Thread: One stone with a barber hone and bevel set.

Guys it's been a long while since I posted on SRP but I am back now... I have had a lot of solitary time to practice my skills and experiment. Here's a thread I posted on another site, I know it will be more welcomed here.

For those of you that hone razors, I've got a little success story for you.

When looking through the forums regarding barber hones most people see them touted as touch up hones to keep an edge going until it's time for re-honing. Even if you look at the instructions on the barber hones most say 4-6 strokes and then strop on clean leather. These hones work wonderfully for that purpose. Recently I thought why can't I hone a razor start to finish (after bevel set) on a dual sided barber hone? Do I have to stick to 4-6 strokes?

Where I am coming from is people say it is easy to over hone on a barber hone. Yes that may be true if you are touching up a shave ready razor but what about sharpening and then polishing one that isn't shave ready? Would it over hone in 4-6 strokes? No it will not. They may be fast cutting abrasives but they are glazed which greatly impedes there "grits" ability to cut material.

Honemeisters say it is super hard to over hone an edge and that you would need to stay on a low grit hone and use pressure and circles to produce an over honed edge. I believe it unless your technique is horrible and you're really pushing down on the razor. I think most people are really afraid to over hone so they don't hone enough and it leaves the edge dull. I know I used to be afraid of over honing... then you wonder if you're blade is dull because you over honed. Haha yea ok..

Now on to the success story

Today I set a bevel on a vintage Keen Kutter. It was a smiling blade so I was using rolling x strokes. I went directly from my 1k water stone to my dual sided Keen Kutter Kombination barber hone. After that I went directly to the strop and I am now sporting a super smooth and clean shaven face. The aftershave had some burn to it but that dissipated within a few seconds. I had little irritation on my neck that lasted all of 2 minutes. That could partially be due to the fact that I've been messing around with a new soap and don't know it yet, not sure. As I'm not a big fan of pastes and sprays I can say it was a nice shave for under 20 minutes of work. I am working on the repeatability of the process but to get a great shave off a hone "unfit" to hone straight razors is a joy.



Cheers,
Scott