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.