Thread: Just... can't stop... honing...

OK, slight exaggeration as I've only honed three times, but then that is in three days!

First time I honed my Dovo on Norton 4/8 it made a lot of difference and I got a good shave from it. But I was convinced it should be sharper. So I set to it the next night. Well, I must have overhoned because my face was a mess. It pretty much scraped and plucked my hairs out.

That was depressing. Nearly put me off. But I had another go at honing the next night, and was a lot more conservative in the pyramid. Outcome: now I understand what it is when people say "like a hot knife through butter"!

I've decided to leave it now. Have ordered a TI 4/8 from Classicshaving with Lynn to hone and I'm not going near the stones until I can feel what a properly honed edge is like.

But it got me thinking... honing is such a therapeutic thing. But you just can't keep doing it to the same blade. So maaayyybeee that's why some of you guys buy so many straights to fix up?

(sshhhhh dude!)

James.

Don't hone your blade too often or you'll go blind.

And it'll make your palms go hairy.

Which means loads of shaving.

Which is why I gotta hone so much.

(Altogether now... "there's a hole in my bucket...")

Yeah, I enjoy it a lot to. My room mate is starting to get scared I think, as every night for the past week I have either been cleaning or honing some razor. Lots of fun.

how many razors are to many to hone?

Isn't that kinda like 'how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if woodchuckw could chuck wood?'

Originally Posted by floridaboy

how many razors are to many to hone?

Only Lynn knows.

X

Majurey,
I've been honing most of my life and I'm still working at it. The reason I call my site "The Perfect Edge" is because it's a goal that can never be achieved. Likewise, my tag line "Solutions for a Dull World" covers my love of honing all things honable. In fact, I just picked up a reel mower which is about the last thing I've yet to sharpen. You remember them? They're a manual lawn mower that has helical blades. Anticipating some good honing problem solving with that puppy! Why bother? It's claimed that those reel mowers snip the grass like scissors instead of tearing them like a regular motorized rotary blade lawn mower. Result is no brown tips on the grass... if the reel blades are sharp.... You can see a reel mower for sale at the Lehmans catalog website. New they go for $130. I also love the click click click sound they make when mowing the lawn... you can actually hear the birds sing while mowing.

Last week I sharpened a pair of manual sheep shears for a young friend who's raising a lamb. She was astounded as she thought she'd have to spring for an electric shear which costs beaucoup dollars.

I recommend you sharpen lots of different things as the skills are transferrable to straight razors. When we go on vacation, I go to a Pawn Shop and buy up some 50 cent blades and sit under an umbrella with a cigar and a water bottle of pina coladas honing away while the wife reads her trashy novels. A great place to vacation is Hot Springs, Arkansas where you can visit quarries and rock shops and take in America's Spa. There's other stuff the family can do there while you slip in your honing. Hot Springs is, of all things, the capital for documentaries, kind of like the Sundance Festival in Park City but for documentaries. Why? Don't know.

Be sharp!

Howard

Sure I remember those olde worlde lawnmowers. I wouldn't even know where to start with honing those!

I saw the new coticule that someone recently bought from you and was trying so hard not to follow up and find out who this 'Howard' was and what he has on his website. Now I'm just not going to be able to avoid it!

Boy am I gonna be in trouble with the wife...
Mark