Thread: Dr. Richard Kimball

You know, two handed shaving came fairly easy to me about eight months ago considering I started as a one handed shaver, but one handed honing, now that's a whole 'nother ballgame! Here's my problem with this: On the pull stroke, the one bringing the blade to me on a 2/8 positioned stone in my left hand, I get a beeeutiful suction going and a nice clean even bevel line. My push ,or away stroke, well, let's just say I don't do so good, eh? The main problem is my toe likes to leave the hone about halfway up the stroke. I've been a two handed honer since I started about a year ago, but there's so much written espousing the one hand technique, I figure this is the honesters Nirvana. And while I'm here, rather than posting a third straight post, which seems to be the better razor position for you guys? The 90 degree angle X pattern, or the heel leading 45 degree Xpattern?

Heel leading 45 degree X

I hold the hone in hand at about 1/7 o'clock for the hone's long axis. I hone with my index finger on top of the tang (as in the 1961 barbering text, found here). My middle finger and thumb are on the tang's edges, 3rd and 4th finger supporting the scales. This allows me to instantly feel, and correct, any raising of the point or heel from the hone.

I hone with the heel leading, about 20 degrees. I always use an x-stroke. The x-stroke angle on the hone depends entirely on the hone. The heel is placed/starts about 1/4" above the hone's bottom edge and the stroke ends with the point 1/2" to 1" above the bottom edge. I rinse and repeat in the reverse direction for each lap. Seems to work well for me so far.

YMMV

I've always used two hands while honing. The fact is if you use two and you are getting good results I wouldn't fret about it. if you are using two hands and your bevels are off or your getting irregular spine wear then I'd be looking at my technique and the issue of one over two handed honing.

Yep;

the key is a nice even and steady stroke with even contact regardless of the holding technique.