Thread: Need some advice on a honing issue

So, I spent my weekend evenings attempting to hone up few razors which had become dull, and today recieved a razor which is NOT dull, and quite shave ready.

The 3 razors that I honed were:
J.M. Schmid (Stainless, I think) 5/8 just a little smiley
B&B Le Grelot 7/8
ERN Freidr, 11/16

My honing setup:
1/220K Norton
4/8K Norton
D8C
Nakayama Kita
Belgian Cotcule

What I did:
I felt that each needed to have the bevel reset, as there were some chips in the Schmid, and a bit of an uneven edge on both the Grelot and the ERN.

Schmid: Stayed on the 1K until the chip was gone. I got rid of it mostly, only a little remained but it was in the heel so I was OK with that, for now. I then moved on to using a pyramid on the 4/8K until all the scratch marks appeared to be removed under the light. After that, I finished on the Belgian Yellow and went to linen/red latigo strop.

I followed pretty much the same method with the other 2 (Grelot and ERN) except that I went down to 220 for a few strokes in order to get rid of the bevel/spine issues.

All in all, I felt that I did a pretty good job at all 3 of them, until I went to shave. Each one of them was as dull as a butterknife and would not cut any hair at all :lol:! I was quite frustrated as you can imagine, and my wife was mad at me for spending so much time on the hones rather than with her

So.... Wanna know the weird thing?

I took it upon myself to grab a microscope from radioshack today, the 60-100x lens with a little LED light to take a look at all of my edges, and compare them to the shave ready W&B that came in today. What did I see? I saw something entirely different that what I was expecting! The W&B had the expected consistent scratch marks throughout. It could be smoother, but it slices arm hairs right off and is quite shave ready for me at this stage in my honing career. However, compared to my edges, it was atom splitting.

After looking through the magnifier, I saw that my blades did not have the scratch lines as I was expecting to see to one degree or another, but rather had something of a "mesh" of metal. Instead of "||||||||" or "/////" marks, it was more like "######","%%%%","*****" and """"""" all combined into an edge. Otherwise, it looked much like a very fine file might look like at glance.

The kicker? All 3 razors had the exact same edge as the other one, the "mesh". So, although I may not be getting them sharp, at least whatever I am doing is consistent!

Any ideas on how to fix this, or what I may be doing wrong?

Thanks!

Sounds like the razors were breadknifed previously. Without pictures or more info, thats my best guess. If so, then you need to spend a lot of time resetting that bevel. It sucks, I would know. I've fixed at least dozens of those.....

The hazy finish, if that's what you're seeing, is likely coming from your Kiita. However it sounds like your inspecting the bevel but maybe not the actual edge.
Striations or Kasumi finish it won't cut till the bevel meets

Keep at the bevel setting hone until it can cut hairs off your arm ( at skin level) at several different spots along the blade. You want an edge on the blade before you move to a finer hone or you will be spending more time on the higher grits than you need to.

above people mentioned . i will try to clear a little .
what you see now is bevel come out from coticule or nakayama.
You will need to set bevel first on 1 k (sign you should be able to cut hair in skin level with a little pressure then you can go next level)
4k end of the 4 k you should be able to pop up the arm hairs
then go to 8k when you cutting hair above skin level very easy without pressure etc.
then you can go to Kita (nakayama)
hope this helps.

New peoples mistakes. most common not even bevel setting and uneven sharpness all way of the blade.
second one moving from 1 grit to next too early
3 th using too much pressure.
gl

+1 on what Bud and Joed told you, that system works... The only thing I would add is set the Gerlot to the side, work the other two first, then come back to the Gerlot after you get those two shaving great....
Always start with the easiest blades to hone if you have different styles available.. The easiest by far are full hollow grinds with straight edges

Those Gerlot's are a rather PITA to hone honestly....

Thanks for all of your responses.

I agree that I may be progressing too quickly. I will stay on the 1K with the full hollow ground and see if I can make some progress.

You have quite an impressive set up, how long have you been at Str8's

Not new to shaving with a straight, I am quite comfortable in that aspect.

As for honing, I have just began the learning process these past few months as well as aquiring some hones and seeing what works best for me. I am selling my Vintage Belgian Yellow Coticule as I dont feel I really need a coticule so expensive, and maybe will try out pasted strops along with a cheaper coticule.

How do you like the Nakayama. I have a Maruichi, it's by far my best finisher...
My Coti's are somewhere in between.