Thread: first honing!

I just got a blue belgian and yellow coticule from Howard, arrived quickly and am now loving it!

I have my vintage blades special dovo 5/8 best quality that came honed by lynn, and have been using it 6 days a week for the last month and my face has been burning a quite a bit recently and catching on some of the tougher whiskers.

I did a quick pyramid since I think I rounded the blade as I was learning to strop and now it is awesome, feels like my first shave all over again! it's smooth and cuts right through the beard. I can't wait to hone my flea market blades and start using them now!

these are exciting times learning to shave the good ol' fashioned way!

Plan on spending a LONG time if you are going to hone a flee market razor with just a Belgian Blue and Yellow, it can be done though. They are great stones, but they are very slow cutters. It usually takes me a fair amount of time to get through the oxidized steel on most old razors even with a Norton 4K.

Agree - I use shaptons to make short work of establishing new bevels or grinding away copious amounts of steel. The 500 grit Shapton GlasStone is a fearsome cutter, and all the other hones are very fast too.

Originally Posted by heavydutysg135

Plan on spending a LONG time if you are going to hone a flee market razor with just a Belgian Blue and Yellow, it can be done though. They are great stones, but they are very slow cutters. It usually takes me a fair amount of time to get through the oxidized steel on most old razors even with a Norton 4K.

Feels great when you can maintain and sharpen your razors

Never used the Shaptons; my weapon of choice for rapid steel removal is a diamond combo hone.

Cheers
Ivo

Your skin changes after shaving with a straight and it may be more sensitive now. This happened to me and I switched from soaps for a lather to Tom's of Maine shaving cream. It comes in a green tube and is very gentle to the skin. It also looks like their spearmint toothpaste so store seperately from your toothpaste . . .

Congrats! There's something about being responsible for the quality of the shave you get and it's even better when they're the best shaves of your life.

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