Thread: Sharpening a razor

I know honing is different than sharpening. My stright razor needs a hone and I'm going to be getting a stone and when I researched it, everyone says to never to sharpen (using the blade as the leading edge rather than the back) the razor yourself.

Is that true? Should I NEVER use my honing stone to sharpen my razor?

Nonsense. See this Beginner's Guide to Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki.

Do yourself a big favor and read everything on the Wiki, it will give you a good base level knowledge of each area in a relatively short amount of time.

Honing is the stroking of the razor on the hone, or stone, or whatever you want to call it. Honing is sharpening and sharpening is honing. When you go to the higher grits the honing becomes more polishing than sharpening.

You definitely need to do some reading to learn how to hone and to find out what hone (s) you should consider buying. Honing/sharpening IS done with the edge leading. Some people never sharpen their own razors, and instead pay others to do it for them. I assume most at least aspire to do it themselves. The advantage of starting with one honed by someone who knows how to do it is that you will have a better sense of how the razor should feel. Many times, new members hone away by themselves and suffer through bad shaves not having any clue how a truly sharp razor feels.

Definitely do more reading, and ask more questions if you get stumped.

First, Welcome to the forum, Now, +1 with the other members. It's the same thing, do yourself a favor and read the WIKI well. Also, you may find some video, and check out Youtube. There are some vids of guys honing/sharpening...