First Experience - Some success, some questions

Hello to all!

So, 2 weeks ago I started honing my razors.
The first 2 razors I honed (both half-hollow ground, no smile, good spine condition) got sharp without any problems.
I started on a jap. waterstone grit 4000, then moved up to 6000 and then to 8000. At the end some CroOx.
It was great. Thanks to all those great informations here in the forum :tu

But than I tried my other 2 razors.
A W&B ¼ hollow with a smile, and a Boker half-hollow with a smile and a spine in bad condition.
It took me many hours (at least 5 hours per razors) to get them in moderate condition. I have to admit that I have done most of the work on the 8000 grit waterstone (more than 80 percent of all strokes were on the 8000 grit stone)
The Boker got some sharpness after I taped the spine.
I used teh swooping X-stroke on both smiling razors.
So overall the sharpness was moderate, but not great.

So here are my questions:

1. Is it normal that honing wedgie razors or razors with a smile lasts that long?
Or should I just do more work on a coarser stone (e.g. 4000) and not that much on teh 8000 grit stone?

2. All my razors seem to be less sharp at the heel. I watched Lynns honig video here, and my strokes are similar (direction of the strokes and so on…).
What am I doing wrong, and is it now possible to get the heel sharp without simultaneous honing the toe and the middle of the razor?

3. How does honing a frown happen?

Hope you can help me

While I cannot comment on the smiles and frowns I can say this.

4k - 6k are where your sharpness starts, anything above that is polish.

In short it sounds as if you were polishing the edge instead of sharpening it. I am sure the smiles/frowns/Elvises, and bad spines did not help either.

Try the lower grits until it pops arm hair with out skipping or jumping around then move to the next and the next. TPTs are great at all grits to make sure that everything is in line as well.:gl:

Hi,
Did you do any tests before you moved from the 4k to determine if you'd created a bevel correctly?
The TNT & marker test are good for this. I wouldn't move to a finer grit till the edge passes both of these.
It could be that the blade is slightly warped & you need to drop the scale end a little as you hone the heel.
Frowns can be caused by an uneven gring which isn't taken into account when honing, or just too much honing to the centre of the blade. Straight up & down the hone, for example, instead of an X.

I have found Sheffield wedges to be tougher to hone then Solingens. Lynn recommends attacking the wedge at a 45 degree angle heel leading on smiling blades and some wedges. I have found that works on some. On others the rolling x method is effective.

The bevel set is the foundation and IME needs to be checked with magnification even after passing the TNT. Once it passes TNT don't use that anymore and rely on TPT.

When it passes TPT I start to check for hair popping with the edge above (not touching) the skin on the arm or leg. The 4k is to get it sharp and above that to refine and polish but the 4/8 pyramids are effective IME.

The tutorials in the SRP Wiki cover alot of this ground and Lynn's and Heavysg's videos found here are great to learn from.

What they said. I also like to use marker and a coarser hone (1200 or even less) to set the primary bevels. Setting a wedge's edge on an 8k can take a very long time.

On wedges I usually put one or more layers of electrical tape on the spine. Once the bevels get close I might remove the tape to finish them up (sometimes I leave the tape on, depends on the razor).

This has a good answer and cure re. question #3: 1961 Barbering Text - Honing.pdf Straight Razor Place Forums

More reading material: SRP faq index http://straightrazorpalace.com/basic...faq-index.html

Thanks for the answers and pictures!

Fortunately the bevel was set on the razors.
But I guess I should not try to do almost all the sharpening on a 8000 stone :rolleyes:
Developing some skill is another point. Honig must be learned and that takes some time.

Does anybody know how this frown honig happens?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Antares

Does anybody know how this frown honig happens?

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I believe it comes from too much pressure and perhaps an improper stroke. In the barber manual text on honing found here they go into the X stroke and how to avoid a frown in the section,"Honing Techniques For the Advanced Student" on page 24. Illustrations are provided.

The manual displays sideways on my PC at home and at work so I printed it out for easier reading. It is really worth doing as I have found it very helpful to refer back to.