Thread: First honing milestone achieved

I have just had the fortune to reach a milestone in my shaving journey. Last night I shaved with razors that I sharpened myself. I know that this is not an uncommon event with people who frequent SRP, but I have to say I was inordinately pleased with myself. It kind of feels like I have closed the loop in my shaving routine.

Now while I am happy with myself, I have to say it was not the best shave ever. Not the worst by a long shot, but definitely room for improvement. I chose 2 razors from my stash of ebay cheapies and decided to give em a shot. (As a side note, I have just received a DMT to ensure my stones where truly flat and had the opportunity to get some time with Glen at the 4^th annual PNW meet-up in Spokane.)

The razors I chose were a 11/16 John Primble (?) with a broken scale at the pivot and a 11/16 Arrow Special with a cracked scale at the wedge pin. Both razors received a quick and dirty cleanup with 0000 steel wool and WD-40. Honing was accomplished with DMT flattened Norton 1K/4K/8K. One layer of tape was applied to the spine of each razor. I used a sharpie and the thumb nail test to verify the bevel was set. I had a bit of trouble with the Primble due to a quick upturn (old chip?) at the tip. Going up through the 4K and 8K I used the movement of the water on the stone and the sound/feel feedback to get an idea of progress. I have horrible luck getting the arm hair test to give me any results, and don’t feel that confident in my TPT yet. I decided I am not going to shoot for trying a finishing stone until I feel like I have a handle on my Nortons and have developed my “testing rituals” (HHT, TPT,TNT) so I can gauge my progress. Here are the razors in questions. The pics kinda suck, but I can try to get get better ones if anyone really ants. May have to do some research on a cheapo light box set-up.




I worked both razors up through the 8K stone and did 75 strokes on felt with 15 carat diamond spray (0.5 micron) and 100 strokes on the leather strop. I then had a nice hot shower and my normal shave prep with Taylors cream and face lathering. I used the Primble on the left side of my face and the Arrow on the right. I completed a full 3 pass shave and actually got BBS on my cheeks after the third pass with both razors. As I stated before, not the best shave ever but not horrible. Still needed work on my jaw line and chin. Had 2 weepers on each side, but nothing else. I completed my post shave routine and was feeling pretty good about myself. About a ½ hour later I could really tell that my skin wasn’t happy with me. Felt pretty raw so I applied some lotion to soothe it. Figuring a combination of too much pressure and a rougher edge off of an 8K did me in.

All in all, I feel that this is a good start. I am going to hit the hones with these razors again tonight and see if I can get a smoother edge off of the 8K. I have also heard of using lather on a stone to smooth the edge out as well, may try that in the future. My loupe should be arriving in the next day or so as well. Looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish.