Thread: Honing Woes

I recently learned that when a razor was shaving "OK", not dropping all the way to the 1K to reset the bevel, but start at let's say a 4K helped me out tremendously. Maybe because this way you straighten up the work you've put in earlier a bit extra, and still remove enough metal when the bevel was not set a 100% previously?
But as I'm still learning, it's just my thought.

It doesn't matter that much what grit stone you use to set a bevel, but of course a 1K will get you there much faster. I do get better readings when I come off a 4K when probing my edge.

I like the 1K Naniwa, but it cuts fast so I don't overuse it, my 4K is my bevel perfecter or whatever you could call it. I mess around with 'em, just gotta figure out how to test the edge and what to look for. You can set bevels on the 4K, but will take much longer. (I often go to a fast Coticule on water and then through a Naniwa progression starting at the 4K, I do quite an amount of laps tbh) (I find the Naniwa 1K to be a good metal remover and the 4K a great 'bevel' polisher, set bevel on 1K and I perfect it on the 4K followed by more polishing on the 8k and finish on the 12K)

That said, if looking at the edge is not a viable option, maybe a marker to color in the edge of the razor (making sure the entire edge is getting honed, if not we'll need to do more laps or honing gymnastics) and a arm / leg shave hair test can help as well trying to figure out if the bevel is set. If my razor shaves arm hair WELL I go up in the progression, if it's somewhat OK I perfect the bevel until it does (I usually do this on the 4K, if that's taking too long I go back to the 1K. I have noticed my 1K doesn't like pressure, I use it carefully as I've found out the hard way it cuts pretty fast with pressure without stopping to look at things (: ; unless of course a lot of metal has to be removed fast, but then you'll need more smoothing these out later)

If your results coming off the 1K and 4K are good and shaving hair well, a progression through your stated hones shouldn't create much problem.

If I do still not get good results after finishing a razor, I go back to the 4K then 8K and finish off on the 12K.
Sometimes more laps help, either it perfects the bevel more or it smooths out the previous scratches, either way I repeat until I get the desired results.

Going through the synthetic set-up there's not much question about the hones themselves as compared to let's say a Coticule, I used to have good bevels but bad finishing, ergo my shaves were not great and it took me a long time and a good finishing hone to figure that one out.

Good luck and report back

I would do a pyramid on your 4K - 8K stones. see Pyramid honing guide - Shave Library.

I finally got around to honing this straight razor yesterday. I simply did a few more laps on my 12k Naniwa and then a 100 or so laps on my strop and its performing much better now. I decided I might aswell try smoothing it out before I turned to resetting the bevel.

Thanks to everybody for the idea, information and suggestions, it was much appreciated!

Originally Posted by Kirasy

I finally got around to honing this straight razor yesterday. I simply did a few more laps on my 12k Naniwa and then a 100 or so laps on my strop and its performing much better now. I decided I might aswell try smoothing it out before I turned to resetting the bevel.

Thanks to everybody for the idea, information and suggestions, it was much appreciated!

Sometimes, a few days off from honing a difficult razor really helps.
Before honing any razor I always check for frowns and assess the level of hone wear. A frown will be nearly impossible to hone until it's removed and an extra layer of tape on a worn spine can be like magic on a worn spine

Also I realized that a large part of it may have been that I had been using a larger near near wedge straight razor the week previous so I took me a day to readjust my angle and technique. I feel a little silly for not first suspecting that.

That is where my using each razor for around a week started. I don’t think it makes that big of a difference now, but in the early days doing many days with the same blade made for a higher ration of fantastic shaves.