Hey all,
So it's official, I can hone afterall! :y I knew I was getting better at it, as I have been practicing a lot lately and have been touching up my razors very well. But it's been a while since I've done a complete bottom-up honing on a razor. Lately I've been using a 5/8" Boker King Cutter that I honed up from scratch a couple of months back. It took me a few trips back to the stones to get it to the level that I wanted. Since then I've just been using my fine hones to touch it up, with good results.
Well, I just got back a few razors that floppyshoes re-scaled for me (very well I might add), and decided to take one of them to the stones. It was another King Cutter, and it was an ebay special that was restored, but still dull as hell. Long story short, in just a little over an hour I took it from butter-knife dull to light saber sharp!:jedi:
I did it all by the books, and everything went splendidly. It all went so easily, and I really got into a rhythm. I set the bevel on the 1000 (using TPT to check all along the way), 4000 to sharpen, 8000 to polish, then did about 20 laps of a coticule with just water,then about 30 more on a yellow/green vintage thuringian. To finish I did about 40 laps on linen, then a bunch on plain leather (probably 100-150).
Well I just shaved with it, and WOW!!! Definitely one of my smoothest shaves ever! I'm just estatic, because I got it right the first time, no need to go back to the hones after the first shave! So I must've done something right. :D
Tonight was definitely a confidence booster for me. Just thought I would share my experience with you all. And this just goes to prove, things really do get easier with practice.