Thread: Newbie honing journal

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...



(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).

OK, someone at the other place suggested trying lather on the 8k stone, and I couldn't resist the temptation.

With the Naniwa 8k properly wet, I applied lather to it and did about 30 zero-pressure laps.

And then I stropped and did a test shave - and wow, it was definitely keener and smoother, just from using a bit of lather on the stone! (I'm keeping everything else the same - same lather and brush, same number of laps on strop).

Another thing I noticed is that lather seems to be good for telling if your bevel really is set properly - even with the thinnest layer of lather on the stone, the blade was undercutting it and shaving it off.

I think I'm going to hold off getting the 12k for now, and make sure I get to know this 8k properly with several razors first.

There are quite a few tricks to push 8k hones to the limit..

Try letting the hone go to dry (damp) as you finish on the last 15-20 super light super even laps..


Also keep in mind that you did not "Keep everything the same" you took a razor that was shaving ok then did 30 perfectly smooth laps that you paid very close attention to and got a better result.. You don't actually know if that was the result of the Lather or the result of 30 laps that you paid particular attention to

Originally Posted by gssixgun

There are quite a few tricks to push 8k hones to the limit..

Try letting the hone go to dry (damp) as you finish on the last 15-20 super light super even laps..

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Also keep in mind that you did not "Keep everything the same" you took a razor that was shaving ok then did 30 perfectly smooth laps that you paid very close attention to and got a better result.. You don't actually know if that was the result of the Lather or the result of 30 laps that you paid particular attention to

Yep, very true - what I really need is two identical razors, identical honing progression up until the final difference, two faces...

Now yer thinking like a true SR user, we think of every excuse possible to buy another razor LOL

Welcome to the fold

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Now yer thinking like a true SR user, we think of every excuse possible to buy another razor LOL

Welcome to the fold

Hehe, thanks

Back to lather on the Naniwa 8k, and I did 100 laps this time, refreshing the lather a number of times.

I shaved today, and it didn't really feel any different to last time - though it was still better than my unlathered 8k shave. And then I remembered something...

I'd forgotten to strop

What an idiot!

Next time I'll add more lather laps and then I'll strop before I shave!

Back to the Crown & Sceptre again, on which I last did 100 laps with lather on the Naniwa 8k stone. I gave it a stropping on leather this time, and then tried a test shave...

And it was very good. Though I could tell the edge wasn't quite as sharp as it could be, it was the smoothest straight shave I've experienced so far and it was effective - a 2-pass shave (WTG and mixed XTG/ATG) left me in a pretty good shape. With the exception of a couple of tiny weepers on the edge of my chin, the shave was very comfortable and caused no irritation, and I had very little sting from my aftershave splash (Pashana).

I'm perhaps lucky in that my whiskers aren't particularly tough, but I really could shave from the 8k without buying any more stones (not that I'll let that stop me, of course )

And the next one up for honing is this...




It's a no-name "Made and ground in Sheffield" razor that I just picked up for £4 (~$6). It has a couple of chips and a bit of pitting, and the edge is a bit wobbly in a frowny sort of way about an inch from the toe - the middle section of the blade is slightly smiling.

But I reckon I must stand a good chance of getting something shaveworthy out of it, starting at 1k. I'll let you know how it goes

Have you read about marking along the cutting edge with a pen? you can see if anywhere isn't touching the hone because the pen will still be in place when trying to set the bevel