Thread: First time honing, and holy crap!

I put my ego aside and say, it is as hard as they say! I lapped the norton 4k/8k today, it took forever to get it flat. Basically I nicked the edge of my razor in two places because the bevels were not as smoothed out as I thought I had them. Took the razor and it would not even shave my arm!!! I panicked, then told myself you can do this. I re-beveled the hones edges, went to the wiki and printed out the pyramid for heavy repair. After the pyramid, and a few additional strokes on the 4k and some more on the 8k, I can now shave with it again. The nicks are gone, it is still less than par but it does cut hair.It will not pass hht and the thumbnail test feels grabbier than it did before.??? Now, I do not have any paste or chomium oxide, so with some heavy stropping can I get a comfortable shave without paste or barber hone since I goofed up my edge to start with? Any help would be appreciated guys! Jeremy-

I use chromium oxide, but have tried without and got a shavable result.
So, yes you can, obvoiusly you use in between to make it better, but you can make it without.

Sounds like your learning and on the fast track towards honing success.

Light even strokes are key in the beginning. You're going to develop a feel of the drag, that will be the feedback you need. Be sure to get familiar with the TPT. It's going to be your indicator on the way. Don't pay too much mind to the HHT in the beginning stages.

Even though you could shave off an 8k, you're going to want something else to finish with, even if it's some black Dovo paste.

Finally, it's best to not practice on your primary shaver. It's great to have a professionally honed razor to not only give you a baseline, but you'll still be able to shave with something while you're learning. Also, it's good to learn how to freshen up an edge before you go on to resetting bevels, IMO.

Have fun. It's a great journey.

most important lesson I have learned in my short honing career is that there is no need to move up in grit until it can cut your hair. Doing so will only polish a dull blade.
If you have a lower grit stone than the 4k, I'd go all the way back, ad keep at it until it cuts arm/leg hair. Then and only then is it ready for the 4/8.

You can set bevel on the 4k, it will just take a while and you'll be tempted to use more pressure, which is counter-productive.

Thanks for all the advice and motivation guys. I did get overconfident and decided to "freshen" up my only straight! I'll never do that again, but you live you learn...As far as the hone goes, 4k is the lowest I have. I did take my time and hopefully have got it where I need it. If all fails, I 'll fall back to the ole' Merkur DE and use that while the straight is out of commission. I will not give up though, there is a huge part of me that wants to box it up and let Lynn have at it but I'll never learn that way. I need to develop my skills and if that takes messing up the edge numerous times, so be it. I will eventually set it properly and get it right. Keep the advice coming though, it all helps. Thanks to Lynn for the great advice you have given me so far! It means a lot! Jeremy-

Dont under estimate thirty or fourty rounds of as light a touch on the 8 as possible only the weight of the razor

Don't feel bad- I did the EXACT same thing. Took my slightly less than perfect Lynn-honed Dovo, and rather than just hitting it on the 12K, for some reason decided to use the 4K . Now I find that it's warped (brand new blade )...well either that or my hone isn't lapped properly, so I haven't gotten it back up to snuff yet.
Was able to get another busted razor shaving like a dream though, so go figure.

When I first started to hone my razors I only used a Norton 4k/8k and a leather strop and got very good shaves. If the razor doesn't feel right, go back to the Norton and do a small pyramid. Later down the road you can get some paste and a coticule stone or whatever and acheive even better shaves.

The only test I use to determine whether or not my razors are shave-ready is to simply shave my face with them. If it doesn't feel right, I know that I need to go back to my Norton and do a few more strokes. Once I'm satisfied with how the razor shaves, I move to the coticule, then to the chromium oxide paste, then to the leather strop. The next time I use the razor I get excellent shaves with it.

Good luck.

It may help to get a jewelers loupe. It is one of those one-eyed magnifiers. I find that my 10x gives me a really good idea of how the edge is coming along. You can see which areas of the blade are getting more or less time on the hone by checking out the scratch patterns.

Once the bevels look good, then I move to the 8k to get rid of scratches left by the 4k. But, sometimes I will polish the edge with the 8k for a couple of laps to see if there are areas on the bevel that are not getting polished.

Works for me. YMMV