How do I know...

[kuoytfouy]

...how far off the mark I stand.

I bought a razor (best quality dovo) from a shop claiming it would never need honing. Seeing that it performed far worse than the shavette I had been using, and out of tremendous ignorance, I bought an oil stone of unknown grit (cost~$7), and well-ruined the edge on it using strokes of arbitrary (and quite steep) inclination (as opposed to laying the razor flat). Only after that I started to do my reading, and I now have a lineup of DMT8E, BBW, Coticule, Dovo green paste and Dovo red paste. Now what I obtained after numerous trial and error cycles may be described as follows:

Off the DMT: Passes the marker test, chops some arm hair off, feels smooth but has some drag on the thumbnail, looks very even and free of chips under a jeweller's loupe.

Then I did not do any tests except feeling the edge with my thumb pad (I don't call this a thumb pad test because I'm sceptical that I have enough tactile experience to accurately evaluate the situation.)

Then: Coticule with slurry -> BBW with slurry -> BBW wet -> Coticule wet -> green paste -> red paste -> newspaper -> strop

Using pastes after the coticule probably does not fit in the grit hierarchy but I do it anyway.

After all these the blade passes the HHT uniformly,
Shave feels: Sharpnesswise on par with the shavette, but with much less irritation. Also I think my technique still needs to adapt more to the bulkier razor after the thin and light shavette.


So, I have never seen a "properly honed" or "shave ready" razor. I am sort of happy with what I have achieved, and I have the tendency to pursue better smoothes in the neck area, and if my razor is in fact in a sub-par condition it will probably be a painful and vain effort. Is there any way of assessing the razor other than having first hand experience with a certainly well honed razor? (any acquisition of a prehoned razor seems at least a month away)

[StraightRazorDave]

Perhaps you could send it off to one of the honemeisters here (in the classifieds section under "Member Services")? That way you have a benchmark for your own honing

I'm so sorry to hear about your unfortunate little adventure with your first razor!! I too bought a dovo best quality from a shop that claimed it wouldn't need "the stone, only a stropping", and boy was he wrong....

I would advise you to consult with the wiki, there is a lot of information about honing, especially helpful for people just starting out. I have no idea how your razor looks...so it's a little hard to assess how far off the mark you are. But sending it one of the pros here is your best bet, it'll also gaurantee you a nice shaving edge to learn on. Then you know what you have to aim towards in your own honing!

As far as your progression goes, the coticule with just water is FAR finer than either of the dovo pasts (especially the green), so I see those pastes after the coticule a step backward. If done properly, you can get a very nice edge when you finish on the coticule with just water.

Your journey begins here!

Dave

[JimmyHAD]

What helped me get the feel for the TPT was Randy's suggestion to use a new DE or SE blade. Just lightly slide ( GGsixgun calls it a bounce) your moistened TP on the edge and you will begin to get the feel. If the blade is sharp it will stop your thumb. Dull and it will slide like it was on ice. There are stages in between dull and sharp. It really helped me to have a razor honed by a sure enough honemiester to get the idea of what the real deal shaved and felt like.

[randydance062449]

I agree that the pastes are a step backward. Use the 0.5 micron Chrome Oxide as the last step for honing. Contact ChrisL, he has small packets of the stuff for a small price. Use it on a paddle strop. ChrisL recently posted a thread showing a very inexpensive method to make your own paddle strop with just a piece of balsa wood.

Is you blade sharp enough?....if it shaves you well then that's what your looking for.

Once you get the Chrome Ox on a paddle strop the go back to the coticule, wet but no slurry, perform 50 laps then 30 laps on the Chrome Ox. Clean the blade then strop and test shave.

[kuoytfouy]

Thanks, I will give it a try.
I have a TI four sided strop and its smooth side is unpasted. I was thinking of buying a proper Tony Miller strop, I will use the smooth side of the TI for CrO then.

[JCitron]

Like Randy said, the test is in the shave. To be honest, I am just beginning to get the hang of the TPT, and my razors only pass the HHT after stropping, but I have always been happy with the shave. There is always room for improvement but if you can hone your razor to a level you feel comfortable shaving with then you have succeeded.

[StraightRazorDave]

There is always room for improvement but if you can hone your razor to a level you feel comfortable shaving with then you have succeeded.

That summarizes perfectly how I feel. Although I'm sure my honing skills aren't to the same level as the honemeisters', I can get a very comfortable shave off of a self-honed razor. It doesn't matter if your razor is as sharp as it can be, or as sharp as somebody else's. If you get a comfortable shave off of it, that's ALL that matters. Isn't that the entire idea of honing in the first place, to get a comfortable shave?

Dave

[randydance062449]

That summarizes perfectly how I feel. Although I'm sure my honing skills aren't to the same level as the honemeisters', I can get a very comfortable shave off of a self-honed razor. It doesn't matter if your razor is as sharp as it can be, or as sharp as somebody else's. If you get a comfortable shave off of it, that's ALL that matters. Isn't that the entire idea of honing in the first place, to get a comfortable shave?

Dave

Yes,yes,yes! I agree with this 100%.