Thread: How long does it take you to hone a razor.

I know it depends but lets just say you picked up a razor at an antique store and the edge is not shave ready but not damaged either. How long be for you are shaving?

If all I did was to hone it. and there were no chips, about 45 minutes.

Originally Posted by JMJones

I know it depends but lets just say you picked up a razor at an antique store and the edge is not shave ready but not damaged either. How long be for you are shaving?

I tried an experiment the other day.

I don't hone my own razors.

However, I've been refreshing my razors using a coticule and CroX balsa board, then linen strop, then leather. Works great to refresh an edge on a blade.

I received two blank felt balsa boards and pasted one with the Dovo Green paste (paste for the least sharp blades), pasted the other with the Dovo Red paste (paste for somewhat dull blades), then moved to the Crox, then to the linen, then to the leather.

Now, I have ZERO experience with any stones other than a coti for refreshing, so I thought this would be interesting for me to try. Did 10 laps on each of the 3 boards. 20 linen, 50 leather.

The blade I used wasn't terribly bad, it was sharp, I know it had a set bevel (bought from a member here in the Classifieds) so I gave that a try and it worked perfectly. Shaved arm hair no problem, and was a perfectly fine shave. Very smooth. That was the first blade I shaved with that hadn't been honed by a pro.

Probably not the way to do things, but I bought all these pastes in the grips of an AD episode and figured I'd try them out...was surprised how well it worked!

How it worked? Guess the pastes, with their different grits, can act somewhat like a stone(s)...but thats just pure speculation on my part...I'm sure the experts can provide some more insight.

For this procedure, took me about 30 minutes....

The Time for Honing depend on various Things, how hard is the Steel, what Setup do you use, how good you practise is,
so i cant say a concrete time i need.
For Example, with my Setup (Naniwa Super Stone 800, some fast Vintage Coticule´s, a very fine and slow old Thuringian and
(if needed) a La Lune for Finish) a 326 Herder or a Red Imp 133 will need around 30-45 Minutes, some old and very hard french Wedge Razor take me normally more time, around one hour and more.

Being an inexperienced honer, I would say at least an hour maybe more. The bulk of that time would be trying to set the bevel.

Bob

Myself I always answer this the same way every time somebody asks it...

Once the bevel is set, it takes me about 15 minutes including stropping..

The bevel set is where the difference in time comes in, that is where all the variables and about 90% of the work occurs... Might not be exactly the answer you were looking for, but it is the truth

Basically setting the bevel takes as long as it takes after that it is all pretty fun

Does using the paste they way I mentioned work at all? I guess it would amount to a bigger refresh as opposed to a honing since I didn't set any bevel?

4 days up and back, USPS sent to a pro

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

4 days up and back, USPS sent to a pro

Bwahahaha....I appreciate your technique...I share the same methodology!!

That was a good one pixelfixed...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Myself I always answer this the same way every time somebody asks it...

Once the bevel is set, it takes me about 15 minutes including stropping..

The bevel set is where the difference in time comes in, that is where all the variables and about 90% of the work occurs... Might not be exactly the answer you were looking for, but it is the truth :P

Basically setting the bevel takes as long as it takes after that it is all pretty fun

A much more accurate answer than mine. I was giving a ballpark average figure of my experience.