Thread: Honing

Originally Posted by eddy79

From memory the Belgium blue and 4k are going to be pretty similar in grit. Try watching the vids by Gssixgun and you will see he does most razors from bevel set up and that it takes what it takes. Good luck with your honing.

belgium blue can be pushed down in grit rating when using slurry, just whet the surface and let it drip a moment at a 45 degree angle, then there is roughly enough water on it to create a nice and thick slurry whitout much effort (this is the case on my yellow coticule at least) you might be able to set the bevel using this method although it will be slow

Originally Posted by andrew53

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to cut throat shaving as we call it in England, and have inherited a shaver. I have recently purchased a Norton 4000/8000 stone and a Belgian Blue, what I need to know is how many passes do I need to do on each stone to achieve shave sharpness.

I'll leave the Norton to others, but with regards to the Belgian blue stone, read the BBW study, it's pretty much a manual of use.

Do note that (as mentioned above) setting a bevel on a Belgian blue stone can be a bit tedious, as they are relatively slow.

Hi all,
Thanks for all your replies. I have taken on board all the advice and dived in. I realize that honing is a skill that takes a while to master but as the old saying goes 'practice makes perfect'. I decided to buy a bunch of vintage razors from e-bay to practice with and have a Boker to use as my benchmark, I am starting to get comfortable with the hone which I feel is the core to helping with your own style. Again thanks to everyone for the advice.

With these razors make sure you have a 1000-grit level hone. It's really the most important one because that's where you'll do over 90% of the work, and if you don't do a good job there the rest would be extremely painful if not impossible.

You should stay on that hone until your razor is sharper than any kitchen knife you have. You'll have to find out your own benchmark test that tells you when you're done, but if you can shave armhair at skin level or even better above then, you're likely ready to progress to the finer hones.

Originally Posted by andrew53

Hi all,
Thanks for all your replies. I have taken on board all the advice and dived in. I realize that honing is a skill that takes a while to master but as the old saying goes 'practice makes perfect'. I decided to buy a bunch of vintage razors from e-bay to practice with and have a Boker to use as my benchmark, I am starting to get comfortable with the hone which I feel is the core to helping with your own style. Again thanks to everyone for the advice.

I respectfully disagree. I was taught how to hone very quickly. I did my own research ahead of time but with supervision sharpened my first blade pretty quickly. Now having many more blades under my belt I'm much moe efficient. IMO it's just not that hard. Study here and get some guidance and you'll do fine.

And perfect practice makes perfect. As for the question how many passes like others have said too many variables. I don't count them anymore but rather can tell by feel. It's rewarding to know how to take care of my own blades.

PS my first blade to sharpen was a Boker off eBay for cheap and it's still one of my best shavers.