Thread: I seem to have forgotten how to hone - ever happened to you?

When I got into this I knew, speaking only for myself, that if I was going to become any good at it I would have to hone many razors and hone often. Some weeks I hone at least one a day and sometimes more.

Sometimes I would do as Bart said get away from it for a day or two. To me the old saying."practice makes perfect" applies. The only way to get good at something like honing IMO is to get plenty of practice. That is one reason I bought so many darn razors. Just talking about what works for me. Others may be a quicker study and pick it up easily. This old dog takes awhile to learn new tricks

Quick answer: yes. However, I knew what I was getting into. Sometimes the steel is just so hard that it takes forever. The key of course is to set the bevel correctly on the lower grit and then the rest will be easy, repetitive, but easy.

Right now I am definitely feeling as though I cannot master the smiling blade hone. I can hone up regular edges to damn fine shavers, but no dice on the smiling blades. I gave up on one and sent it to Lynn. I'm close to giving up on them altogether and outsourcing whenever I get a smiler. I've got one fully restored, but not shave ready, one more needing final polish and hone, and got three more smiles with my newest lot of razors. Long and short of it. I feel your pain. More than you know.

Leighton have you tried the rolling x ? Here is a post by Russel Baldridge describing it. Lynn has posted that using a heel leading stroke with the blade at a 45 degree angle is effective on smiling blades with an 8X3" hone. I have used both techniques and they work with practice.

This is really where I developed the term "Less strokes are Better". I used to find that I would work on a razor all day long if needed and it became very frustrating. At this point, I simply try to hone one up and if it doesn't hit, I let it sit until the next time I am honing and go through my usual routine again and most times it will hit. Some razors are just stubborn and I can never explain why this happens, but it does. Honing can become something that is very relaxing to do, but if frustration enters into the picture, I agree that a couple days away is a good ting.

Have fun,

Lynn

For my work in the past, I used to have to regularly make microinjection needles. That would involve using various pieces of equipment to convert a piece of glass capillary tubing into a sharpended beveled needle with a spike on the end of it and the diameter of that needle was smaller than a hair. There were many steps to doing it and it took a long time for me to get good at it. Before I became adept at it, there were some days when I succeeded at it and others when I just made crap. I quickly learned to walk away on days when it wasn't working and to take full advantage of days when I had success. Honing works the same way. Gradually muscle memory will improve as your brain is literally re-wired and over time the good days will outnumber the days when you should just walk away from your hones.

a very light honing stroke, i figured that out one night wondering the same thing you are, then it hit me as i used a very light touch and it worked with a lot less strokes too, my edges are vastly improving, need work on my stropping now, and more hones a lot more