I can turn my new butter knife into as razor once again. Just to be sure, I consider a stroke as being a single stroke one way across the hone. I concluded this was right because of the use of the word stroke instead of pass; the latter would have led me to believe that 25 passes would equal 50 strokes one way across the hone. Am I mistaken in my interpretation?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Trying going on the 4k and try Lynn's '40 circles' i am assuming you have some kind of beveal left on the thing if it was shave ready at one time. The video is on the home page under Lynn Honing on the right side bar. Once you try that you will either start to see the blade getting a sharper edge or the thing will be as 'bread knife' as ever. If the latter is the case send it out to get honed, buy some cheap vintage SRs and hone them to the bone till you get it right! If the blade is sarpening up you prob have alright technique, continue with X strokes then progress to the 8K. Let me know.

I would stray from the pyramids and counting strokes. The blade has no inclination to cooperate with any set procedure...every blade will require a different number of passes on a hone before it releases its "inner sharp"

It seems the bevel is smaller than before which leads me to believe is the reason why the razor is no longer sharp. It seems I've worn into the spine of blade and am starting to flatten it.

I'm considerably frustrated because my straight is no longer providing me with an acceptable shave and there's no adequate honing in my area. I'll have to give up on straights altogether if I can't get this right. I'll post a video of my honing procedure shortly so someone can put me on the right track if they are so inclined.

Shipping a straight is very reasonable. If you have a troubled case, I might suggest shipping the blade to a person skilled at repair/honing and get it set. Maintaining a well honed blade is much easier than repairing one and setting the bevel.

Professional honing is something everyone has to utilize at least once...otherwise, you will never know what you are working toward

Anyone you could recommend in eastern Canada?

Originally Posted by MTLian

It seems the bevel is smaller than before which leads me to believe is the reason why the razor is no longer sharp. It seems I've worn into the spine of blade and am starting to flatten it.

I'm considerably frustrated because my straight is no longer providing me with an acceptable shave and there's no adequate honing in my area. I'll have to give up on straights altogether if I can't get this right. I'll post a video of my honing procedure shortly so someone can put me on the right track if they are so inclined.

Dont give up on straights. Like all 'great things in life' you never got good until you've 'honed your blades on many hones' My advice send it out this time, buy a reasonably price vintage with no major defects which you have no signifigant attraction or feelings for and then hone it, dull it hone it and dull it, until you get a nice edge on every try. once you've burned up your test razor try maintaining the blade on your daily shaver. Lnce you have a handle on that get the confidence to work on more ambitious projects.

No man with the desire to succeed ever walked in to the first week of work at new job and expecting a promotion, and no man with a new razor and virgin hone ever took a bread knife and turned it shave ready on the first pass.

Yea but that bread knife once had a nice edge, then it got dull and now that I've tried to hone it its dulled to he point where I can almost run my finger along the blade without drawing blood!

I was able to get it back to pocket knife status but I'm staring to wonder if I lapped my hone properly. The 8k is smooth as a baby's bottom but the the 4k might be uneven. I had a hard time lapping the 4 k side because it kept destroying my 600 grit Norton sandpaper. I'm starting to wish I had gone with 400 grit for lapping.

Honestly, shaving is more of a functionality thing than a hobby for me right now so that's why I only have one razor. Not a family heirloom or anything but a good razor. Eventually I'd like a dovo but I can't justify the buy right now. I'm actually not so keen on starting a collection but it seems if I can't hone my razor, I'll be forced to buy more razors to have something to shave with for the time it takes to mail them around to honemeisters. I just don't have the time, money or the interest to bother with that right now so it looks like ill have to switch to injector type system with disposable blades. I'll start another thread on that but if anyone has a recommendation for a good disposable blade while I figure out what to do with my straight, I'm all ears! Anything but that mach 3! Thanks for the input guys!

Thanks for the offer. I think I'll hold on to the norton and try and practice when I have vacation time in June. I'll still exercise my futility and post a video, maybe there's something I'm obviously not doing right.

Rather than the shavette, I was thinking more of a vintage Gillette safety razor (if that's what they are called). I've seen that there are about billion different brands of blades so any pointers will help me get started with that.

Sounds like you need to reset the bevel, then go through the honing pyramid. You can reset the bevel on the 4k side of your hone. You'll know you have a good bevel when you can shave the hairs or your arm with little effort. Good luck.