Thread: When should/did you start honing?

Originally Posted by Avenolpey

While advice from a newbie is counter intuitive, I feel closer to the problem than those who have forgotten how they got where they are. Start with a 2x6 Coticule. It will finish with water, down the road you can build light slurry, and even later it can perform complete Unicot from bevel set. Hold it in your hand and learn the feel. Experts will probably suggest you start on a practice razor which is a safe approach. If your ever need to do a more invasive bevel set you can buy a Chosera and you are done - and ahead financially. As you become more picky JNAT's await your disposable income. I see synthetics as tools for those restoring and honing large volumes of razors. For home use stick with time tested (10000's of years) naturals.

Expert criticism welcome

I am not an expert but oh well. I just have one difference of opinion: synthetics are good for the average joe and the pros. Synthetics are a rational way to achieve your results. You need a refresh, use a higher grit stone. You need a little more, go with a lower grit. I nice little McDonaldizied system for honing your razors. I good way to eliminate variables.

Immediately as my razor was not shave ready until i made it so.

Then i bought 10 more razors, here and there, non sheave-ready, and some nicked/pitted. Started with the Norton kit. Shaved straight off 8k for half my shaving career. Now finish on coticule, have Zulu Grey on order. Bought 4th strop today...

It's a trial by fire deal. Make it shave or suffer the consequences . (or cheat with a DE).

But i'm a shop-oriented fixer/maker sort of guy, so more tools and learning another skillset suited me quite well (still learning). Other folks (they generally know who they are) are much better served by paying other guys to make their steel shave-worthy.

Glen proved that you can keep a well-honed blade going indefinitely with a pasted strop. It's a thread on here somewhere around 2009.

cheers, and great luck.

I've yet to feel a edge honed by any hand but my own. Not opposed to it, probably happen someday.

Pretty much right away. Just a compulsive personality I guess. IMO honing goes with the sport. I was silly enough to think 1 or 2 razors would be all that I would own, ha ha.

Honing is easy for me. I highly recommend having someone with expierence show you the ropes. You could learn most everything by watching the videos but the best way to learn how to swim is jump in the water.

It's hard for me to decide. I did a back and forth thing over the years. I guess I started with a razor honed by an old barber and maintained it with a barbers hone for many years and then quit shaving with any regularity and when I started shaving again I started right away. I guess I can say both right away and I waited. There was about twenty years in that little break.

Originally Posted by Avenolpey

I see synthetics as tools for those restoring and honing large volumes of razors. For home use stick with time tested (10000's of years) naturals.

Not necessarily. Synthetics are a known entity of known action whereas your coticule may be quite different to mine which would complicate matters if we were trying to advise each other on how to hone .
As far as saving money goes you have a great point. A bevel setter & a natural or 2 is all you need.
For learning to hone , synthetics remove a lot of the guesswork.

I started up as soon as I could get my Naniwas delivered. I tape like Glen does, but I use Lynn's heavy circles followed with X patterns methods. I really desire a loupe to evaluate my bevel setting, because that is where the magic happens. You can perform all kinds of heroics with the finishers, but the bevel has to be set first.

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

Almost straight (excuse the pun) away

I now keep a 'honing journal'. I was curious the other day to see when I last honed a particular razor of mine. Looking at the journal I noted that for the WHOLE of 2013 I had only 8 honing sessions for the 7 razors I have. This is what occured:

1st Jan
De Pews 10 laps Shapton 16k

3rd Feb
Wade and Butcher 20 laps Norton 8k, 10 Shapton 16k
Jernbologet Frameback 10 Shapton 16k

4th Feb
J A Hellberg 40 laps Shapton 16k

31st Mar
Jernbologet 10 Shapton 16k (light slurry), 10 Shapton 16k (no slurry)

9th June
De Pews extensive honing on Norton 4/8 to create even bevel, added two more layers of tape (to give three layers) followed by extensive honing on Norton 8 and Shapton 16k

21st July
Klas Törnblom 40 Shapton 16k
De Pews 20 Shapton 16k
Burrell Top Flight 20 Shapton 16k

10th Oct
Klas Törnblom 20 Shapton 16k
Burrell Top Flight 15 Shapton 16k
Wade and Butcher 15 Shapton 16k
Joseph Elliot 15 Shapton 16k

8th Dec
Son's Emil Kronenberg Sen 'Edgerite' Pyrimid Norton 4/8 (4k x 20, 8k x 20, 4k x 19, 8k x 20, 4k x 18, 8k x 20 etc to 4k x 1, 8k x 20 then 20 Shapton 16k

15th Dec
Klas Törnblom Norton 4/8 4k x 10, 8k x 20, 4k x 9, 8 x 20, 4k x 8, 8k x 20 etc to 4k x 1, 8k x 20 then Shapton 16k x 20

Interesting, isn't it? there's not a LOT of honing going on there. One razor (the Joseph Elliot) was new to the stable and the son's razor was of course his and not mine. Looking at this, many received only a touch up on the Shapton for the entire year. I rotate the 7 razors evenly (i.e. generally, they get used once a week).

Hope this helps, sorry for the long post.

Carl

Thanks! This was actually very informative for me! Gave me an exact idea of what it is I'll probably be doing in terms of honing. All my blades have been honed by a pro. SO based on your post, to keep my razors top notch, I'll be spending most of my time on the Naniwa 12k, even potentially upping to a Sharpton 16k for touch ups, and if I need to go a bit deeper, I've got my Norton 4000/8000 for that. And from your journal, looks like I'll have to go no further than 8k then 12k/16k - this is good to know, as if I get where I need to start messing with a bevel, that's when the blade get's sent out for me.

It also really helps you listed the laps you did! This post is a cut and paste for me into a file for reference!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Avenolpey

While advice from a newbie is counter intuitive, I feel closer to the problem than those who have forgotten how they got where they are. Start with a 2x6 Coticule. It will finish with water, down the road you can build light slurry, and even later it can perform complete Unicot from bevel set. Hold it in your hand and learn the feel. Experts will probably suggest you start on a practice razor which is a safe approach. If your ever need to do a more invasive bevel set you can buy a Chosera and you are done - and ahead financially. As you become more picky JNAT's await your disposable income. I see synthetics as tools for those restoring and honing large volumes of razors. For home use stick with time tested (10000's of years) naturals.

Expert criticism welcome

Know where you're coming from in this regards - started this way myself. Belgian Coticule w/ slurry stone, a refresher kit from Classic Edge. Owner picked out a nice Select Grade coti for me and nice slurry stone, gave me a tutorial on how to use it.

Problem for me is, as many have said here, for a beginner, it's very difficult to know what results (if any) are produced from using this stone. I've refreshed a number of practive blades using this method and have yet to ever get any consistent result. And I was lucky, had a honemeister actually pick my stone, lap it for me, then sit down with me for an hour showing me how to use it. Now Phil from the Classic Edge is a pro, he made it look easy.

For me, I just can't get anything consistent out of the stone at this point. I really don't have a, "litmus" test of what a set of consistent results are. Using the Norton 4/8 and Naniwa 12k, or may even invest in a Sharpton 16k, I'm fairly certain, if I use X amount of laps using the proscribed method, I'm more certain to get some consistent results.

I'm positive Coticules are great stones, and produce great edges, for me, I just have to get to a point where I can recognize that the stone is doing the work and producing predicable results every time.

this forum is so helpful I cant wait till I can do this my self and when it comes time I think yall are right some time with a honemeister would greatly improve the odds ,,, sure glad I don't live far from Lynn! tc

I think it was a couple of months into shaving with a straight that I started to teach myself to hone. I realized that I was dulling a blade fast through poor shaving/stropping technique and I was getting more used razors too so sending them out to be honed would become expensive quickly. So I got some Naniwas, IK, 3/8K and 12K plus a DMT325 and had at her adding a Zulu Gray into the mix. I has been a long road and I am finally getting somewhere with it. Along the way also found out that I enjoy it too.

I had a few pro honed razors at the start and that was a good thing because it gave me an idea of what to shoot for. Have fun and enjoy yourself.

Bob