Thread: Beginner Questions - Honing

As has been said, you can get a shave-ready edge on a factory sharpened Dovo using the Norton 4/8k combo. A couple of suggestions:

1: do a search on this site for the term "janorton" and read/view through that thread. Tons of info.

2: be prepared to temporarily give up, and have a member here hone your edge properly. Enjoy a bunch of shaves (assuming good stropping habits) before having to worry about refreshing the edge. You'll learn to hone in time, but you deserve good shaves in the meantime!

I just ordered my Nortan 4k/8k and lap stone. So this thread jumped out at me. Fortunately (some may disagree), I bought a couple of the GD-word SRs for shaving practice and plan to use them now for honing practice. I have a free honing certificate with SRD for my new Dovo Bismarck and will use that before I put that blade to hone on my own. Eventually I'm sure I will need to. I also just bought a nice H. Bogen on ebay that I may practice with since it likely will not arrive shave ready. I am finding a lot of good advice in this thread, in the stickies and in the SRP Library. I've also watched a few of Lynn's YouTube videos on honing. So the journey begins. Glad I found this thread instead of starting my own. I've also been doing searches and found a wealth of info. Love SRP.

Thanks for all the responses. I pretty much had my questions answered.

I was able to hone my factory edge razor without ruining it. The recommended JaNorton posts were helpful. http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...on-2012-a.html. The videos and discussions were perfect.

The problems I was having with the electrical tape was due to the particular tape I had was designed with extra adhesive which caused a mess. I found another tape that worked well.

I got a decent shave (except for the chin which I finished off with the DE) but it's a start. Thanks all.

Phil

Here's an analogy for you. You can learn ABOUT riding a bike by watching YouTube videos, but you will learn HOW to ride a bike by doing it. With practice, you will develop muscle memory that will make riding/honing much easier than you would have imagined possible when you first learned.

Get your tape at Harbor Freight. I get mine in 10 roll packs. No complaints. Start with 1 layer of tape and stick with that regimen until you find out otherwise. Experience is your best friend over time.

And keep reading on the forum. You can't beat that with a stick.