Thread: Straight Razors Dull Despite Little Use

Originally Posted by outback

Like this.

I always hone by flipping to each side for a complete pass. Of equal pressure and distance across the stone. One mimic's the other. I never hone one side, then the other.

Probably why your having trouble setting a bevel. Things have to be equal on both sides, consistently.

I tried both multiple times (alternating sides for one complete pass, or one side at a time). I'm really not sure what to even suspect at this point. I watched very carefully the amount of pressure my teacher used when he was setting a bevel, even using a scale to get a close idea of what kind of force he was putting down, and am making very deliberate effort to not over-pressure the razor as I'm honing, yet I'm getting really bad results still. The obvious conclusion should automatically be "you are using too much pressure" I think. Maybe it's true even with my effort to avoid it.

I'll order a tripod for my phone tonight, and take a shot at it again when it shows up. The only reason I haven't filmed it yet is lack of tripod.

Maybe part of the issue is that the blade is not actually smiling completely, but curls off a little bit at the toe. Maybe a full rolling x-stroke motion is counter-productive if either most of the blade is touching at once, or just the toe is. (Pictures to come.)

Originally Posted by rickytimothy

I'll order a tripod for my phone tonight, and take a shot at it again when it shows up. The only reason I haven't filmed it yet is lack of tripod.

I haven't got a tripod either. I just balanced my iPad on a box.