Thread: Honing Woes...

I've been trying for a few months now with various hones and am starting to agree with the general consensus on this board that it would have been a much better idea to 1) Buy pre-honed on board. or 2)Pay $20 and get someone to hone for me. I've spent WAY to much and still have never ever gotten a shave worthy edge, and as a result have no idea what a joy no pulling, pinching, etc. can feel like. To make matters worse, I've mutilated my once beautiful wapi out of frustration.

So, I have one pretty nice antique shop razor, one sad ebay special, and one probably ruined wapi (very uneven edge, really worn spine). Should I send my nicest off, or continue plodding along with my DMT and Coticule on the wapi or ebay? Or should I give up entirely and find a good deal on the board?

I can't decide if I'm heavy handed, my razors are warped, or my technique is atrocious. But I consistently get uneven bevel and spine wear patterns.

Once you've wrecked a razor they are a real pain to fix. I've seen razors that were so bad it was a big challenge even for me to hone. I have no idea where you are (the further from Ohio/VA, USA, the more expensive) but what I would do is send my best razor out to Lynn to have him hone it. Its money well spent.

You can send one of the other two to me (or both). I can atleast spend the time to diagnose your problem and can probably put a decent bevel and a decent edge on for you. It only costs a couple of bucks to mail razors First Class.

In the mean time you might want to consider a paddle strop with .5 on one side if you don't have one. Lots of guys need that extra refinement to feel like their shaving and need work on their stropping too. Even if you end up with 1 good and 2 decent shavers you'll still have little experience with stropping properly honed razors. Just learning to strop well can take a long time.

Thanks Alan,

I took another look at my razors and the ebay one is not actually that messed up. The nicest is a Boker, and its been buffed or something (untouched by me), but the edge looks nice.

I had been wondering if I would need to buy a paddle strop, and your comment confirms my suspicion. It seems like I can get really close to an edge, to the point where I'll be cutting arm hairs with light pressure. The wapi is best at this for some reason, but I can never get it sharp enough for a hht and their brutal on my face :-)

I wouldn't want to make you suffer with the wapi, but thanks for the offer. At the very least I can practice honing and stropping with it.

Could it possibly be my dmt thats the problem? I've kinda kicked myself for trying to go the cheaper route sense I've ended up spending more in the long run. But first order of business will be sending my best to Lynn for sure, so I can at least make sure I really like shaving with a straight.

Thanks for all your help.

Your welcome. I have no experience with the DMT.

Originally Posted by theilff

Could it possibly be my dmt thats the problem?

DMT's are very consistent stones so if you are asking if it is defective then no. On the other hand you could very well have the wrong DMT for the job. Diamond stones are normally very course stones and coticules are very fine, so unless you have an 8000 grit DMT (or a DMT-E and spend a LOT of time removing the scratch pattern) then it is very likely that you are making too big of a grit jump to the coticule. IMO the course diamond stones should be saved for your knives.

David

I bought a 6" dmt double sided fine/coarse. So it sounds like I really took a heavy wack at my wapi with it, which would explain the excessive hone wear. And your right, it has done wonders with our kitchen knives.

Guess I made a pretty expensive mistake.. my own fault I didn't ask more questions.

Thanks for the input.

I would bet that your wapi is salvagable. Hone wear if its even is a cosmetic issue most of the time. An uneven bevel can be fixed although it may take time. I am not sure how much honing you did on this razor but if I were you I would send it out to a member here and have them look at it. Odds are you will be able to shave with it after some work.