Thread: Honing Journal is a great idea

Jimmy had mentioned recently that he has a honing journal. The closest I've come to that so far was creating an Excel spreadsheet blank and posting it on my bathroom wall above my strops to log info of when a razor was honed, what I used, any problems, etc. Needless to say I didn't follow through with that spreadsheet.

I need to start a honing journal. I don't have hundreds and hundreds of razors, but I was performing a much needed cleaning of "Razorville" ( which my wife dubbed the area of the basement I have for honing and detail razor work) and picked up a brand new TI Super Gnome that I received directly from TI as a replacement for a Super Gnome that was defective. I was certain I hadn't brought that new TI to a hone and I do recall it was nowhere near shave ready when I took it out of the box. Lo and behold at some point in the last year I honed it to near shave ready status (when I picked it up a few days ago it mowed down arm hairs when suspended above my forearm). There was an area toward the center about a centimeter long that wasn't as sharp as the rest (TPT and HHT) which I remedied today and will shave test tomorrow. Long post, I know, but.......I have no clue what progression and what hones I used to hone it to that level. Frustrating. I need a honing journal.

Chris L

I remember Jimmy's thread, and I think I posted on that one as well. Anyway, a big +1 for the honing journal. If a guy only had a couple razors to play with I could see getting by without it, but once the collection starts it would be a wise idea to keep a log IMO.

I'd like to see lynn's honing journal - I can picture it now, a set of half a dozen tomes one of which would probably contain the following entries:

Razor 8,536: Did another pyramid, stropped, test shave, perfect
Razor 8,537: Another pyramid, stropped, test shave, perfect
Razor 8,538: Ditto
Razors 8,539 & 8,540: Honed both of these at the same time one in each hand just to try something different, stropped, test shaved, perfect



Seriously though, I don't see myself keeping one but I can see how it would be a nice thing to have around. I am always asking myself "ok how did I solve this problem last time it came up?"

It is funny. I had a forum member PM me and ask me if I remembered with what I had honed a razor I mentioned in a thread. I went to my journal and there it was. I easily relayed the info to him.

That is the good news. The bad news is that once you decide how you're going to keep the journal you have to do it. I started out longhand in a composition book. Posted on the forum and got some input and tried a spreadsheet.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to figure that out and it was too simple. I went to Open Office and used a document. I like to do my journal in a narrative form and the document lends itself to that where the spreadsheet doesn't. The Open Office thing is really cool and I can give a detailed outline of the whole procedure for example, the marker test so I won't have to ever use it again if I re-hone the same razor in the future.

Which hones and how many laps, results of the various tests as I progressed through the honing, the shaves. Unfortunately lately I find myself writing notes on scrap paper, envelopes and so forth and then not transposing them into the Open Office docs.

For those of us who have a lot of different hones as well as razors it would be nice to keep a record of what was honed with what. Eventually having a really good sense of which were the most effective and the characteristics of each coticule or Escher.

So it is a good idea but besides finding the ideal format I have to find the discipline. I hope you do better at it then I have been doing Chris.