Thread: Should I just give up

This is my 3rd year Bart, the first two years were difficult because I approached each razor the same way, with the same set of stones & honing routine. To compound this problem, I felt like I had to "save" every beat up old vintage I came across, not understanding why they would not comply with my every stroke.

The Window of Honing Pleasure opened up for me the on day I decided to look at each razor individually & vary my honing to that razor's particular needs.

Never look at honing as a task or course of study with a deadline or exam pending.
When honing starts to relax you , instead of frustrating you, then comfortable edges will be your reward.

Not that I do more than refreshing but do remember that the pro's would probably have worked through a lot more razors than you, and that presently their equipment would (probably) be more expansive than the set up you have.
I am in the process of choosing a mid grit stone or combo so that I can do a bit more than refreshing, I really don't expect that I will do anything fantastic honing wise for sometime. Anyway what I am trying to say is don't give up, but maybe concentrate on only one or two razors until you have figured them out, if nothing else it'll be a nice confidence boost.
All the best Ed.

Yeah I agree, all my razors are different in regards to what they want as far as honing goes. If you choose just one or two you'll be presented with fewer variables. You can then build up from there, i.e. smiling blades, wedges, framebacks, different steels, etc.

It's not worth giving up (what will you gain?) it's worth keeping on keeping on, you'll gain heaps and already have...

Here's a good read, if you haven't read it yet: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...bing-over.html. I'm into honing for just over a year, of which the last few months I have used Shaptons exclusively. Everytime I change my approach a little, I get a little different results.

Recently, I had a big jump in the right direction by using lather on the 8K and skipping the 16K, while I thought I had the 8K figured out.

Lather works great. It really ups the grit. I use it on my 20k suehiro and I find it worthwhile.

i've only really unlocked consistently great edges from the coticule i have after nearly 4 years, ii could get great edged but consistency was a problem.

what i did was experiment, i tried everything and the consistency still wasnt there. Heres where i may sound like a nut... All of the conventional strokes didnt really work for me apart from xstrokes, then i did an xstroke then a backstroke starting from where i did the xstroke and repeated.

now heres the crazy bit, i dont know why i did it this way but i'm glad i did what i would do is when changing sides of the razor i would move the coticule 180 degrees so both sides were being honed in the same direction, like going with the grain on wood.
I also changed the slurry stone that came with my coticule as i realised it was softer than the surface i was honing on.
after i changed to a very hard la verte i had, the edges were much improved.

I dont know what stones your working with but this is why i would say to find a teacher in your area and pick their brain.
they will have little observations that they've pivked up over the years to improve consistency and keenness of the edge.

alex

If you are frustrated by honing just put it aside for a bit, relax, rethink it and give it a go when you are in a relaxed mood. I have only been honing a short while and learned by reading on forums and glancing at a couple of vids. There are no mentors less than 400 miles from me so that was not an option. The two biggest things that I had to learn were to stay on the bevel setter till it was really truly set (you can't polish a turd) and each razor is slightly different needing different treatment.

Lots of frustrations in the learning curve to get by and plenty of redoes but we are getting there. It just takes time.

Bob

I have 3 cotis. I get good edges but not killer. At the moment my jnats produce killer edges that are very sharp amd smooth, so for now thats what im going to use.im sure I will revisit the cotis eventually.

Originally Posted by BobH

If you are frustrated by honing just put it aside for a bit, relax, rethink it and give it a go when you are in a relaxed mood. I have only been honing a short while and learned by reading on forums and glancing at a couple of vids. There are no mentors less than 400 miles from me so that was not an option. The two biggest things that I had to learn were to stay on the bevel setter till it was really truly set (you can't polish a turd) and each razor is slightly different needing different treatment.

Lots of frustrations in the learning curve to get by and plenty of redoes but we are getting there. It just takes time.

Bob

Read those two lines again, Well written Bob

Bevel, Bevel, Bevel it really is all about that initial bevel set, it brings the razor into line, and each razor (especially restores) takes it's own set of honing gymnastics to get that bevel set..

As Bob pointed out if you try and "Push" an edge into it through frustration, it usually doesn't end well


Here is a secret and an advantage to honing 6-8 razors everyday, If you guys think that I hit all of those bevels the first time through yers nutz I hone a ton of restores they don't hit every time on the bevel set, I do not sit there and grind on that razor it goes to the back of the line, and I continue on setting the bevels on the rest... When that/those razor(s) come through again I try one more time, nothing extraordinary, just a bevel set paying a bit more attention to the formation of the bevel.. If that razor doesn't hit that second time through it is set aside until the next day and it goes through the same thing again until the bevel hits.. This eliminates the frustration, I hone the rest of the razors successfully and go test shave..
This is one of the reasons I have always said, to either Maintain a razor to learn first and work backwards, or to start with a newer razor that has good geometry, you need to learn how a "correct" razor hones before you can "correct" a razor..


Hope that helps

Originally Posted by Mechromancer

With me the defining point of my honing was when I started visually inspecting the edge. Takes a...(... magnifier). Have a nice bright light overhead...

This. A little 8-power jewelers loupe and a bright light took my bevel setting and honing from scars to stars in a couple of weekends. You be magnifying, Air'copper?