Thread: first attempt at honing, kinda long

So on Saturday I made the leap into the realm of honing for the first time. Quite some time ago I chipped the edge on my straight pretty bad. I was rinsing the blade (I now wipe the blade instead) and the edge hit the faucet. Since then my razor has been just sitting there. I used it a few times but with some pulling and discomfort on the chipped area leaving irritation.

I have a Norton 220/1000 and 4000/8000 with the Norton lapping stone. They came in one package and were a valentines day present . I figured the edge on it wasn't serviceable and decided that id have to start from the beginning. I started on the 220 grit, which I know is very coarse for a straight, but I didn't want to be honing for days getting those chips out. I used two hands to keep the edge on the stone using plenty of water. After checking and seeing a new clean edge I moved up a grit to the 1000. The blade seemed to have a bit of resistance to it. On the passes it felt like it didn't want to go smoothly. Next I moved up to the 4000. There was a big difference, it was starting to glide nicely. After the 4000 the bevel was nearly perfect on one side and a little thinner at the toe on the other side, at this point the edge was getting nice and shiny. Finally the 8000, the blade went over the stone with no resistance and felt super smooth.

After the stones I moved up to the .5 chromium paste. I did a few laps but was scared to overdo it, how many would you suggest? I wanted to try some newspaper but I didn't have any so went to the leather and stropped it for a bit then put it away for another day.

One problem I had was the HHT. When I first received the razor it passed the HHT without too much difficulty, now it barely does if at all.

The shave test yielded decent results. The blade didn't glide through the hair as easily as before and didn't feel as smooth overall. I got a pretty close shave but needed a bit of touch up, which I also didn't have to do before.

How do you think I did for a first time? I am pretty critical of myself and wasn't too happy that it wasn't as good as when I got the razor or better.

Sorry for such a long post but I'm still exited over my first time, also its not like my girlfriend wants to hear about it anymore either. Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I think you did a great job and you should be very proud. And you can tell your girlfriend I said so!

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I think you did a great job and you should be very proud. And you can tell your girlfriend I said so!

Thank you! I will tell her that. I think shell learn to appreciate it and all my other odd hobbies with time.

Well done for a first attempt!

I *highly* recommend stropping on newspaper... do anywhere between 50 and 100 passes... I've seen improvements over .5 micron diamond pasted stropping with just 20 passes of newspaper stropping... I swear, the newspaper stropping will get you HHT in a hurry if you're close already.

Dude, I go from a 600 grit DMT diamond whetstone to a transluscent Arkansas stone... I don't think you need more intermediate grits than those you're already using.

Seriously, newspaper... plunk down the 50 cents or steal one from work Classifieds, or stock quotes... lots of blank ink is best... I read somewhere that the ink particles are on the order of 0.2 or 0.3 micron.

Report back after you've tried the newspaper!

Agreed, you did far better than most!

One thing I found myself doing unconsciously when I was new to honing was putting too much pressure on the razor. You said that the blade moved pretty smoothly, but that doesn't exactly mean you weren't pressing too hard, it just means the stone is very smooth. Try just resting the tang and scales in your fingers as if it were a feather and giving it just enough push to move it down the length of the stone. Do that for a couple passes on the 8k to finish off the stone work then try stropping on plain leather and see how it turned out before going to the paste (pastes tend to mask poor honing).

With that setup you are pretty much good to go for the rest of your life. Thumbs up.

(I thought I read that the news paper ink was more like .1 or .01 microns)

Hey thanks,

I did make sure to lessen pressure as I went, but I had a hard time getting to the zero or "negative" pressure range. When ever I reduced pressure to almost none the blade stuck to the stone like a magnet and nearly dug into the stone! The razor is a full hollow Levering Artist btw, if that means anything. I heard the suction was a good sign but it seemed to hinder me a bit.

Sounds great TJ!

I am sorry to hear it got nicked, but it sounds like your getting it back to were it needs to be....I think I used a coticule on that one and finished on the pasted strops.....I am sure you'll get it as sharp, if not sharper than you received it

Nice work

Neale

That's very impressive for your first try.
Many individuals take numerous trys just to get close to what you are describing.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone! I have a past history of sharpening knives but theres nothing like a straight. I really enjoy honing which I think helps a lot, if I didn't, the patience and care wouldn't be there resulting in a bad job. I am looking forward to becoming much more active here and working on all aspects of straights very soon. (got a few from ebay on the way...)

I'm surprised you remembered me Neale!