Thread: Help

Here is my dilemma. I purchased my razor (Solingen Bismark) with a factory edge before I found out that it should be prehoned by an expert. I live in Japan, so sending it back to have it honed is not an option. I have purchased Shapton 12000 and a Norton 4000/8000 stones and and Illionois strop. Originally I gave it about 30 passes on the Shapton and got a pretty good shave out of it, but when I tried the pyramid beginning with 3 on the 4000, 3 on the 8000, 1 - 3, 1 - 5, it seemed to have turned dull. What can I do to hone this razor myself so it will be shave-ready?

You might want to contact JimR and see if he can hone that up for you. He lives in Japan and should be able to give you some guidance at the least.

at first welcome to srp.you have stones which you could get job done.take you razor to norton 4k hone untill your blade will pop up arm hairs.if you could get some magnification loop will help. Now move to 8 k norton and make 15 srokes please no pressure.then move shapton make5 -10 strokes check the edge.if blades cuts arm hairs and hair falls down next blade you r ready for shave test.if test fails go back to norton make 5 strokes then to shapton5 strokes and test.very important you dont use pressure while you are on n8kand shapton stones.gl

Sham has given you excellent advice. All I can do is reiterate how important it is to make sure you have a good sharp bevel set on the 4k stone before you move onto any higher grits.

Make sure that razor will shave arm hair at all points along the blade before you move on to the 8k and higher stones.

Good luck!

There was a duplicate of this thread in the Beginners forum so I've merged all the answers into one place and moved them to the honing forum where they should get more coverage.

Here is a video of Lynn & Glen honing at razorcon '09 and here is the SRP Wiki honing section with more vids and tutorials that may be helpful.

For starters if you have a magic marker or a sharpie blackening the very edge and doing a couple of strokes to see if the marker is removed will tell you if your stroke is effective.

Magnification is the next thing. If you don't have an eye loupe , I like 30x, or a microscope you are at a disadvantage in seeing where your edge is from the get go as well as while you are progressing.

Setting a good bevel is the foundation of a sharp and shave ready edge so with the above info focus on that and proceed from there. Most of the problems guys have with honing stem from an inadequate bevel set. The "tests" shown in the Wiki will be good to learn to help you know where you are in the process.