Issue with honing many razors at once.

I honned 10 razors on my last days off. 2 were just touch-ups, one i finished on the arkie, rest were finished on 20k. When i test shave its a full shave so i get a true test. I always keep track of what stone i finished a razor on and the day, plus how many shaves.

Now for the issue...

Test shaved a razor a couple days ago, it felt harsh to me. Edge looks good thru a loupe and my log shows i finished on 20k. I know i honed it like all the others. Nothing different. But i cant remember any details of the honning process. How did it take the bevel set? Was it a bit wonky? If so, what side? Was it an easy finish? How did it compare with the Arm Hair test? Did to many at the same time to remember any details so i have no clue what caused this harse feeling.

So to all the guys learning to hone, be sure to take notes along the way for each razor. It may help you in remembering details. I know i will for now on.

I have been in that spot too. RAD often leaves us with large piles. What I got to in the end was finishing no more than three razors at a time and not doing more until I test shaved those. I too often do a ful shave, sometimes I will do 1/2 my face with one razor and the other side with a different one.

Glad im not along here. The pile that needed honed was getting way to big so i dove in. I will take your advice Shaun and keep it at a minimum and test shave before starting another group.

Im going to try some treated stropping to see if i can pull the harshness out of this one when i get the chance. If not, then i will throw the Arkie at it and see what happens.

Nonsense.

One you become a honemeister it's like, er... you know....being superman. Those magic fingers just instinctively know when to stop on each razor and you attain perfection each time.

yes it's all written in the honers bible on page 1026 paragraph 8 line 6.

As to notes, what notes? You don't need no stinkin notes. Superman don't need no notes on how to fly does he?

Seriously, sometimes when you have a pile to do just doing one stage at a time on all of them simplifies the process. Once you have a good bevel on all of them you can then custom finish each one with your best 8K or 12K.

Since I only hone razors for my own use, I normally hone one at a time, but I have done 4-5 at once when I needed to go through a full progression. It is easier to do it that way than to pull out a full set of hones several times.

Normally, I am refreshing a razor and use only a finishing hone, or perhaps a prefinisher as well. Normally, I will have a shave that is not quite up to standard. I will pull out the finishing hone to touch it up and then shave with the refreshed razor again the next day. It is shaves well, it goes back into rotation. If it still does not pass muster, I will back up to a prefinisher before the final finishing stone. Usually, that will take care of it. If that still does not get the job done, I remove the razort from rotation until I have other razors that need the full progression.

When I'm good enough to do 3 at a time it seems that creating a bevel on all and then moving to the next stage sounds very logical.
Thank you gentlemen, good stuff! :)

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Seriously, sometimes when you have a pile to do just doing one stage at a time on all of them simplifies the process. Once you have a good bevel on all of them you can then custom finish each one with your best

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^^^^^ This is my process

That is what i do also. I take every blade to the stone untill im done with the stone. This way im not taking the stone out over and over. But somewhere along the way something happened or got missed.

Im really start8ng to enjoy the bevel setting process. Finding one part of the edge that just isnt taking and finding the right trick to get that section to set right. And even after the bevel seems set i will still do a few more light laps just to try and even it all out. Its a lot of fun. The progression of all the other hones is the boaring part. Its just over and over u til you get to the end. Setting the bevel is fun. Until it pisses me off. Then back in the pile it goes till next time.

Ya gotta keep tapping on the magazine, Jerry. Those gattling guns have a tendency to jam if you turn the crank too fast. :rofl2:

Yeah, it's all about that bevel set, really, and I also like to take a group of razors up through my progression together, one stone at a time. I will even still occasionally really max out the bevel set on my beloved Chosera 1k with some ultra-light finishing strokes followed by stropping, and then test shave. I've gotten some great shaves just off that 1k, which just goes to show ya.

I do like Shaun and probably some others do: I'll test-shave 2 (and occasionally even 3) razors at once. I tried keeping a honing log/spreadsheet, but am too lazy to really keep it up (I have to do so much of that for work that I resent doing it in my hobby lol!). I try to remember what I did for any given blade, but as I seem to be mostly finishing on the Nani 12 followed by a fine Arkie progression these days, there's not so much to remember.

There are many roads to sharp. I enjoy hearing about everyone's different routes.

edit: In reading your OP again for detail, it reminds me of my own experience. I too (and I suspect, many other honers) have "finished" a blade to what I thought was an ultra-fine finish honing with your finest "icing on the cake" strokes. Then you go to test shave and get tugging on all or part of the blade. I'm pretty sure that issue nearly always goes back to an imperfectly set bevel. Back to the drawing board, slow is fast, do not pass go, etc.

I used to do 5-10 at a time but it’s just to hard to keep up on so now I just do 3at the most and it’s a lot easier and a lot more rewarding

Wow. I do one at a time, usually just once a month. Been a few months since I have slurried the coticule. A couple of years since I used the 1K. I hope I'm not missing out on much...

That's what I do as well, after three in one sitting it starts getting counter productive unless I take a fairly long break

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Originally Posted by Jnatcat

I used to do 5-10 at a time but it’s just to hard to keep up on so now I just do 3at the most and it’s a lot easier and a lot more rewarding

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Being mostly restored, all mine are one at a time.
Bevel set to test shave. I've had a few that needed to go back to the rocks for another bevel setting.

For the guys who don’t restore and sell, there almost no need to be honing that much, don’t see how anyone can be honing all the time, you only got one face

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Originally Posted by tcrideshd

For the guys who don’t restore and sell, there almost no need to be honing that much, don’t see how anyone can be honing all the time, you only got one face

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Unless your wife has found the sweetness that is a straight razor, and now uses it to do her legs arm pits and... then you will be honing tons more.

If your wife’s leg hair is that stiff to dull a razor faster than your face, might want to get her a brush hog

I used to kind of let them pile up and when I had say 4 that needed refresh I'd do them all at once. These days I do them as they need. I find it's better that way.

Of course we are talking a refresh which really doesn't take too long per razor.

In the old days when I was buying on Eboy and restoring I was seemingly always doing major honing but that is in the past.

As it will to the rest of us, Spendur.

With reztoring they seen to pile up faster than i can find time to hone. Thats the problem with restoring and working the hours i do.

I havent had to go back to the stone on any razor i honed and was satified with the edge to date. With as many as i rotate thru i bet the most shaves on any one of mine is around 10. So i wont even need a touch up for a while. But i will admit that im going back over some i thought were good a year ago and find now i didnt really know as much as i thought i did. Soon i will have them all under control.

But then again, im still restoring. Ha.

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Originally Posted by Gasman

With reztoring they seen to pile up faster than i can find time to hone. Thats the problem with restoring and working the hours i do.

I havent had to go back to the stone on any razor i honed and was satified with the edge to date. With as many as i rotate thru i bet the most shaves on any one of mine is around 10. So i wont even need a touch up for a while. But i will admit that im going back over some i thought were good a year ago and find now i didnt really know as much as i thought i did. Soon i will have them all under control.

But then again, im still restoring. Ha.

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That's very true-old razors in my rotation that used to meet my standards sometimes no longer do. Once you learn by doing that you too can get those velvet squeegee edges repeatedly with a little more effort, you're no longer willing to settle for just an adequate edge, and why should you if you have the tools and the know-how?

But as you say, it's hard to squeeze in our hobby sometimes when work overwhelms us. I believe I remember you saying you work 70-80 hours a week, Jerry? I thought about you today when I saw the video of the massive tanker explosion in Italy-you guys who haul gas have my respect!

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Originally Posted by tcrideshd

If your wife’s leg hair is that stiff to dull a razor faster than your face, might want to get her a brush hog

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I only have a couple razors, so my beard hair and her legs makes edges go faster than I would like.

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Originally Posted by tcrideshd

If your wife’s leg hair is that stiff to dull a razor faster than your face, might want to get her a brush hog

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I was going to say "bush hog" but somebody might read something into that, TC

It is defiantly harder to hone more than one at a time because each razor requires different strokes, gymnastics, pressures.
:)

one thing ive noticed in honing more than a couple razors at once is to really watch the water on the edge and to dry the edges out between stones and which one you are working on so the edges don't rust out faster than you hone them.

so lets say you have 5 razors to put edges on. you soak your 1 k in the sink, then set the bevel on the first one, then set it aside and grab the next one and start working on it, if you don't dry the edge off completely and set it on a dry spot on the bench, then by the time you get through setting the bevel on the 5th one, soak your next stone and pick that first razor up, it could have been sitting with a wet edge for an hour, which is a lot of time that the water and air have been at work on the edge that you just created.

so the way ive been doing that is to work the razor on the current stone, hand strop a couple times to take most of the junk off the edge { stone and steel particles} then strop 10 times on a shop strop {just a piece of hemp strap from hobby lobby, but newspaper would work also} to dry the edge out, place the razor a the bench a couple feet away from the sink, then grab the next one and work through the stones that way, and it seems to be working pretty good.

^^^^^
Yes, i did find this too. Not like real rust but the color of rust starting. And it did not make me happy to say the least. This happened one time, after that i kept a strop close by and a dry towel. Didnt want to make that mistake.

Thanks for reminding me of this and pointing it out so others dont have the same issue. It dont take mu h to dry them up between. And it dont take long for it to happen. That put a bit of scare into me.