Thread: First Honing Experience (Honemeisters please critique)

Soooooo......I've had the stones since Sep 07....but as things go, other things took priority...that and I had enough honed straights (courtesy of JoshEarl and HeavyDuty) that I was not in dire need.

Now, some of the straights have started to feel less than wonderful, so I thought I would give it a shot.

After chatting with JoshEarl and reading the honing FAQ, watching Lynn and HeavyDuty's vids, and reading the Coticle chronicle (wheeew!), I started.

I chose 3 razors:

A new, out-of-the-box generic Solingen
My Wapi
My Dovo Burghof (this was the razor I purchased after FuddEx lost the 2 I sent to Lynn for honing)

Stones:
Norton 4K/8K
Belgian Blue (as an aside, this has always sounded like a dog breed to me..."The sure is a pretty Belgian Blue you have." "Yep, he's 3 years old and is a great retriever...he's good at bringing dubbel and ambers, now he is learning to bring Lambics")...sorry, back to the topic.....
Yellow Cotigura Rubbing stone
Belgian Yellow Coticle
Escher

I started with the new razor and a standard pyramid on the Norton:

3/1
3/1
1/3
1/3
1/3
1/5
1/5
1/10

Always kept the stoned wet, enough that I could see a little "wave" of water pushed in the front of the blade edge as I did each lap. I did laps with the blade perpendicular to the stone.

Then, I moved to the Blue with a slurry for 50 laps;

Then, the blue with just water for 30 laps;

Then, the coticle wet for 30 laps;

Then, the coticle dry for 20 laps.

I read the directions on what was left on my Escher's lable and it recommended a lather. I took a small bit a dishsoap and worked it up into a light foam and did another 20 laps.

Between each progression, I visually checked the edge and did the Thumbpad and thumbnail tests. When I finsihed, the edge was mirror shiny. So, next stop, the bathroom ad a test shave.

I finished the blade on leather, 20 strokes on the Russian, 20 on the Latigo, 20 on the horsehide. I lathered (no towel, no super hot water) and proceded with a WTG stroke. I had 2 days' growth.

The blade removed the whiskers and was moderately smooth, but not on par with blades from JoshEarl or HeavyDuty. I rinsed off and returned to the stones.

I did another 30 laps on the blue (w/ water only), then 20 more on the wet coticle, then 20 on the dry coticle, then 20 on the wet (no soap) Escher. I then did 10 laps on 3.0 pasted paddle, 10 on the 1.0, and 5 on the chrome oxide.

Lathered the other side of my face and did another WTG stroke. Much, much better.

I did the same progression on the Wapi and the Dovo, minus the Norton, as they already had an edge. I have yet to shave with them (ran out of face).

My goal is a smoothly shaving blade, versus scary sharp.

For the Honemeisters, where in this progression can I make imporvements/adjustments?

Difficulties

Keeping count of the laps
Keeping the toe of the blade flat on the stone at the end of the lap
Keeping the spine flat on the stone during the lap pulling towards you....if it came up, I started the lap again.

I have a pile of razors to work on (20+), so all tips/tricks are welcome. I know that each person has their own style and methodology.

On a sid enote, I am selling all my spikes, as I have just have not taken a liking to them. So, they are listed in the B/S/T section. I am sticking with the round end, French, Spanish. I also like wedges and I have a frameback I may need to consult with HeavyDuty on honing (one of the 3 I won in the Great Missouri Razor Auction of 2007).

Greg

Wirebeard,
First off, I don't really consider myself a honemeister, but I do have some experience to share...

The first thing that I think is very important, is that your pyramids on the Norton lead to a perfect bevel, that has both sides of the cutting edge meet in a perfect sharp corner, without any roundness left over from the dull state of the razor. I recommend some way of testing that. A TPT, if you know how to "read" that, or otherwise you could try to shave some hairs of your arm, something that should go completely effortlessly at this stage. Even shaving arm hair slightly above skin level should pop a hair here and there. You could also try to perform a HHT.

Only if the bevel is perfectly sharp, you can proceed to your progression of finishing hones.
Always keep the stroke very light weighted.

50 laps on the blue with a thin slurry. The bare minimum.

A blue with water only is a waste of time. It's just to slow to do anything beneficial to your progression.

Don't use slurry on that coticule. It's a bevel setting hone when used with slurry, and you're already way above the sharpness threshold that a coticule with slurry can offer.

Polish on a coticule with water only. 70 - 100 laps.

I can't comment on the Esher (no experience with that), but you should have a superb shaving edge if you strop about 40 on linen and 40 on leather after the coticule. (more on the leather if you don't want to use the linen)

I strongly advice against experimenting with pasted strops, before you're absolutely confident that you can get a very decent edge from the progression on your hones. Pastes can easily mask the flaws in your honing, but CrO can also do beautiful things for a well honed edge.
The coarser pastes have no place in your progression. (certainly not the 3 micron, about the 1 micron, I'm not sure)

The difficulties you describe will resolve themselves with practise. I think learning to hone, takes regular practice in the beginning, trying to hone one razor each month, will not get you there. (I'm not writing this for you since you have 20+ razors to hone, but for others that may be reading along)

Best of luck,

Bart.

If the blade is shaving with any decent level of comfort, you can start at the wet coticule, no need to go lower since the edge is almost perfect.

The Escher should give you excellent edges, no need for the pastes.

But, if you feel like the stones aren't getting the blade quite as smooth as you'd like, you can jump straight to the CrO (from the coticule or escher), the 3.0 micron is especially unnecessary since the coticule and Escher are finer than that.

Otherwise, you deserve a pat on the back, that's a very good end-result for a first time honing.

And don't worry too much about the lap count, all that matters is that the previous grit scratches are removed, 20-30 laps usually gets it for most stones and more almost never hurts.

Personally with a pretty good razor that just isn't shaving well any more I would have done a much more conservative pyramid with the Norton say around the second 1/3 set then 50 laps on any of the leathers. Then I would have shaved with it and while shaving have used my Escher to bring the blade to perfection through the coarse of the shave.

Don't over complicate things and your edge will be as good as you want it.

Thanks all! I was not sure about the pasted strops and the varying levels...I have used the 1.0 and the 0.5 CrO to tune up razors where the leather wasn't doing its magic any more. I did not use the Norton on any of the blades with an existing bevel, only on the out of the box.

I will adjust my progression with these tips, so i am not "re-doing" a level in the progression.

Thanks! This feedback is why SRP rocks!!!!!!



Greg

Shaved with the Wapi this morning...clean shave, but not "smooth"...didn't feel like it was pulling and it was definitely removing whiskers, but is did not have that "sliding" feel - there was definite effort to the shave.

Ideas?