Last night I dragged my wife and 3 month old daughter on a 2hr round trip car ride just so I could purchase my Norton 4k/8k and flattening stone. (My wife thought I was nuts...) Anyway, I got these bad boys home, drew my grid on both sides of the hone and proceeded to lap each side until flat.
I then took one of my new Wapienicas and tried my hand at honing (first time ever)... what I discovered is that I truely suck at it. :cen As I honed the razor, I noticed that I was getting an uneven bevel on one side, and absolutely NO bevel on the other. WTF... to make matters worse, after each pass on the hone, I was able to clearly feel a wire edge with my fingernail. <sigh...> At this point I was beginning to get a little frustrated so I grabbed one of my other Wapi's and gave it a go.
Better... I was able to produce an uneven bevel on both sides. I relapped my hone and tried again... a bit better,... bevel was more even, but nothing great. Only the point and heel were able to cut any hair at all. So I applied more pressure to the blade to try to set the bevel better, which I managed to do, but I also wore the spine on the razor a bit. :cen The razor will not pass a HHT, but I was able to shave a patch of hair on my leg with ease.
So... after approx. 3hrs of dorking around with my razors, I finally went to bed... ... very, very unhappily. I'm really starting to feel like I'm in over my head with honing, but feel like I need to stick with it, as I want to learn -- plus I can't possibly justify this expense to my wife otherwise.
I have accepted heavydutysg135's offer to hone my razors, but I feel like I should keep practicing on one to learn this skill for myself. I plan on doing a pyramid on the second razor tonight to see what happens.
My overall feeling right now is still ... ... this sucks!
- Ken -