Thread: Honed my first straight and shaved with it!

Well last night and and the night before were big nights for me. Tuesday night I honed my first straight, a Boker King Cutter I got off ebay. Used what I like to refer to as the Polish Special stones (the ones off ebay from the Polish seller...can't remember his name). From reading around on other sites I used someone elses guidelines, with the same stones, of 50, 50, 70 laps and went at it.

Overall the experience was enjoyable and went pretty well for my first time. After each stone (5k, 8k and chinese 12k), shaved a bit of my arm to see how sharp it was and each time it seemed to do ok. I thought the stones were pretty good but with nothing else to compare too it's tough to tell. Found I had to refresh the water on the 5k a lot more often then the 8k even though they'd both been soaking for a few days as I was going to do it over the weekend and ended up not having time. By the end I was happy with the results, and after stropping it on linen and leather, looked forward to testing it out.

So last night comes the shave. Same prep as usual after my shower, and after running the razor over my strop again, I was ready to take it to my face. Overall it was a decent shave but I did feel like the razor didn't cut as smoothly as I expected. Did one WTG and 2 XTG passes and I don't feel like I have the irritation I've had from my last couple shaves, and being new to this (half dozen shaves), I know my technique needs some work. Even with all that I still came away with a DFS.

That being said, I think I'm going to take it back to the hones and start from square one. One change will be the fact my DMT DuoSharp 325/1200 came in so I might run it over the 1200 and try and reset the bevel for a fresh start. Also, will probably increase my laps on the 5k and 8k but after the 50 laps I stopped at last time, I'll probably test it every 5 laps or so until I get my desired sharpness.

Well that's it. I have to admit shaving with something I honed was a great feeling and I look forward to continuing on with it and learning even more as time goes on.

As always, suggestions, hints and tips are always welcome. Thanks

Congrats, shaving with the razor you honed is a great feeling, especially the first one. As time progressed for me it was more like the intro to the old show Wide World Of Sports .... the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. So it goes both ways, some days we hit it out of the park and others we strike out but it is all part of the sport.

Thanks Jimmy. It was definitely a great experience and being my first one, I feel like I came away learning a lot. Especially after shaving with the razor.

Where was the razor when you started? I wouldn't head all the way back to 1200 it is a waste of steel IMO you'd be better off starting with your ch12k and doing more laps there as slow of a cutter as they tend to be. If you can't improve the edge there then go back to 8. But I'm of dutch descent and you know what they say "copper wire was invented when two dutch men picked up a penny at the same time."
Its always nice to be self sufficient at something.

i haven't used that set of hones, but in general I doubt you need so many strokes on the 8k after the 5k. Most likely about 20 strokes, or less, should be sufficient.

Congrats on your success!

You do feel a huge sense of achievement doing it that way. I know, because I've always honed my own.
Experience allows me to say that I wouldn't recommend it though! After a year my honing had progressed enough for me to realise what I'd been missing!
If you can spare a blade, get it honed by someone who knows what they're doing & that way you'll have a benchmark to aim for.
If not, read, watch, learn & keep at it. You'll get there in the end.

Its a guess, but I think your cutting action will improve by resetting the bevel with your DMT.

Since I stretch my straight razors life between stone honings by using my pasted paddle strop, I have to reset the bevels during a stone honing with each razor.

The sign that the bevel needs resetting is when razors will feel very sharp coming off the pasted strop, but still give a very rough shave on the sides of the face. So rough, I stop the shave with that razor. I hone them up starting with the DMT 1200, then going to the 5K, 8K, 12K, and then the pasted strop, .50 Chrom Ox. Then they are back in shape to give some awesome BBS shaves. Lynn has some Videos from a convention showing how to do it.

Good Luck,

Pabster

Congrats and welcome to the next stage of your straight razor journey!