Thread: If you're worried, sharpening isn't that bad...

I have only been here on this site for a couple of weeks, and I just got my first razor a few days ago. But I've been perusing this site and reading alot of articles and information, especially about sharpening, and they all had me pretty worried. I have been sharpening knives to the point where they will easily shave hair off of your forearm for about 12 years now, but I was especially worried after reading about all that could go wrong, and how difficult it is to hone a razor. But I just want to tell everyone that's new here-Don't worry about it. The razor I bought wasn't quite sharp enough, as I have a tough beard, so I took it to my 4000 Norton, then to my 8000 Norton, and across my homemade leather strop(whole process took about an hour-40 minutes of gentle experimentation, then 20 minutes of actual honing) and I could easily pass the HHT, and it shaves great, the ultimate test. I am simply writing this so other newbies won't be overly intimidated by all the articles and how-tos of honing. Just use gentle pressure, and let the spine guide your angle. Less is more, and it's that simple.

As a relative newbe to honing, I'll also report learning to hone was pretty straight forward. I did get access to a practice blade to use to get my muscle memory down without worrying about messing up my razor, and in short order I was able to hone my first two razors (three, counting the practice blade).

Every now and then there is a razor with some quirky characteristic that poses some challenge, and that is where skill and experience really kicks in. I've recently hit one of those, and my expermentations with it only made the situation worse, fortunately, there are the honemeisters out there to bail us out... but you can't learn unless you try.

-Chief

well honing a nice and straight blade is no big deal, however honing a frown, warped blade and so on can be tricky.
As long as one has a decent arsenal of stones everything is doable.

Yeah.

A NOS/Properly maintained razor hones as easy as tying your shoe.

A razor that is damaged, frowning, severly smiling, etc, etc will be much more of a challenge. I prefer to start fresh with these by grinding them flat and rebeveling. If the smile is reasonable, likened to some factory ground smiles, its not much harder than an even edge, but I've seen smiles that had the toe and heel 2-3mm off the stone when held flat. That's very awkward to hone. I forget what those curved planes are called (used for hollowing), but they require honing similar to what you'd use on one of those.

edit: possibly travisher

honing makes me cry into my pillow every night

Honing can be tricky, on excellent NOS blades as well as on others. But honing isn't rocket science and I think we sometimes go intimidatingly far in our writings of how and when and with what equipment one should or shouldn't hone. It is gratifying to read accounts such as the OP. Thanks for sharing that Sammer!

Yes, I agree with what everyone is saying. That was the purpose of me writing this. I obviously don't think I am a master at this, or even very good, but with a good razor, and good stones, I was able to do the job. And I certainly don't want to take anything away from those who are masters at it, or any of the valid, valuable services they provide. I just wanted to let other newbies out there know that under good circumstances, if they follow the instructions in the wiki, and elsewhere on this site, they can do it themselves, along with the accompanying satisfaction.

more important than anything is even stroke, if you can reproduce the same stroke 20 laps you are not going to get good results.

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

honing makes me cry into my pillow every night

Helps me get up in the morning, too.