Thread: 1st attempt, useful but not a success.

Had my 1st attempt at honing.

The Razor is an Ebay win which I've sanded and polished but needed the bevel setting.

Started off on the 1000 grit side of my King stone and once hairs were being cut I moved onto the 6000 side with a slurry (yes I know its a bit of a jump) spent a long time and thinned down the slurry, then moved onto my Dragons Tongue which is appreciably smoother than the 6000 side of the King again with a slurry then thinned.

The end result was a blade that pops hair off my arm but not one I would class as quiet shave ready. I may take it to my Crox strop then linen and leather just to see how that improves it but I know its not there yet so I will most likely go right back to the start as I'm pretty sure I didn't quite get the bevel setting part right so poor foundations.

I'm figuring this will take a few goes to get right

You've probably hit the limit of what the DT can do. I've tried maybe two or three of them, and found they gave a finish sort of like an 8k hone. Definitely good enough to get great shaves off of, but I wouldn't call it a "finishing hone."

Ahhhhh well..... this is a bit embarrassing.

I just gave it

• 20 strokes on a balsa cr2o3 strop
• 30 on a linen (denim)
• 60 on leather

and well apart from a bit on the toe (it has a Sheffield smile) its actually properly sharp , HHT popping off nicely (FWIW) so a tentative shave test will be needed.

Well that will teach me to judge the edge before stropping, I wonder if there was a bit of a burr?!?!

Cr2r3 further sharpens the edge, and stropping smooths the edge. I doubt there was a burr, though.

Test shaved today and while it was not as sharp as I am used to from my pro-honed blades it adequately removed whiskers from my face.

There is inconsistency along the blade, due in part to the smile (which I believe is intentional on this razor) if I was rating the sharpness out of 10 along the blade the toe would be 4, the heal 5 and the centre 7.

Time to go back to the beginning and re-work it.