Honed my first smiling edge!

I honed my first smiling edge at the weekend. My Mrs and 5 week old baby didn't appreciate the significance of my acheivement so thought I would post here :)

I really pleased with myself although have to admit the razor wasn't anything too tricky. It was a fairly new Henckels Friedore I got off ebay. I had to reset the bevel though as it didn't even pass the TNT. There was also a smile on the edge, nothing too dramatic but both heel and toe were off the stone when the middle was down. I used the rocking stroke heavy duty describes in his honing clinic videos (thanks dude!). It's now shaving nice and smoothly and I'm yet to finish it on the chinese 12K when it arrives today, so it should get better.

I've got the honing bug now. I think I'm going to buy an ebay special for my next challenge.........

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Originally Posted by Bobbo

I honed my first smiling edge at the weekend. My Mrs and 5 week old baby didn't appreciate the significance of my acheivement so thought I would post here :)

I really pleased with myself although have to admit the razor wasn't anything too tricky. It was a fairly new Henckels Friedore I got off ebay. I had to reset the bevel though as it didn't even pass the TNT. There was also a smile on the edge, nothing too dramatic but both heel and toe were off the stone when the middle was down. I used the rocking stroke heavy duty describes in his honing clinic videos (thanks dude!). It's now shaving nice and smoothly and I'm yet to finish it on the chinese 12K when it arrives today, so it should get better.

I've got the honing bug now. I think I'm going to buy an ebay special for my next challenge.........

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Hey Bobbo, it is like the swine flu or the rockin' pneumonia but it ain't fatal ..... at least not yet. :) I love to get vintage ebay razors and whip them up into shaving sharp. When Lynn says,"have fun" he isn't kidding. It really is once you get the hang of it and yes it is a challenge and I guess that is what makes it fun.

Congrats! I've only honed a couple of razors with a smile, and I know that it isn't easy but a rolling type stroke seemed to be necessary. If you've got it shaving smoothly BEFORE you went to your Chinese stone it sounds like you've tamed the beast quite nicely and it will only get better. :cool:

Hi , I have a question about honing such razors. The razor hones at an angle with the stone? Tip in the air and doing an arching motion while bringing the tip to contact the stone? Also those razors are not straight but have slight curvatire to the edge?
Sorry for asking those Qs here but I was curious.
Thanks

actually in this case the spine was totally straight ut the edge had a slight smile. Honing one with a smilig spine is harder. I suggest you check out the 9 video hone clinic in the wiki. It explains it all in the last video.