Thread: A little overwhelmed- Where to start for honing

Have been using a straight for a little over a month now. Have a few finishing stones (Welsh Slate), but haven't gotten a basic set of hones yet. I am a little overwhelmed with all the information on here how to hone. I recently tried touching up a razor that was getting a little tuggy. It is now unuseable. Are there any articles on just maintaining the edge from mostly shave ready? Most of what I am seeing is from setting the bevel to finish stones.

Originally Posted by Drygulch

Have been using a straight for a little over a month now. Have a few finishing stones (Welsh Slate), but haven't gotten a basic set of hones yet. I am a little overwhelmed with all the information on here how to hone. I recently tried touching up a razor that was getting a little tuggy. It is now unuseable. Are there any articles on just maintaining the edge from mostly shave ready? Most of what I am seeing is from setting the bevel to finish stones.

Try you tube on all of Lynn Abrams videos then there are others with honing videos that are good too. . But if it's in that state now and I didn't hone yet I would send it one of the pros for a re-honing then from there the touch ups shown on the videos. crox on linen. When and if you decide to start honing there again are the you tube videos. as far as hones are concerned for me the naniwa stones work best. there easier to use or at least they are for me. but since you've only been at it for a month or so I would send it out the first time or two. These guys really know what there doing and it will really show you what shave ready is.

Many will say learn how to shave well first - say 50-100 shaves. This is what I did.

Also - start by learning to refresh your razor first as you say. Having said that, you can learn to hone when you begin as well if you want, there is no "rule".

This is the path I took.

I started with using some crox on the linen on the back of an old strop - great way to brighten an edge up - great way to maintain/refresh your blade.

The next step I chose was to get a Naniwa 12k - 10-15 laps on this stone, then some crox, then linen and leather stropping - perfect. Barring any damage to the razor, you can maintain a razor almost indefinitely with this method.

When I decided to jump in, for me, I needed to make everything as simple, consistent and measurable as I could. So synthetic stones, the Naniwa's are what I decided on.

Now I have the Naniwa series - Naniwa 1k, 3k, 8k, 12k, then I strop on crox, then .25 diamond paste, 60 linen, 150 leather and have have more than acceptable results for the 10 razors I've done from bevel set up.

You can then choose a finishing stone, gssixgun and other refers to this stone as the type of "edge" you want on your razor - for me, the last stone is a Escher, that's the "edge" I prefer, some like a coticule - there are many choices here.

That's what I've done - straightforward, tons of information, and consistent and as little margin for error as I can get it down to. I figure if I have any poor results with this method, it is clearly my lack of skill.

Good responses...and good advice. When you first begin, as Rhensley suggests, it is almost universally the wisest choice to have your razor professionally honed so you'll have a benchmark idea of what a real shave ready razor is all about. After you have some shaves under your belt...as Phrank says...learn to refresh your razor.

The simple truth is that learning to hone from bevel set to finish requires a good bit of practice, and lots of patience, and unless you have quite a few razors to practice on you won't normally be honing enough to warrant purchasing a number of stones, let alone to become proficient at honing.

Check out the classifieds under member services for quite a few of the folks here at SRP that offer honing help.

Originally Posted by rhensley

Try you tube on all of Lynn Abrams videos then there are others with honing videos that are good too. . But if it's in that state now and I didn't hone yet I would send it one of the pros for a re-honing then from there the touch ups shown on the videos. crox on linen. When and if you decide to start honing there again are the you tube videos. as far as hones are concerned for me the naniwa stones work best. there easier to use or at least they are for me. but since you've only been at it for a month or so I would send it out the first time or two. These guys really know what there doing and it will really show you what shave ready is.

It was honed to shave ready prior to this. I am hoping that I can bring this back without having to send it out. I have one other razor that was honed by the same person, and a third razor I should have today that is also supposed to be shave ready. I will probably continue to send at least one of these out for honing, so I have a basis for comparison until I feel comfortable with my skills. Part of what intrests me in SR shaving is taking care of the edge myself. Getting ready to dive in, there is just a lot to absorb.

Planning on getting the following before I get in too much deeper:
CROX paste
30-60x lighted loupe
Diamond spray

I have or can make all the strops I need, both paddle or hanging, with various types of leather, linen, and wool. Anything else I should make sure I get in the next round of buying?

There are a few "Touch Up" specific Vids out there

Also keep in mind that watching just the last 1-2 steps on any of the Vids should be all you need for a touch up

I can appreciate the information overload. I watched quite a few honing videos and was really confused. When I decided I had to hone a razor, I picked one producer who's presentation I liked and stuck with that series until I was confident to work through stuff without following the video notes. There are many paths to a good edge, but if you try to follow all of them at the same time you it may take you quite a while. The guys with known reputation on the forums are the ones to stick with. There are all right, just different paths to the same destination.

Not as easy as it looks eh?

For a rookie I think it's best to take one skillset at a time. Concentrate on the shaving first and either send it out for honing or catch it as it first begins to deteriorate and use a pasted strop to bring it back and maintain it. Of course the assumes your stropping skills are up there.

Down the road you can start with the hones with easy touch ups first.

I appreciate the advice to focus on shaving first, and send the razors out for honing. That’s what I did on my first two. I am looking at this more from a hobby standpoint than anything right now, as this is a skill I want to acquire. I hope no one takes it as disrespect when I say I am going to try and refresh the edge on the razor that needs it, without sending it out. If I quit everything that I didn't do well at on my first try, I would never have taken up wetshaving. I am fairly good with my hands, and the craftsman aspect of maintaining my own razor really appeals to me.

I have gotten some good advice on what to look for in the videos on trying to fix this razor. I am up to six razors that will need to be completely redone from the bevel set up, but I was advised that starting with refreshing a shave ready razor is a better place to start, so that is going to be my first step. My money is already spent on the finishing stones, so I would like to be able to use them. Again, no disrespect to those advising against it. I will check out the videos that have been suggested.

It's one thing to say start refreshing and just send them to some body to hone if you don't already have the stones . If you've got the stones play around with them. Eventually you'll get the hang of it. It's just practice and patience. Only so much YouTube can do for you. Ask someone for 1 on 1. It'll help you more then any video ever will. Good luck bro.