Thread: Honing didn't go too well

I hone razors my many first time straight users, and they have similar stories. I've shaved with the razors they say aren't shave ready. Not a shot at you, but it does take time to learn this properly. The best advice I can give you, it to get your razor honed by a pro, and rule that part out. That way you know whether or not it's your technique.

You should learn to shave/use the razor before you dive into honing. You have to crawl before you can walk.

Good luck to you....

I didn't think honing would be easy. And I think you're right zip. I'll not be honing my bismarck again until I've got a lot more experience in honing. And for now I'll be looking for somebody who can hone it.
Also, as Bram already mentioned, I found that my coticule wasn't flat. I found a great "Hone lapping" thread on SRP (http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ing-101-a.html). It should be flat now

So you have received good advice re finding a mentor and learning to shave with a pro honed razor.

When you do begin to hone you will need a bevel setting stone in the 1K range and some magnification, an experienced Coticule honer could bevel set a razor but first you must learn the Coticule.

The Coticule, while a great stone is probably the most difficult stone to learn. There is so much variety in the stone and then you add slurry, (thick –thin- how much?) the variables increase exponentially. Used as a finishing stone post bevel set is much easier, especially for a novice honer.

The other thing that will guarantee you honing success is learn how and when a bevel is “Completely Set”. There are many threads and video on this on this site for that. If you bevel is not set, everything after that is a waste of time. This is the cause of most novice honing failure and most probably yours.

Lastly tape your spine, once you have mastered honing you can decide if you wish to continue to tape, but at least you will still have a razor to hone.

Originally Posted by Bram

where did you get the coticule? it probably still has the sawing marks on the stone, you might want to get rid of that, getting those sawmark of the honing surface might be hard or easy depending on the type of coticule, if you have a few pocket knives laying around it might be an idea to hone those to break in your coticule. another option is to get a flat surface and some sanding paper to get the job done.

Just a few short remarks: you don't need to break in coticules. They work from the get go. Also superficial sawing marks really shouldn't be an issue and as far as I know coticules usually come flat from Ardennes-Coticule. I know I messed up when I didn't get results in the beginning and lapped my stone three times, convinced that it wasn't flat. It was, my honing stroke just sucked, bad.

I started pretty much like Metsie, I got three razors, one I tried to polish up (dum-dum-duuuuhm), one I tried to hone (dum-dum-duuuuuhm) and one I used to shave with (dum-du...I guess you get the point). So I started honing on a coticule when I started shaving. When you start out with ANYTHING, you're bound to suck at it, hard. It gets frustrating when these frustrating experiences pile up: while shaving, honing, stropping, lapping, lathering...it's one big mess.

But if you persevere, it'll be fine. One thing I learned - quite late - is that when honing and it's not working out: rinse off everything, dry the razor and put it away, grab a beer. Especially in the beginning. Also: the bevel is everything. A good bevel makes honing a whole lot easier.

And hey, look at it like this: you just started honing, and you got an edge that isn't dull and actually shaves. That's a good start.

One last word: unicot, unicot, unicot.

Originally Posted by Pithor

And hey, look at it like this: you just started honing, and you got an edge that isn't dull and actually shaves. That's a good start.

Sounds good, but I had a better edge before I started to honing, but at least it still shaves!
ohw well, I should have waited for another razor to start honing. But I had only one, and I hoped to get it slightly better. Better luck next time

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Lastly tape your BEVEL (SPINE), once you have mastered honing you can decide if you wish to continue to tape, but at least you will still have a razor to hone.

He meant tape the spine, not the bevel.

Originally Posted by JBPilot

He meant tape the spine, not the bevel.

I figured that . Learning to hone a taped bevel wouldn't help much I guess.

Originally Posted by Pithor

Just a few short remarks: you don't need to break in coticules. They work from the get go. Also superficial sawing marks really shouldn't be an issue and as far as I know coticules usually come flat from Ardennes-Coticule. I know I messed up when I didn't get results in the beginning and lapped my stone three times, convinced that it wasn't flat. It was, my honing stroke just sucked, bad.

One last word: unicot, unicot, unicot.

I know they don't need to break in like a translucent arkensa, it's more like getting to know the hone, experience the difference when using some pressure and/or some slurry.

about the sawmarks I stand by it, the amount of pressure you use is devided by the surface of contact between the razor and the hone, the sawmarks reduce this contact area thus increasing the effective pressure while to get a fine edge you want verry litle pressure

Originally Posted by Bram

I know they don't need to break in like a translucent arkensa, it's more like getting to know the hone, experience the difference when using some pressure and/or some slurry.

Ah, okay, like that. Still, sharpening knives is a different animal from sharpening razors, but I see where you're coming from.

Originally Posted by Bram

about the sawmarks I stand by it, the amount of pressure you use is devided by the surface of contact between the razor and the hone, the sawmarks reduce this contact area thus increasing the effective pressure while to get a fine edge you want verry litle pressure

I think that if your overall surface is flat and clear, shallow grooves are not going to make that much of a difference, as (a) at any given time, contact between the razor and the hone is relatively minimal, so I think the effect it has on pressure is too small to make an effective difference on the final edge and mainly (b) honing on slurry fills out the grooves if they are shallow enough not to catch the edge. I think so because I have one with quite a few of such saw/sand marks, and it works just fine on both water and slurry - these reasons seem logical to me.

the absolute contact area is small, that's a given, if only a fraction of this area is actually in contact the force is devided over an even smaller area, and so, your pressure [Newton / meters squared] obviously increases. as for (b) I usually finish on water, not slurry. although this thin film of water might indeed be significant if the groves are small enough.

A totaly different explenaition might be that my honing skills increased during the time that the sawmarks faded