Newbie thoughts on honing.

I received most of my first set of hones this week (everything but the 4k) and thought I'd share a few of my initial reactions.


As always, any kind of feedback aditions, advice, etc is perfectly welcom.

1. The shapton glass hones are amazing. After my first razor, I stopped counting lapps because the feedback from the hone changes drastically and suddenly when you get "there."
2. On a full hollow with a very straight edge, it's possible to go straight from the 1k shapton to the 8k and 16k without ever stopping at 4k, and get a shave ready edge. I know, because I did it today. It's not as smooth as an edge done by gugi, but it's good enough I wouldn't feel guilty selling it as "shave ready."
3. Honing smiling wedges with chipped edges SUCKS. I spent a good long time on the 1k shapton with that Frederick Reynold wedge I posted the other day, and didn't even get close to grinding out the chips. None of the chips were wider than the bevel, which was very narrow. I suspect the razor had only ever been honed once. I dropped down to my DMT D8C, and even getting half way through those chips took the better part of an hour, and that was with using a bit of pressure.
4. Using an 8" DMT to lap the shapton glass hones is a little akward because the hones are 1/4" longer than the DMT, but it does work quite well. Also, they seem to require VERY little lapping the first time out.
5. Regardless of what kind of hone you're using, the DMT seems WAY better for honing than wet/dry sandpaper. Personally, I think a DMT is worth every penny for lapping. I put my barber hone to it right after I lapped my shaptons, and it put a beautiful surface on it.

Neat observations. I agree about the jump across 4K. It seems to me to always just be about quantity making up for effect . . .