Thread: First time hone attempt - help!

Hi SRP, this is my first post after about two months of visiting the site and doing extensive research on my new found passion. Rather than be your typical noob who asks the questions that are doubtless available in the wiki and forums, I've (hopefully) done the right thing and read up as much as I can on the areas I'm uncertain about and am now hoping to get some specific answers to areas I'm still unclear on. Forgive me in advance if what I've asked has been asked before...

Bit about me - been shaving with a straight for a couple of months, so would say I'm very much starting out on the journey, however, I am well and truly bitten by the bug and loving it! My first purchase was (naively) a Dovo 'Special' from Poland which I bought on eBay, together with a lovely Dovo XL Russian leather strop. However this coincided with my timely discovery of the SRP site and learning most new razors 'out of the box' aren't shave ready!

So, as yet this puppy hasn't been used; when I asked the vendor if it was shave ready or would needed honing, he confirmed it would be the latter...guess I learnt the hard way!

As I didn't then have a means to hone and was just starting out, I figured it was worthwhile investing in a shave ready razor, so I bought a Black Star from classicshaving.com. Lovely results. Immediately in love with it.

With the bug now well and truly in me, I bought another shave ready beauty, a Prima Klang singing razor from Lynn, together with his DVD. Even more lovely.

After much insight from these forums; the purchase of a Norton 4/8k combination; a DMT 8C and a Naniwa SS 12k, together with a host of other goodies I now feel I'm ready to begin my journey into honing.

My first project? The trusty eBay Dovo Special.

I lapped and chamfered my stones two nights ago with the DMT, following the useful wiki and commentary on SRP. It took me ages and to be honest, I'm still uncertain if they're flat as, with the best will in the world, the pencil marks don't get removed evenly. I've read other posts with similar comments, so yesterday purchased some 400 and 600 grain wet/dry sandpaper and a tile to see if that would do the job better. Just tried my Naniwa and again, the pencil isn't being removed uniformly... just about to relap my Norton as it's soaking while I type!

Anyway I digress...my main question is about honing and the issue of taping. When razors come shave ready, am I to assume they have been taped, as when people say they're honing others' razors they often DO use tape. Therefore when I'm honing for the first time on a razor that has come shave ready, would the fact I'm using tape (which I plan to in a bid to preserve the spine) alter the honing process? I'm uncertain if Lynn's razors come honed with or without the use of tape.

I am holding off honing my shave ready razors as they're not ready for honing yet, but was hoping to get insight into this before I do so I don't mess anything up. I'm about to hone my Dovo Special today with Lynn's pyramid progression as per his DVD, namely starting with 5 strokes on the 4/8k.

Apologies for the long winded epic and look forward to your advice,

MrMarx

Welcome to SRP. Good on you for doing the homework on your own and congrats on you success in shaving with a straight. Forum member onimaru55 lives in Sydney and my guess is he would help you out in showing you his honing technique.

Have you seen Josh Earl's tutorial , hone lapping 101 ? It is in the SRP Wiki or in the search function in the forum archives. I do it as Josh instructs on a diamond plate in the kitchen sink with water running the swarf off. Do Xs or circles until the grid is gone. Flip the hone end to end every so often and try and use even pressure.

if you want to give the honing a shot on the Dove check out Lynn's honing video here. Lynn rarely uses tape but if you would feel better about it one layer of electrical tape won't hurt anything. I used to use one layer all the time but after my first year changed to no tape. No worries. Check out Lynn's pyramid guide in the SRP Wiki honing section.

G'day MrMarx . Having computer probs atm . Happy to help if I can. PM sent with tel #.

at first welcome srp. You have great work before posting and that is excellent. No one can tell you 100% your blade taped or not while honing except person who done the job.i am assuming Lynn didnt use tape.you can check spine of the blade and have some idea.lastly you miss 1 important factor.you never learn honing on your good blades.buy junk razors and learn how to hone first.gl

The advantage of using "junk" razors the first time is that you get a feel for how big the stone is, you may slide off the end a few times. As well as getting the pressure issue resolved. The first few times you may use to much pressure, than not enough, back to too much and so on. Wear out a junker, not a goodie

But even junkers can make good shavers so don't feel you have to throw away the $$ on a non user, get a low cost antique store/flea market find and play with it.

Welcome to SRP MrMark! Good advise above. I usually don't use tape as it adds another dimension to honing and clogs the hone after a short time. A junker razor is a good idea to learn honing on except I would not call it a junker but a good brand razor that doesn't cost a lot, maybe from a local antique shop and one that doesn't have chips or cracks in the blade. If there is rust on the blade scrape it off with a disposable single edge razor blade and have at it. Shading the razor's bevel with a marker will assist in getting your strokes correct and show if you are honing the edge of the bevel and if the blade is warped. Warped razors require a more advanced technique and should not be in the first batch of razors you hone if possible.

Good luck

Originally Posted by Joed

Welcome to SRP MrMark! Good advise above. I usually don't use tape as it adds another dimension to honing and clogs the hone after a short time.

Amen to that ! That's why I never use tape . After you have more experience honing , you will see that it takes A LOT of honing to wear down the spine .

True, but once into a project I have wished I'd taped the spine because of a deviation in the blade. May not happen often, and I still don't tape the spine, but I have had it happen.

At any rate, welcome to the forum. You have done more research than I did!

Hey,

Thanks so much to all those who replied and welcoming me to the site. I really appreciate your guidance. Following a PM I received shortly after posting my question, I actually managed to get in touch with someone (onimaru55) who helped me out in person. Can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for this fantastic resource of people willing to help - it's such a great community, especially good to meet likeminded people who are so willing to share their wisdom.

In answer to some of your questions:

JimmyHAD - yep - Josh's 'lapping 101' was actually my first point of call! However, with the help of onimaru55 it seems my stones are now pretty flat - thanks again Oz! Turns out my lapping technique wasn't too great! The advice I've gleaned at lapping stage is not to use a lot of pressure on the two stones and only use the lightest touch on the pencil when making the initial grid Jimmy, again yes - I've also studied Lynn's honing videos in detail (together with the DVD) and the underlying message I'm clearly getting is honing is a very long path to mastery indeed! My first honing attempt would certainly confirm this!

So, on that note, I honed the the Dovo Special as per my initial post and shaved with the blade afterwards and, in hindsight, it felt FAR from shave ready. Onimaru55 checked my work out and it was confirmed I needed some more work on it, although to give myself some credit it wasn't TOO bad.

As for the taping issue, another reason I asked the question is I've ordered a Mastro Livi through Lynn (can't wait for it to arrive!) and am aware these blades would do well to have the spines taped... The blade I'm getting is small 3/8 in horn scales (from SRD) and believe I'm getting a Mastro Livi abalone-scaled Damascus for my birthday (well that's what the missus said!). Wondered what the go would be on taping these in lieu of my initial post. Would be microbevel created by taping them be discernable? I certainly don't want to mess these ones up.

Notwithstanding, I'm pretty convinced on NOT taping my other blades in the meantime, although am a bit concerned my Dovo Black Star might suffer a bit when it's time to touch up due to its black spine. I can't help but want my razors to look good! Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thus far I don't have any 'junk' razors (typical me!) but guess I'll have to start investing in a couple to practice on. I was planning on using my Dovo Special as the guinea pig to be honest, specifically as it didn't come shave ready and of the three I've bought, this one is my least favourite and one I don't mind stuffing up.

Hawkeye, interesting you should mention a deviation - upon inspection, onimaru55 commented the spine of my Dovo Special was maybe a bit warped, which was having a bearing on one part of the blade which wasn't getting honed the same as the rest...

p.s. Just ordered a loupe to let me see what's actually going on when I hone. Am holding off any further honing until it arrives...

Look forward to hearing back from anyone who has any further thoughts on what I've said.

Thanks,

MrMarx

MrMarx, glad to hear that onimaru55 got together with you to share his experience. I taped all of my spines without exception the first year I honed. Once I gained some confidence that I wasn't going to ruin the spines I began riding bareback so to speak. Now I tape damascus and decorated spines only. I would for sure tape the Livi Damascus and if you want to tape others go right ahead. It won't hurt anything. Either tape all of them or be sure to make a note of which you tape and which you don't tape for future reference when you have to touch them up. Sounds to me like you're going to catch on to this honing PDQ.