Thread: help a newbie razor honer?

Wow, that sounds like a lot of complicated honing to me. For my preference, I use a couple corse stones if the bevel needs setting. Otherwise, I have five Coticules and two blue Belgium stones. Usually when a razor needs to visit the hone I simply choose one of the yellows, whip up a little slurry and in a few minutes to sometimes half an hour it is popping hair straight off the stone. Once in a while I'll pull out one of the Belgium blues and work up an edge but that is because I want to play. If the yellow needs more abrasion, whip up a bit more slurry and less abrasion comes from dilution with a finish on plain water. Then it is off to a clean piece of linen and a clean piece of leather to make it ready for the shave.

It sounds like you are a craftsman or artisan of some sort. Using a Coticule shouldn't pose much of a problem for you to learn. I did and I'm a knuckle dragger. I like to keep things simple and fun. Otherwise, what's the point?

Regards

Chasmo

Yeah it was a bit over the top on the 6k but I haven't got the slate yet and using a broken slurry was the only way I could get to a finer grit. Yes Im a fine woodworker of sorts, joinery, cabinet making and luthiery are my professions so keeping a keen edge is something I have already practiced however I'm interested to see how stropping and grit rating effect how comfortable a shave is..it seems the goal is not just a sharp edge but a smooth one too

There are a lot of guys out there who like a pasted strop but, I'm simply not one of them. If you do paste one get something you can keep away from your daily clean strop. When I was experimenting with pastes I liked the TI paste better than the rest. I have a board with a piece of leather glued on it that I paste and strop my chisels and plane blades on. That's fine. But, as for my razors, they get clean ole cuticle mud, clean linen or cotton and clean leather according to which strop I grab. Learn your strop well. Get that mussel memory thing going and develop the finger twist to flop the razor over. That clean strop is what is going to make you a happy shaver. What's that they say nowadays, "it really is the bomb".

Good luck.

Originally Posted by reuben

How many laps would you recommend?

How long is a piece of string? For a razor to be both sharp, and smooth, you need to get rid of all the scratches off the bevel. The 6k stone will take a while before it gets rid of the 1k stone scratches and the Lyn Melynlyn will take a while before it gets rid of the 6k scratches. As I said, most honing progressions have 4 or 5 stones in them and it's not because people like buying more hones.

Ok update on the 6k edge...shave 2 started out great, fairly comfortable first pass wtg so I decided to go for a cg pass. Wasn't too bad but it started to feel harsh and started tugging slightly...I thought it was my angle so I went for atg....dum dum dum! I could literally feel my edge crumbling and turning into what I can only describe as shaving with a Japanese pull saw! Moral of the story...6k is just far too toothy an edge to shave with more than once. Time to go back one the hones and wait for my LM and crox to arrive in the post!
On a side note, stay away from Haryali straights on eBay! I bought one just to practice honing with and it's the cheapest chromolybdenum that I have ever seen, like seriously even diy wood chisels have better steel!

Get yourself a Coticule, learn it well and you won't regret it. Couple that with learning your clean strop well and you'll have graduated to victor.

Chasmo

I'm thinking about it but tbh the price has put me off, is rather spend more time on the slate and crox

Originally Posted by reuben

I'm thinking about it but tbh the price has put me off, is rather spend more time on the slate and crox

Coticules are pretty hard hones to learn, in my experience. I tried only two, but never got an edge close to the edges I get from my Shaptons. As you've got an LM in the mail, I'd say stick with that until you get great edges before you try another hone. As gssixgun has so adequately in his signature, learning one hone is more valuable than collecting many.

Originally Posted by reuben

Right so I watched some vids and went for it on my stainless kropp eBay special....the blade was slightly chipped and smiled so bread knifed it back to a straight edge then went to town on the 1k, I tried with tape and found the 1k ate through it so I removed the tape and reset the bevel I was popping hairs along the blade so I jumped straight to the 6k king. After about 25 laps on the 6k I noticed the edge get mirror like so I left the stone dry out and the slurry break down to polish and gently did 10 final laps. Finally I stropped on leather only and surprisingly got a decent shave! Can't wait to try the LM purple!

Sounds to me like you did pretty good for a first try, work the tools you have in your hands, from the point you are at in the above post the LM should be more then capable of getting you a very Smooth edge.. You need to just mess with it to figure it out, Keep in mind that when finishing on naturals most of them will give a Scratched or often called "Hazy" finish this is to be expected, work the edge by feel and shave comfort not by sight...

Originally Posted by Laurens

Coticules are pretty hard hones to learn, in my experience. I tried only two, but never got an edge close to the edges I get from my Shaptons. As you've got an LM in the mail, I'd say stick with that until you get great edges before you try another hone. As gssixgun has so adequately in his signature, learning one hone is more valuable than collecting many.

+1

I learned on Nortons and a Naniwa 12k before I invested in a set of Shaptons - never looking back. I have a cuticule to play with but I don't think it's possible to get the sharpness and consistency that you can get with the Shaptons. That said, there is something romantic about using a natural stone by itself from bevel set on through.

John