Thread: Honing A New Razor

Hello Gentlemen

I am new to straight razor shaving. I recently purchased my first straight razor, which is a 5/8" Dovo made of carbon steel. This razor is not pre honed. Any suggestions as to what stones are required to achieve the first initial hone?

I suggest you send it to someone to be honed professionally. The stones will cost you more than 5 honings by a real honemeister. Learn to hone first by learning what a well-honed razor feels like, while you learn to strop correctly. Then get a barber hone and learn to freshen up the edge with light strokes on the barber hone. Then maybe get a high-grit finishing stone like a 12K to use when the barber hone won't do it. By then, you'll have all the skills needed to handle the razors on the hones, and you can get a 1K for bevel setting and maybe a 4K/8K combo for refining the edge.

What I'm saying is first learn to shave and strop, and a pro-honed razor is the best (really the only) way to get that right. Then work your way down from the easiest stuff to the hardest.

Just my view, YMMV

Many choices, which usually involve a trade-off of speed vs. finish.

Check out the Honing FAQs and on-site Wiki.

1k-4k-8k-12k+ are an often used progression.

You do have some valid points, perhaps I should go that route. Do you happen to know of any places in Canada that hone?

Originally Posted by OG83

You do have some valid points, perhaps I should go that route. Do you happen to know of any places in Canada that hone?

Welcome to SRP. I agree with Lawson, that is your best bet to begin with. Here is a link to member floppyshoes. He is a honer in Canada. Use the private message system on this page rather than the classifieds messaging to get in touch with him.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Welcome to SRP. I agree with Lawson, that is your best bet to begin with. Here is a link to member floppyshoes. He is a honer in Canada. Use the private message system on this page rather than the classifieds messaging to get in touch with him.

Got to agree with this. Learning to shave and learning to hone are two very different things, and you won't be good at either when you are just starting. In addition, I feel that beginning with a professionally sharpened razor is vital for a beginner. Getting good shaves will be hard enough without having to worry if your razor is really sharp or not.

Originally Posted by LawsonStone

I suggest you send it to someone to be honed professionally. The stones will cost you more than 5 honings by a real honemeister. Learn to hone first by learning what a well-honed razor feels like, while you learn to strop correctly. Then get a barber hone and learn to freshen up the edge with light strokes on the barber hone. Then maybe get a high-grit finishing stone like a 12K to use when the barber hone won't do it. By then, you'll have all the skills needed to handle the razors on the hones, and you can get a 1K for bevel setting and maybe a 4K/8K combo for refining the edge.

What I'm saying is first learn to shave and strop, and a pro-honed razor is the best (really the only) way to get that right. Then work your way down from the easiest stuff to the hardest.

Just my view, YMMV

Any suggestions on where to get a decent barbers hone?

Hi,

I've seem a few on ebay here and there or the classifieds on SRP. Don't buy one that is all chipped up. A small ding is okay but I've seen some that looked like they need to be trimmed down to be usable.

- Mike

Instead of barber hone you could get a small Coticule for about the same price
(the difference between select and standard has nothing to do with qualety)

or you can have my barber hones for prize of shipping