Thread: Newbie honing journal

No Name

Couple of hundred laps done on the 8k with lather, refreshing the lather every 25 laps, and I could feel the edge improving as I went along - by the end it felt like it was being sucked to the stone.

I tried it on arm hair and it was tree-topping it. I compared to my new Thiers-Issard and the two were pretty much the same, so I reckon the No Name is probably fine.

I'll do a test shave tomorrow.

Alan

No Name

Test shave, and I was very impressed! It was easily as sharp and smooth as my new TI that was finished on a Naniwa 12k. I only tested on a small area and went on to shave with DE razors (I do blade tests too), and it was interesting that the straight was noticeably smoother than Personna Lab and Rapira SS DE blades.

What makes this additionally pleasing is that the razor only cost me £4!

Correction: I meant the straight was smoother than the DE blades

Thanks for posting all this up, very interesting for a junior guy considering honing in the not too distant future!

Originally Posted by Damo

Thanks for posting all this up, very interesting for a junior guy considering honing in the not too distant future!

I'm glad you're finding it helpful.

Honing is perhaps not the easiest thing in the world, but it's not brain surgery either and there really is no mystique. I think it's pretty much a combination of learning the techniques (and there are plenty of helpful people here and videos to watch), practice, patience and attention to detail - and if you're comfortable with those things, you should be able to master it easily. And being a bit obsessive helps too

I did something very similar, I stopped at 8K for quite a while while I was still getting the hang of honing. I thought that should suffice since many people say they can get great shaves from an 8K. The first antique store razor I cleaned up is the razor I decided that I would learn to hone on. It took me quite a few attempts at setting the bevel then progressing before I got it to where it would shave. In between attempts I would watch videos from various people and read as much as I could to see what I was doing wrong. Eventually it all came together, probably about the 5th hone session I could shave with it (though very uncomfortable). By about the 8th attempt it shaved great! Not as well as my shave ready from Lynn, but I was happy I put an edge on a piece of metal that I could shave with. Did this to a few more razors as I was starting to collect them and the 8K kept them all in shaving order. Finally decided to break down and buy the 12K and I'm happy I did. Took mine and my fathers shaves to the next level.

Originally Posted by MuskieMan33

I did something very similar, I stopped at 8K for quite a while while I was still getting the hang of honing. I thought that should suffice since many people say they can get great shaves from an 8K. The first antique store razor I cleaned up is the razor I decided that I would learn to hone on. It took me quite a few attempts at setting the bevel then progressing before I got it to where it would shave. In between attempts I would watch videos from various people and read as much as I could to see what I was doing wrong. Eventually it all came together, probably about the 5th hone session I could shave with it (though very uncomfortable). By about the 8th attempt it shaved great! Not as well as my shave ready from Lynn, but I was happy I put an edge on a piece of metal that I could shave with. Did this to a few more razors as I was starting to collect them and the 8K kept them all in shaving order. Finally decided to break down and buy the 12K and I'm happy I did. Took mine and my fathers shaves to the next level.

That's very interesting to hear, thanks - I see it as confirmation that time spent getting the most you can at 8k makes for better eventual results at 12k. I do intend to get a 12k, but not until I'm convinced I've reached the limit with 8k.

This is going to be my next one for honing...



This one's a Joseph Rodgers 1/4 hollow, which should give me a bit of variation from the full hollows I've done so far. The angle of the bevel made it look like it hasn't been honed with tape, but there isn't much hone wear on the spine. It's an eBay purchase, so maybe the current bevel is a new one made by the seller - though it's nowhere near usable, and I'll be setting the bevel again.

Not sure how I'll finish this one. I might try taking a lather finish a bit further, or I might finish on CrOx - or I might do both!

I'm a bit too tired after a long day to start on it today - but I did a quick Sharpie test to get some idea of how much work there is to do, and also to be sure I know where the current bevel angle actually is. And the result was pretty good - there's only a smallish area behind the toe where the ink didn't clear in 2 laps on the 1k. And sure enough - the current bevel is a no-tape one.

New to honing myself. I am very interested to know how you can tell if a razor was previously honed with tape or not...I had no idea there was a way of knowing aside from the amount of hone wear on the spine!

Thank you for doing this journal. It is definitely very helpful.

Originally Posted by Attila

New to honing myself. I am very interested to know how you can tell if a razor was previously honed with tape or not...I had no idea there was a way of knowing aside from the amount of hone wear on the spine!

Thank you for doing this journal. It is definitely very helpful.

If it had been honed with tape, the bevel would have been at a slightly steeper angle than if it had been honed without tape. So when I did the sharpie test (mark the bevel with marker pen ink - a sharpie works on metal) without tape and the ink came off evenly in the first couple of laps, I could conclude that the bevel had previously been honed at the same angle and therefore without tape. Had the blade previously been honed with tape, I would have expected a double bevel to form and the ink would have started to come off from the back of the bevel while remaining at the edge.

Great to know this. Thanks Oscroft!