First experience with honing...
Big day in the Whizbang household!! I am so pleased. This afternoon I was determined to hone my own razor. I had an old antique store find, a JR Torrey. It had a few tiny nicks on the edge...and lots of pitting on the blade. Not the nicest looking razor, but certainly one I felt I could hone...and if I destroyed it...nothing lost. I started by examining the blade edge closely with my 30x loupe so I could see my starting point. I then put the razor on the 1K stone and tried to even up the edge and remove the nicks and set the bevel. (Yes, I did't destroy the spine...I started with electrician tape, but decided to remove it). Then I moved to the 3K and then 8K and all that seemed to go well. I took my time and checked my progress frequently.
The edge was nice, even and clean. I spent quite a bit of time stropping...(I lost count) first on newspaper and then on my leather board strop. When I tested it on my arm hairs they popped nicely. I was thrilled. I had to go upstairs and test shave. I did a quick face lather with some Nivea Original shave cream and then started shaving. The blade was very sharp. It was not the smoothest shave in spots, but I think with some additional stropping it will smooth out just fine.