Thread: My first honing attempts with photos

You have a nice strop there and with what you have, you can absolutely get a good shaving edge on your razor.

First, mark a pencil grid and lap the King and the Slate on a sheet of 325 Wet & Dry and bevel the edges. Until you lap the stones flat & smooth, you will never get an edge on a razor. Just one raised grit or burr on the edge of either stone, will ruin any work you have done. The king is a perfectly fine 1k stone.

Tape the spine, and joint the edge on the corner of the King 1k, 1-2 light strokes until you have a straight edge. Then do 20 X laps and look at the bevel. Do sets of 20 X laps on the 1K until the bevels meet. Do not raise a slurry on the King, you do not need it.

Replace the tape, do not skip this step, and lightly joint the edge on the corner of the slate. Now do a set of 20X laps and re-set the bevel. At 50X look straight down on the edge until the bevels meet from heel to toe, below are photos of what it should look like. Do as many set as it takes to fully re-set the bevel, it should look like the 3rd photo.

Once the bevels meet FULLY, Do 20 laps on the Chrome Oxide strop with light pressure, look at the bevel and the edge, the Slate stria should be lessened and the edge should remain straight and meeting. If you muff the edge, re-joint the edge and re-set it with X laps on the Slate, NO SLURRY.

Once you get a nice looking bevel with polished or minimal stria and a straight fully meeting edge, strop 20 laps on plain leather and shave. It may take 3-4 set of 20 laps, you are going from 4-6k to 30K a pretty big jump.
Repeat – make sure the edge remains straight…

Reading the first 3 threads in the Honing Forum will help you and answer many of your questions.

Part of your problem is the slate is not a coticule and the grit is completely unknown, but your chrome ox strop can make up the difference, if done properly, take your time and do not use excessive pressure.

Here are 3 photos of an edge, looking straight down at 40X.
First, is an un-set edge.
Second, the bevel are flat and the edge is almost set, not fully.
Third, a fully set bevel, the edge is just above the sparkles (dust on Lens)