Greetings Gentlemen,

The good news is that last Christmas I was given a Hart Steel razor -- a thing of physical beauty, wickedly sharp and butter smooth to shave with. A few "growing pains" with the square point, but I'm not complaining. The bad news is the time has finally come to hone it.

In the past, I've had great help here with my honing troubles on my Naniwa stones. While I've learned to do a good job with them (1k, 5k, 8k and 12k hones) on my Revisor and T-I straight, I'm not able to get the Hart up to snuff. It's not as sharp as it came, and it's sure not as buttery smooth.

For my sharpening routine, I use Lynn's approach from his videos:

20 circles with a bit of pressure (each side), and 20 more with petty much the blade's own weight, followed by about 10 laps. I do this on both the 1k and 5k stones.

Then on to the 8k and 12k stones for 10 or 12 laps each.

Next it's maybe 50 laps on a pasted T-I paddle strop.

Finally on to the hanging horse hide strop for 20 laps on linnen, 60 or so on the horse hide.


We now have a shaving shop in town that specializes in wet shaving. I thought I might pick up a 16k Shapton stone, but they don't have it and advised against using stones finer than the Naniwa 12k.

It could be my technique, of course -- maybe the Hart requires a different approach. I wouldn't know why, though. All my razors are hollow ground. Wait, maybe the Hart isn't hollow ground. I forget.

I wonder what others think? Get a shapton hone, like the 16k? Maybe one of these 4 sided box strops with different gradations of chromium paste? Other products, techniques or ideas?

Thanks for any thoughts.