Hello Gents,

I have started to stray into the world of honing. Dangerous I know.

I have a set of Naniwa Speciality stones. 1k, 5k, 8 and 12. Here is what I did today, and the results:

I took two similar razors. Ern Ator and Othello. Both pre-war round tip hollows with shoulderless profiles. The differences between the two are that the Ern is a professionally honed razor that up until very recently was shaving beautifully. The Othello came from Revisor, and I attempted to hone it unsucessfully on a coti.

Technique: Hones lapped with DMT (DMT previously broken in on steel bar). Elbow level with stones. Watched water lines.

With the Othello, I followed the progression of:
1K 40 circles each way plus 30 X strokes.
5K 20 circles each way with pressure, 20 each way without then 10 X strokes.
8K 14 x strokes
12K to finish.

With the othello I simply used the 12k.

I did use the thumb pad test after 1K, but tbh I did not notice a very significant grab. It wasn't "distinctive" as described in videos in the past.


Shave test:
I shaved first pass with the othello. Similarly to shaving with it in the past, my face felt patchy. It did not give me a clean first pass.
I finished up the other two passes with the Ator, which did well.
My face was more sore than usual - I guess a combination of a rough first pass and and just feeling the difference from a coti edge.

Impression
THe fact that my Ator shaved, suggested to me that the strokes I was performing were adequate.
The reason why my Othello did not shave is not clear to me. The most obvious reason to me is that I did not set a bevel properly?? And then all progression done after that was useless?

I hope I did a controlled enough experiment above to let someone cast some light!

Best wishes