Thread: Not the first hone...

...the third.

My equipment is the three Spyderco ceramic hones (medium, fine, ultra-fine), and an EZLap 3"x8" dual grit diamond hone (400/600) to set the bevel.

The razor is a heavily abused Dovo Special 5/8 Tortoiseshell. I tried to learn to use it 16 years ago with no instruction, and my crap stropping rounded over that edge, but good.

As I mentioned in my introductory post, which only 81 people have seen, my first hone of that razor was unusable. I could see areas where the bevels did not meet at an edge. The second hone was a little better, but still not very usable. Not usable enough to use for an entire shave. I was pretty sure my bevel was still the problem.

So, I used that EZLap hone to set the bevel and move the edge back far enough to remove the dings and chips the edge still had. In fact, it was not going well, so I butter knifed the edge directly on the diamond hone. Then, I used it to set the bevels, and move them together to an edge.

I didn't use the pyramid method when I moved to the Spyderco hones, but just moved to the next smoother hone when I thought the bevels and edge looked good under my 35x stereo microscope.

This produced a fair shave this morning. Not great, but fair. Actually, the shave closeness is quite good. But, the comfort of the razor can be improved. I put a good nick on my chin above the mental process, just to be reminded that poor form is punished. I wasn't stretching my skin properly and paid for it in some blood.

I ran a honing pyramid this afternoon on it. 10 strokes on the 600 grit diamond. Then 25, 25, 25 - 20, 20, 20 - 15, 15, 15 - 10, 10, 10 - 5, 5, 5 - 3, 3, 3, then a 1, 3, 3 and a 1, 5, 5 on each of the three Spydercos. I then did another pyramid, with only the fine and the ultra fine Spydercos. All I have to do is show it to a hanging hair and it pops.

I never knew what that meant until I saw it myself.

I still will give it a couple hundred laps on the linen, then the leather on my Illinois Strop Company model 127 before I use it next weekend.

My plan is now to use it on weekends, and give it a pyramid honing on just the fine and ultra-fine Spyderco ceramic hones. It should get to the point where it is as comfortable as it's going to be after a few weeks, I would think.

That, and my skill in using it will increase again, which will help.

Any thoughts on giving it a weekly honing pyramid on these two hones until it's where I want it?

Thank you.

i'm a new straight razor shaver too what i've learned so far is technique when putting the razor to my face i keep the side of the spine an 1/8 of an inch to a 1/4 of an inch from my face that will give you a 10 to 20 degrees angle in which to cut your beard your spyderco hones are good for razor honing i have the med and the uf one thing to watch out for with the spyderco hone is flatness use a square to check now that diamond hone i dont like to use diamond hone's with that low of grit (400 to 600)to set the bevel it leaves a very toothy edge and that means you'll have to work the edge longer on the spyderco hones( i use a soft ark to set bevels) once you get a shaving sharp edge you should only have to strop before you shave i do 10 on the linen and 40 on the leather on my 127

I would say will be great if you get your first blade sharpened by pro's.
This will show you how your blade should shave,what sharpness it will be etc.
2 stones which you are asking is good stones but slow cutter.
fine one will give to you edge which you can get comfortable shave.
if you get norton 4/8 k you will learn a lot faster.
This will give to you a lot speed wile you use spyderco.
have diamond paste .25 or .5 and put on spyderco make 5-10 strokes.
it works very well.
it is not my method i think Lynn's it does work.

I agree with Sham (hi_bud_gl) that it's a good idea to send your first razor out to be honed, in order to give you a benchmark for what shave ready is. I know you said your razor is doing the HHT very well, but A) the HHT is a test that you have to calibrate and interpret and B) Sharp and Smooth are both important factors.

As for weekly honing, I think that is overkill. At first, your edges may not last as long, due to newbie technique and prep, but an edge should last at least several weeks of daily use before it needs to be rehoned. But if you do decide you want to hone ever week, I would suggest a very, very conservative approach - maybe just a few strokes on the UF, or a few on the F followed by a few on the UF. They are, as Sham noted, slower hones, but weekly honing will lead to excessive hone wear. A pyramid is typically more than a touchup honing.