Thread: Some thoughts on "Learning to Hone"

I think a lot of fellas jump into honing way too early. I thought I wanted to hone my own razors right off the bat, but common sense told me that my shaving and stropping should be in good order before I moved on to honing. How can you shave test a blade if you can't count on your technique? I sent out razors to the people of which I knew I could count on for a good edge. If you read here and hang out here, you can figure it out. It gave me a baseline for sharpness.

About 8 months in, I got a norton/coticule/c12k setup. It's not a vast barrage of sharpening instruments, but it works. At that time, I knew what to look for. I failed* a lot for a few months. A rogue piece of grit or a rotten off balance stroke could ruin my progress, but such is life. More important is the feel and the feedback you get. Now I am able to "communicate" more with the edge than I would have ever been able to do a year ago. It's a process. Whether you do it with a new razor or an old junker, you just have to do a lot** of strokes on a hone to learn the feel, feedback and sound of the edge.

*failed is a subjective term used to show that while the end product was not as intended, learning was accomplished.

**a lot of strokes to one person may be few to another, it is highly personal and definitely not an actual number.

Maybe somebody else said this (as I did not read all of the replies), but I think there is great benefit in having a practice razor to learn with.

The goal with this razor is to get muscle memory down-- so that you can get a smooth stroke with the razor flat on the hone. Frankly, it does not really matter if the razor gets sharp..... so "cheap" is fine, as long as the razor isn't warped.

On first hone job with my prize razor, I accidentally lifted the toe of the razor and dragged the edge across the edge of the hone and I totally screwed up the bevel. So I went from a simple touch up, to needing a full bevel reset....

-Chief

Perhaps we should be encouraging people to start with the less expensive Gold Dollars?

My impression is that, although some have issues, most hone up pretty well.

At least if, a new honer is having problems with a GD, the odds are technique rather than steel (or prior bad honing) and advice can be given. A minority, might have to be sent to someone more experienced.

The GD is just another DA from my understanding,,, Seraphim and Kenrup deal with more of these then anyone I know of,,, So maybe they could enlighten us on the heel problems, if any on the GD razors...

The old DA's had a higher than 75% rate of heel issues which would be a very bad thing for new honers... I do not know what the rate is on the newer GD razors...

IME the DA's once they were fixed honed up just fine, and would be a viable learning razor.... at a cheap price...

I effectively learned on Wapis, really nice antique store finds and a few of mine that were previously honed by people with loads of experience. It is a lot easier to get back an edge after it's been honed properly and you know exactly how that blade feels when it's sharp.

[QUOTE=gssixgun;479872]"Get some Crap Razors and learn to hone"

My new mission:
Every time somebody says this, I have to ask why??? why would we as experienced people keep telling newbs "Get some crap razors to practice honing on" When anyone who hones razors know for a fact the easiest razors to hone are the ones that are either New/NOS, or that are just beginning to dull out...

If by "newbs" above you mean new to shaving, then yes it is very bad advice IMHO.

The single toughest thing for a Newbie honer to learn, is how to set a bevel, so we tell them get a crap razor that not only needs the bevel set, but most likely needs real bevel work done...

If by "Newbie honer" above you mean someone who has been shaving for a while, has stropping down, and wants to eventually "maintain his own razors, still probably the wrong advice.

The easiest way to learn to hone is this buy your first "shave ready" razor, then when it starts to go dull buy your second "shave ready" razor...
Now you have the perfect learning tools in your hands, a razor that has a bevel set and just needs to be re-touched and a benchmark razor to compare your work too...You also have some shaves and stropping under your belt so you can really tell if your honing is doing anything...

The only argument that I can think of to this scenario is COST and I never said NEW shave ready razors...

I think a "newbie to SR shaving" needs a blade that has been honed by a "qualified" person that will respond to the much quoted (to the newbs at least) pyramid method without having to learn how to deal with smiles, frowns, warps, etc... The problem with getting some used and shave ready razors comes when they need to hit the "maintenance" hone and will not respond to the beginners x stroke because that smile needs the touch of experience they won't have for some time.

Now the newb to restoring is a whole nother story.

Perhaps there is more than one kind of newbie here.

This newbs two cents worth.

Some good thoughts here. As one just learning to hone, I benefit from 1) starting from bevel setting, and 2) doing a simple touch up. My entire hone collection is a Norton 220/1K, 4K/8K, a Swaty, and a Chinese hone of about 12K in transit from Woodcraft.

While some more experienced will say that Nortons are junk or I don't have enough hones, or something else, I think start small and work up is the best practice.

Some more good points here..

Speaking from a ton of experience on them Wayne, the Norton's are far from junk
Now granted I still have two old sets of the American made ones, so I have not tried the newer Mexican made ones...

But the biggest problem with honing to a comfortable shave ready razor with a Norton set, is the loose nut behind the hone, not the hone itself...


Thank you for the "Newbie" perspective also Steve....

When I 'learnt' to hone, I found by far the most difficult aspect was choosing which stone to buy!

I wouldn't suggest any one start to hone with a badly made razor, because it would be completely counter productive. The first razor I honed was not my favorite, but one that was in ok condition. I bought it from an antique store and it hasn't touched the stones from then.

My advice to any one learning to hone would be buy a solid combination like a Norton or a BBW/Coti and just have a go.

Originally Posted by gregs656

My advice to any one learning to hone would be buy a solid combination like a Norton or a BBW/Coti and just have a go.

Some very sage advice here from Greg... The most used systems by the entire forum are right there... Even those of us the hone for money now on other systems probably started with one of those two... You can definitely find the most concise information and the most accurate help if you start with one of them...