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!