Thread: check newbie's thinking on a honing problem

OK guys. Am I thinking this through correctly?

I am learning honing on eBay purchased razors.

My last attempt was a Wade & Butcher which frustrated me at first try. I got it to shave, but not nearly as close or well as my reference razors (e.g. Hart, a Wade & Butcher honed by Lynn, and a LeGrelot 1/4). In fact, one pass with the Hart *after* my shave with this razor produced tons of cut hairs and got me the BBS shave I was hoping for. It was as if my pass with the W&B cut some hair but left most of it on my face, just shorter, if that makes sense.

No microscope to check my work yet.

I used black marker to darken each edge and a tip from Lynn. I took five passes on a 5K super stone, which revealed that on one side only a fourth of the edge, closer to the heel, was contacting the stone at the correct angle. The black line on the rest of the bevel was untouched by those passes. The other side had a shiny line all the way down.

My conclusion is I hadn't set the bevel right the first time. Is this correct?

How should I proceed given the following hone inventory and a basic X-stroke under my belt, but not much else in terms of honing skill.

DMT continuous surface 1200 hone

1K, 5K, 8K Shapton Super Stones

4K/8K Norton

16K Shapton glass

30K Shapton glass

a non-select yellow Coticule and a slurry stone

a dark stone which may be a razor hone, lapped to a grey-green surface, with no identifying marks which I fantasize is an actual Escher (I paid about thirty bucks for it). I don't want to ID it to keep the fantasy alive...

A small Franz Swaty razor hone I use only to refresh razors

(I am currently watching videos and am seeing Lynn demonstrate the circular strokes . Hmm.)

If it was me I would stick with the super stones and do a rolling x from the sound of it. Circles are great if they will work with that blade being like it is but they might be hard to do if it is warped or a serious smiler. Here is a tutorial from the honing section of the SRP Wiki explaining the rolling x. I would set the bevel with the 1k and then pyramid with the 5k and 8k super stones or the Norton 4/8. Test shave from there and if it is good and you so desire polish further on the 16k. Not the only way to go about it but just what I would do in that situation. Quite an arsenal of hones you have there, HAD is virulent.

It might be something with the bevel. You should set it first once it is done continue to the finer grits. But not too soon. Make sure the bevel is perfectly and evenly set before anything else.
When i set bevels, i use 1000 grit or sometimes even lower grits to make it fast. However you can do it with 1000 grit also.
You do not need that much of stones to sharpen your razor (unless you want to collect them). I use 1k, 3k, 6k, 12k, barber hone.

Thank you for the quick responses.

The rolling X looks difficult. That is why I am practicing on cheap eBay razors, I guess. I will proceed on the 1K with rolling X's, or my attempts at rolling X's.

The arsenal of hones is large because my skill set is small. I lack confidence in my honing ability. I have a tendency to accumulate tools when I feel unskilled at something. If and when skill arrives from practice, I usually end up using only a small fraction of the tools I accumulated. It is better to get fewer tools of high quality and learn everything about them, of course. I *know* that, but I still find the tool acquiring habit hard to break. I guess "I've been HAD.."

yeah, you have to get proper bevel first. as far as rolling stroke it's very useful to watch the wave of water in front of the edge as that will tell you better than anything else if your stroke is good. You want it to be uniform throughout the stroke.
Since you're still not at the edge I'd agree with jimmy, circles are probably your best options at this stage. Make some slurry on that 1k for a bit faster cutting. I'd say check with the marker every say 100 circles or strokes.

and yeah, you have more than enough hones, so the best is to stick with the 1k superstone.

good luck and keep us updated with the progress, don't give up yet.

Well, I took the advice of my fellow SRP'ers. I set my goal to one thing... resetting the bevel on this particular razor.

I started with the 1K SuperStone, using circles. I was too optimistic in my plan, thinking "twenty circles on each side and I'll be good to go..." Right...

It took almost a hundred circles to make the bevel continuous on the one side that had the bad bevel. Once done, the rest followed without a hitch, using my attempt at rolling X's.

1K SuperStone

then pyramids with

5K SuperStone
8K SuperStone

then polish with

16K Shapton Glass

THE RESULT: a really good shave, when compared to a Lynn honed razor which I haven't touched with a hone yet or my Hart it was only 4 out of a possible 5, using those as the gold standards

It shaved closely, with the scraping toast sound and a sensation that I was being shaved by a reasonably sharp blade. It didn't pull. There was no roughness. It did the job, but not with the "velvet squeegee" sensation. The result was good enough for work, but not BBS.

Am I happy? Yes.
Am I am relieved that this razor will not be consigned to scrap? You bet.

Am I grateful for all the help? HUGELY GRATEFUL.

Thank you so much. I think the difference between a 4/5 shave and a 5/5 great shave will be more experience with rolling X's and more time on the hones. If anyone has a bottle or two of experience and technique to sell, I'm buying!

Thanks to all.

Glad it is starting to work for you. FWIW, the smiling Sheffields are a lot tougher to learn on than a Solingen full hollow. For many more razors they will all be a learning experience and a challenge but the more you do the more you'll start to know what you're doing. Lots of fun really.

One other thing, since like me, you've gotten a lot of different hones in a short time stick with one set and learn the idiosyncrasies of those rather than switching around between all of them. I did that and knew them all a little bit but none really well. Learn one set and then move to another and learn those. It pays off later.

Great advice. I think I'll stick with the SuperStones and learn them. Thanks again.