establishing a bevel and re establishing a bevel
I have bought a number of razors many so called shave ready,on only one was the bevel set correctly,new Dovos are the most confusing as they have a factory edge,which is a t the wrong angle only when this is overtaken by your correct bevel will the razor be any good,in fact you know your getting close when the razor becomes quite blunt,soon after a super sharp edge is quickly established by default,an established bevel on a 8000 stone is sharp by definition.I think of honing as either re establing the bevel a very quick process indeed,or establishing a working bevel on a recently acquired razor various time.
I have an old oilstone very fine i use for establishing a working bevel as i can hear and feal where im at during the process.I use both index fingers gently on top of the razor favouring gently either end never the centre 95% of my honing is a circular motion in the wrong direction clockwiseup and back anti clockwise up and back which constitutes for me one pass,re establishing the bevel normaly 2x passes my Le Grelot one more,i finally and super gently put the final edge on honing in the correct direction.Everybody has to find their own way this is mine.One thing that confuses me is after re establishing the bevel on my razors,i do all of them together,if i do my normal 10 flax 50 leather i get a very edgy or too sharp an edge in fact 10 flax and 10 leather much better thereafter back to the normal 10 flax 50 leather.Sorry if what ive just written is against received wisdom,but it works for me.I have a japanese razor which i use regularly lovely to shave with that has never been honed on the URA side,there is a fine but perfect bevel on the URA side which has been stropped the same way as my other razors and only honed the one side,i have had no burr issues,and the URA side has never been near the hone.Take from that what you wish.
adductum