Quote Originally Posted by BobH View Post
Glad you said that. There is more than one way to skin a cat and Drmatt357's way probably works, for all I know. To me grinding on the spine to correct geometry is the nuclear option rather than using some learned finesse. You are right though, whatever floats your boat.

Bob
My response is...it depends.

I have employed the suggestion in his video on flattening the spine. Don't worry, it was a Gold Dollar lol. I can confirm that I did have an easier time getting the edge right.

With that said, I was new to honing at the time. Given the same razor now with everything I have learned since, I probably would not go nuclear on the spine.

If you want to learn and can get to a meet - do that. If you can't do that, maybe try to find a mentor near you that can look over your shoulder and offer you tips and advice.

Failing that, you can do what I and many others around here did. Pick up a practice razor and set of hones. Learn via trial and error. Expect to find out that it is more difficult than those videos make it look. Also expect to find out that it is very much doable. You probably won't get it right the first time, and that's ok. Failure is part of learning, no matter what you're trying to learn.

It probably took me 6 months and a LOT of bad shave and razor burn to get my first working edge. And another month after to repeat that success. I've been honing more or less since my join date, not all that long. I certainly don't have it mastered, but I get then right more often than I get them wrong these days.

Practice makes perfect.