Thread: How I hone razors

I've honed quite a few by now, and come up with a routine that is pretty much foolproof for me. I thought I'd share it with you. I will not claim it works for everything, but it does for me. I hone all newly made razors, and only those. I don't hone or restore on commission anymore. This means that I always start with a razor sans bevel, that the geometry of the razor is correct and unspoiled, and that the bevels will be narrow.

I use the 3 same stones for everything: Norton 1000 /4000, Norton 4000/8000, Shapton on glass 16K.
I use my old DMT325 for raising slurry.
I use good quality electricians tape on all new razors.

So, I wash the razor and dry it to make sure the tape will stick.
I soak the stones beforehand, and then raise a thick slurry on the 1000K side. Add a drop of water, and then hone until the razor passes the thumbnail test. I may need to re-raise slurry halfway, depending on just how fast things go. Then I flip the stone to the 4000K side, and raise slurry again. I hone for a couple dozen laps on that side as well. There is no set number. 20 to 30 laps should be fine if the razor passed the thumbnail test previously.

Then I remove the tape, gently wash the razor with detergent to remove glue and slurry before it can scratch the surface, and tape again.

Take the 4000 / 8000 and hone on the 4000 side without slurry and no pressure. The fact that the tape is new changes the angle a fraction so no pressure is important. The bevel will really polish up near the edge. 10 to 20 laps is fine. Then flip to the 8000 side and hone for 20 laps. Then 5 more laps on the 4000 and another 20 to 30 on the 8000 side. And finally, 10 laps on the 16K. At that point I verify that the razor pops arm hair effortless and without resistance. At that point I will shave and get a good shave test without fail. During honing I don't test anything except the thumbnail test.

I like using the 1000/ 4000 as a workhorse with a lot of slurry, as it means that absolute flatness is not an issue. The 4000 / 8000 is really flat. The 1000 / 4000 is flat enough and gets lapped without checking for flatness. It also wears thinner a lot quicker than the 4000 / 8000. The 16K never gets lapped. 10 laps without pressure is not going to hurt it.

I once tried to use my DMT325 for bevel setting but found that the 1000K with thick slurry was much faster. And I tried the norton 220 but found that it is the single most useless hone ever conceived. It dishes out so quickly it's next to useless as a bevel setter for new razors, and the grit leaves really deep scratch marks. I threw it away.