Thread: Zen Honing Epiphany

Wow,

Finally happened. I sharpened all my blades to WOWZA sharp in ten minutes for each blade. I have had trouble with honing for atleast a year now. It is with great pride that I can FINALLY say "I got it". I think I was the longest losing streak here. Oh sure, some decent shaves, some good blades and honing, but never WOWZA sharp for me. Over honing, nicked blades, some stainless, some carbon....jeeeeez. Ok, so for you newbies (and it seems we have lots of new ones huh?) Here is what I did.

Used a microscope from Radioshack and decided that "I give up, I can't hone, and the microscope can only see the edge of the bevel anyway" So, I relied on what I could see.

I am using a Norton 4,000/8,000 soaked, with lather added to the hone, and a piece of balsa wood inpregnated with .5 diamond paste

First, honed on the 4,000 till I saw a straight even smooth edge in the microscope. No nicks, pitting or problems. This took4-5 new laps (I gave each razor 4-5 laps regardless) Most razors looked fine from the beginning (yea I do a lot of honing) One, certainly looked awful.

Second, 20-40 laps on the 8,000 with a little pressure. And I stress the word little, but not NO pressure. Enough to keep the blade on the hone securly. OK, to me thats a lot of laps, more than I've ever tried. Now on this part I just said "Screw it, I can't hone so I'm not going to stress about the quality of each lap, I'm just going to push the blade securely down the hone" I can't tell you if you need 20 or 40, I think both amounts would have been about the same. I didn't worry about the quality of each pass but I did try not to have any "bad" passes over the hone. These were simple and quick passes (but I do have some practice with this). I'd suggest starting at 20 if your crazy enough (or frustrated enough) to try my method.

Then 50-60 laps with .5 micron paste applied to balsa wood. This is a back honing (stropping) motion. Then I looked at the edge again with my microscope and just looked to make sure it was smooth. Not sharp, not pretty, none of that. Just smooth. In fact, they all looked just like "black ice". The sides went from shiny and scraped up to smooth looking black ice.

Stropped lightly

Shaved with all of them today, face is smooth like glass everywhere.

Very, Very, nice and so comfortable. What a relief, finally!

well congratulations! how long would you say you have been honing?

I started about a year ago. I've had some success and many failures. Went through a period with an untrued Norton hone, tried pasted strops, barber hones. back honing, incense burning, voodoo. Everything! I even went through a period where I would cuddle my DE razors in front of my straights to make them jealous. I know more about razor burn than most of the guys on this forum put together. I've read posts from Randy on every mistake I've ever made, and gotten calls from Lynn in the middle of the night. The good news is I'm the worst case scenario and now I know a lot, unfortunately its all by making mistakes. I've had several good shaves over the last year, but never that consistent understanding of what to actually do to a razor to make it work really, really, well. Funny part about it is I took to shaving with a straight pretty well (if you discount that chin tip I washed down the drain 5 months ago...ouch). I could probably shave with a butterknife honed on a stucco house at this point.

It gives me hope. Thanks!

~Michael

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Wow, Finally happened. It is with great pride that I can FINALLY say "I got it". What a relief, finally!

You must not be a golfer.

Wow, Finally happened. It is with great pride that I can FINALLY say "I got it". What a relief, finally!

Yes, I golf...read this comparatively as....

"I finally hit a ball"

Not as "I can now play golf"

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

(if you discount that chin tip I washed down the drain 5 months ago...ouch). .

ow - lol how much of your chin did you lose? hehehe id like to see some pictures of the worst straight razor accidents from members. Wonder who would win?

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Wow, Finally happened. It is with great pride that I can FINALLY say "I got it". What a relief, finally!

Yes, I golf...read this comparatively as....

"I finally hit a ball"

Not as "I can now play golf"

LOL. j/k. that's great, I am making some headway myself in this department.

The hole in my chin is a little divot that is about 1/2 inch wide and about 1 mm deep, it is embarrasingly, a perfectly round circle, so it looks nothing like any natural feature or scar. Thus, you won't ever hear me waxing eloquintly about the virtues of "scything" motions. Literally, I read a post on here and said "I should try that"...my bathroom is all too close to my computer...

Its like that old story where a guy asks "how do I get to Carnegie Hall and the the other guy says practice man practice".

Eventually we all learn, some quicker some slower but most all of us get it. Congradulations