Thread: help, honing my TI seems to make it worse

recently my TI (5/8, sheffield steel) started to pull on my stubble so i decided to hone it. as with the last time i honed it, the blade seemed to be obviously more dull after honing. previously i was able to get it in shape by using red and green pastes on a paddle strop, repeating literally hundreds of times on each side. the pyramid i used was the norton "conservative" pyramid: (1/5,1/5,3/5,5/5,3/5,3/5,1/5,1/5,1/5) on a 4k/8k stone i had lapped fresh to bring a new honing surface to the stone. knowing that TI's are recognized to be "hard", i added some more strokes to the last 8k set, probably about ten in total.

clearly there is something i am doing wrong, but i am following the pyramid and using a light touch when honing.

i think i need some TI-specific advice

i have read in posts here that TI blades are very hard due to the lead they use in their metallurgy. do others find they have to go to a more aggressive pyramid or just more strokes?

i know i can send it to a "honemeister" but i don't want to be defeated by a piece of metal. can anyone offer some specific advice, anecdotes, etc? hearing from other TI users would be best.

Read in several occasions this. A person has straight to shave ready and when she becomes dull with 4 or 5 last ones in coticule or to barber hone she returns to have its sharpness. When they do it with the Norton using the same technique does not work. Not the cause. I am newby also.

Greetings from Barcelona

Sorry for my bad inglish

The Norton may well be more than is necessary. I only use a barber hone followed by a pasted 4 sided strop when touch up is necessary.

For a touch up all you need is a few strokes on the norton 8K or coticule or a pasted strop. If you start doing pyramids you probably ruined the edge. Thats way too much. Pyramids are really for razors needing the complete treatment like an Eboy special.