Hi folks,
I'm new to honing razors and new to the forum - I've posted a brief intro here, where I outlined my first attempts at honing.
I started posting about honing at B&B as I've been a regular there for a while, but I thought it might be worthwhile keeping a honing journal here too - there's a wider range of people to get feedback from, and my experiences might be of some help to other newbies.
Since my first couple of honing attempts, I've decided I'm going to approach things more methodically and try to master one thing at a time (rather than a mix of waterstones, slates, CrOx, HAD, and not really grokking which stone or stage did what). So I'm sticking to Naniwa Super Stones for starters, so I can get a proper feel for how each grit works and what it's capable of.
Since my intro post, I've honed this razor...
Attachment 137001
(On the back of the tang it says "Made in Germany", and it's a bit cleaner and shiner now than when I took that photo.)
There was a bit of pitting on the edge with one noticeable chip, and the bevel right at the toe had an area with some quite coarse-looking scratches on both sides.
I started with the Naniwa 1k - some circular honing with a bit of pressure, then on to x-strokes with less and less pressure. And that worked well - I honed out the chip and pitting successfully, and checking under a 40x loupe I could see the bevel had an even set of scratches all along its length on both sides. At this stage the razor shaved arm hairs pretty well at skin level.
Next onto the Naniwa 3k, again starting with a few circular strokes and then getting onto x-strokes, and I ended up with finer scratches along the bevel.
Naniwa 8k next, and that produced a pretty well-polished edge, with some scratches that really looked very fine. At this stage, it was pinging hairs of my arm at treetop level very nicely.
That's the limit of my Naniwa stones for now, so I stropped on leather and tried a shave test, to learn what an 8k edge can do. And I got a pretty good shave - better than I expected. It wasn't as sharp or as smooth as it could be, but it really wasn't bad at all.
I intend to get a Naniwa 12k, but I'm going to try a few more shaves on the 8k first, with a couple of different razors - I reckon that way I'll get a better feel for it, and will be better able to understand the difference the 12k makes.
That's it for now - back next hone (which might actually be very soon - my fingers are twitching).