Thread: Teaching someone how to touch up a razor

I've been talking to my cousin about straight shaving, and I think he's pretty interested. I plan on helping him find & purchase a reasonable priced strop, a shave-ready razor off the classifieds, and a Chinese 12k for the eventual touch-up honing he'll have to do down the road.

I learned how to hone by buying a few hones, and a few razors, and just giving it a shot. Eventually I got better, but I definitely didn't have it for at least a month. (and I'm still learning)

Here's the thing - he lives in Illinois, so I can't really fly up there to help him in the learning process. Do you think he'd be able to learn to touch up his razor on his own with just one razor and one finishing hone?

Of course there are some people who are all thumbs but for most of us that's how we learned. The only recommendation is he get a junk razor and practice with that until he's comfortable just using the hone with the razor. If he uses his one good razor on the hone from scratch there is too much of a chance he will damage the razor unless he's one of those born honers. He's your cousin, you know him.