Thread: Honing question

I will have to check when I am home. It is the Art of Shaving TI at the 135 price point.

It probably is a "Z" blade if you bought it within the last year,,, Nothing bad about them at all, but they are a bit "harder" steel so is does take a bit more time to get the bevel cut...

I am actually honing one after work tonight for a customer, please feel free to pm me later, if I can be of any more assistance as the process will be very fresh in my mind

Thanks guys for all the help. It was the fact that I didn't take enough time at the 1K level. I successfully honed my razor last night, and shaved with it this morning. The only question I have yet are do you always set the bevel anytime you hone?

I always reset the bevel. It's up to how much the razor's edge has deteriorated to how much time I spend on 1K. Normally 20 circles each direction, followed by 20 x's is enough...for me. We all have our own ways and every razor is different and has a personality of it's own. I had been wanting a TI "Straightrazor Place" razor and finially received one. THe edge was toast and first setting at the stones didn't get it where it should have been...so I will take it back to the stones. Those puppies are quite hard & take more time and patience. If this was your first razor and you had a comfortable shave off your first honing...you did good.

Well the shave this AM wasn't as comfortable as I think it should have been, so I'm sure more practice will make it better.

One last thing, we usually recommend a cheaper (costwise) auction-type razor of descent quality to learn to hone on. WHile learning to hone, there is a lot of steel washed down the drain in the learning process. I'm talking about a sub $20 razor or two, then come back to the TI...

Originally Posted by pandeter

Thanks guys for all the help. It was the fact that I didn't take enough time at the 1K level. I successfully honed my razor last night, and shaved with it this morning. The only question I have yet are do you always set the bevel anytime you hone?

Congrats!
For a razor that only needs to be touched up, no, you do not need to set the bevel again. Generally a touch up can be done with an 8k, or higher, hone. You should only need to re-do the bevel if there is some damage to the edge.

How much time (or passes) after the 1K do you typically spend at the 4/5K level, and the 8K level?

Please understand that this can really depend on the individual razor, but in general after the bevel is set you will need to do 30 to 50 laps on the 4k and 10 to 20 laps on the 8k. Realize though that for some razors the numbers for the 4k may be double that.