Thread: Are You A Real Man? Do You Think You Can Hone? Shave Off Of Your 1k Hone

I would have tried the 400, but my two best 400 grit hones, including the Chosera, are out on loan.

I suspect that the 400 might be pushing the limits!

I will say that there is a marked improvement in the shave from 600 to 800 to 1k. Also, even though you said that you got your three for knife work, all three are great for repair work on razors.

I'm essentially a complete novice but I'm in. If nothing else this seems like an excellent way of learning as much as I can from each stone in the progression. In full admittance of my lack of experience, any initial success I have I happily credit to the couple of hours Lynn took trying to impart a little of the honing knowledge he has acquired over the years.

I've got a 5/8 Thistle Cut that is in need of a bevel as well as the ShurEdge I just finished cleaning up. I'll start with the former and then try to apply anything I've learned to the later to see if I can reproduce my results. Wish me luck, gentlemen!

I did this once on Glens advice a few years ago. Its a good experiment. But once is is enough for me.

Objective completed...maybe.

I took the Thistle Cut to my Shapton 1k yesterday after ensuring that I was starting from scratch by killing the edge on a glass jar. I used Lynn Abram's Circle Method to get me started. I'll recall doing two sets of 40 circles with pressure before doing another set or two with light pressure, this was then followed up by a fair number (no, I don't remember) of X-strokes.

The edge was tested with the TPT and AHT and examined under a 40x loupe. At this point I'm really trying to build confidence with each of these tests and while I'm beginning to develop some confidence with the TPT and AHT the loupe is helpful but not something I have any confidence in telling me much about the edge itself. The TPT grabbed my thumb pad pretty well along the length of the blade, well enough that I could make the full hollow blade ring if I removed my thumb in a particular manner. The AHT would cut arm hair at skin level and I even used it to remove the fine hairs on my knuckles. At this point I gave the razor 50 laps on wool felt and another 100 on SRD Premium I leather.

All well and good but the shave test is where we decide if I managed to pass the 1K test or not.

My initial WTG pass tugged a bit at first but was not unduly uncomfortable and the tugging faded a the shave progressed. I managed my full three pass shave, along with some touch up work and the razor did a fair job, leaving me with a relatively close shave without any undue irritation. The one issue I had was that my traditional problem areas, where I often leave stubble even after the best of shaves. These areas were left with heavier stubble than usual but not anything too terrible. Both witch hazel and alcohol-based aftershave were used with no burn from either product.

So, I'm tentatively calling this a success but I'd like everyone's thoughts on the matter. The worst part of learning to hone is simply not having the knowledge base to determine if I'm making good progress or not. It will shave, that alone is a good thing, but the fact that the problem areas needed clean up gives me pause. Back to the hone or up the progression to the Norton 4K?

It is sounding successful. You may want to re examine your edge with your loupe and see if it is as pristine of a 'V' and you would like. That is done by looking almost straight down on the apex. There should be no sparkles or white lines. If that looks good then I would say it is a success.

GreenRipper-If you got a reasonably close shave off of that 1k, that (along with the other tests you mentioned) is the best evidence that you have a solid bevel. If you must, maybe hit it again with 10 or 15 ultralight passes. Then I would max out that 4K, strop and shave to see what it did. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks for the input guys, you essentially recommended what was already on my mind. As I worked up a sweat yesterday the additional irritation from the 1K shave made itself apparent, although I generally experience this even with the best of shaves, so I'm blaming any additional discomfort on the 1K finish.

Don't be surprised if I don't post an update on this for a few days. Life and my project list are catching up with me so I may not get a chance to play with my hones until sometime next week.

I decided to give this a go and think that I am seeing more of the advantage of stropping than the 1K shave.

2 pass shave WTG and then ATG. No strops. A little rough, but then after stropping 20 each on CROX, fire hose, and then leather it improved tremendously.

A good looking shave. I will leave it as is and strop it a bit more for experimenting.

Originally Posted by 32t

I decided to give this a go and think that I am seeing more of the advantage of stropping than the 1K shave.

2 pass shave WTG and then ATG. No strops. A little rough, but then after stropping 20 each on CROX, fire hose, and then leather it improved tremendously.

A good looking shave. I will leave it as is and strop it a bit more for experimenting.

My friend,

If you really want to do this test; Next time leave out the CrOx and just strop and test Shave. THEN use the CrOx and re-shave.

To me at least it's a bit of 'Putting the Horse Before the Cart'.

I haven't needed a razor honed in two years. Proper stropping can keep a razor sharp a lot longer than most believe it can. And no, I haven't needed to refresh them in any way. CrOx is not in my vocabulary. But I understand the pleasure many get out of the act of honing, it just hasn't captured my interest. But for honers this thread is full of nuggets to help improve technique.