Thread: Cutting corners didn't help

There are many honing mistakes and corners cut that have stopped me from getting good edges on my razors. With these mistakes I could hone a razor so that it would give me a great shave after I hadn't shaved for a number of days. But when I tried to use the razor the next day it would be awful.

So I decided to stop cutting corners and making mistakes and the result was that I got a great edge. These are some of the mistakes I was making and corners I was cutting.

Not lapping often enough. Because I am lazy I would hone many razors between lappings. The result was that I was trying to hone on a black mess. To solve this I started using a natural stone hone I have (which looks kinda like a brick) to lap each hone between each razor. I also give the hone a slight lapping after many laps of the razor on the hone.

Too many laps on the hone. When my wife is putting on make up I tell her that less is more, but when I'm honing I don't follow my own advice. If ten laps is good then fifty must be better. Wrong. Even though it feels wrong I started doing only ten laps and then testing the edge. When I couldn't feel that it was getting any sharper I go up to another hone.

Unreliable shave tests. I'm not very good at gauging the results form various tests. I had tried to just wet my face, rub on a little soap and then do a shave test. Thinking that the edge was ok I would go to the shave and it wouldn't quite be there. The only way for me to do the shave test is for me to do a full shave prep. Shower, conditioner, lather etc. This leads me to my last mistake.

Trying to hone too many razors. People like Lynn can hone many razors in one sitting, but I have learned that I should only try to hone two razors in one sitting. Then I can spend more time on each razor and I don't end up with many razors that aren't quite right.

So now if I don't cut corners I'm hoping I can get a few more great edges.