Honing is more difficult then I thought

I knew after reading here that honing alone is an art. I discovered my new Norton waterstone was not flat. I bought a flatening stone. I've tried honing twice and it is really difficult to attain a good sharp edge. I will require lots of practice. My girlfriend saw an old straight razor in an antique store, she is going to buy it for me. I will use it for practice. I feel that one edge of my DOVO is longer then the other. One side of the blade seems shorter. Blade meaning edge.

During my first few attempts I've made several nicks in my dovo strope with my blade. Small slits near one end. Does this impact usage? Is there any care or treatment for these? They are really small and papercut equivalent, but I'm just curious. Thanks guys.

P.S. not discouraged, I knew this wouldn't be an easy ride.

Chris

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Originally Posted by PNO_NOR

I knew after reading here that honing alone is an art. I discovered my new Norton waterstone was not flat. I bought a flatening stone. I've tried honing twice and it is really difficult to attain a good sharp edge. I will require lots of practice. My girlfriend saw an old straight razor in an antique store, she is going to buy it for me. I will use it for practice. I feel that one edge of my DOVO is longer then the other. One side of the blade seems shorter. Blade meaning edge.

During my first few attempts I've made several nicks in my dovo strope with my blade. Small slits near one end. Does this impact usage? Is there any care or treatment for these? They are really small and papercut equivalent, but I'm just curious. Thanks guys.

P.S. not discouraged, I knew this wouldn't be an easy ride.

Chris

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Chris,

I'm still working on learning honing myself. However, with the strop, get a butter knife and practicei with it. It's not about speed, it's all about technique!

RT (owner of a nicked strop!)

If the cuts in the stropp are really fine some fine sandpaper might take them out but if they are really at the ends of the strop just stropp short of those areas.

Honing is an art and it does take time to master. If you've read the source material here on this site on honing Just practice what you've read and use that practice razor and remember no downward pressure on the hone and before you know it you'll be giving advice to people here.

Sand out those nicks in the strop, Chris. The pummice stone found at classic shaving works best for me.

For honing; gently and remember to roll that point of contact from heel to toe along the honing stroke. And increasingly gentler on the hone as you finish your pyramid. Tough to do, but try to keep it all even as well.

X

Feel free to send me an email and I'll send you my phone number. You can call and ask all the honing and razor questions you want. Lynn

You've been given an unbelievable opportunity! I suggest you take Lynn up on his offer. He IS the master and will, no doubt, set you straight. I'm still learning too. I was fortunate enough to be able to pay Lynn a visit while I was in his neck of the woods. Any time spent with Lynn in person or on the phone is learning time well spent!

Jeff

This has probably been mentioned before, but is there a video somewhere showing proper stropping technique. Lynn kinda shows it on his video, but I thought a short video showing specifically stropping might be useful to people like me who have no clue.

Or is this already available? (John West's video, for instance?)