Thread: First honing

First post here. Great site and resource. Been resarching for a while and have found a wealth of info.

Just did my first honing this afternoon. Got the Naniwa SS 1k, 3k/8k combo stone, DMT8C, and a cro ox balsa wood strop.

Laped the SS's with the dmt using grid (which I got instructions for on this site). That took about 30 minutes total, 10 or so minutes per stone, using super light pressure and figure 8's/circles.

I sharpened a new Gold Dollar I got for cheap. It's the 8 dollor or so one you can get on e-bay. I checked the blade (which was straight) and shoulder (which was ugly but ok), and determined it was not very sharp with the TPT.

I started with the 1k ss and did about 40 total circles (20 each way) with a slury from the the dmt. Thanks to gssixgun for the videos, very helpful. I did the TPT, and the edge felt dull. I then did about 10 straight laps and 10 X laps. The edge still did not feel sharp nor would it even cut hairs at skin level. I looked at the edge under bright light and the bevel looked even. I went to the sharpie and marked the edge. I did about 10 more straight and X laps each. I looked at the edge again and saw that I was getting scratches all the way to the edge.

I did about 10 more circles each way and then more straight and X strokes. Then the edge started feeling a little sharper per the TPT. It cut a few forearm hairs at skin level, but not popping them. I continued with 3 or 4 more straight and X strokes sets until the edge felt even sharper. I got it to cut more hairs per pass at skin level, but not popping. The whole edge felt of equal sharpness.

I then moved to the 3k/8k and did basically the norton 4k/8k pyramid.
On the 3k/8k, It was approximately:

20/20, 15/15, 15/15, 10/10, 5/5, 3/3, 1/3, 1/5, 1/5

After the pyramid I definitely saw a much shinier polished look on the edge. The edge definitely shaved forearm hair well, but was not popping hair.

I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shave. I did 10 very light X stroke laps on the cro ox balsa and then 30 laps on web material and 75 laps on latigo.

Lathered up and gave it a go. It was not a bad shave at all. My comparison is a Dovo Best Quality from SRD that has about 10 shaves on it. The gold dollar was NOT as sharp, nor as smooth, nor did it give me as close a shave as the Dovo, but it was a decent shave without major pulling.

I have a chinese 12k coming and will hopefully further refine the edge.

Anyway, I enjoyed the experience and am debating just dulling the gold dollar and doing it all over again for practice and to see if I can get it sharper. Maybe tomorrow .

Any problems you may be having probably result from the razor's lack of quality or the bevel not being set well enough. If you want to give it another go, save yourself the trouble of dulling the blade first because that just adds work (trust me on this one, I've done it). You don't have to dull the razor to reset the bevel, just reset it using your 1K stone, make sure the bevel is good, then go on from there up through your progression. Good luck with it. I've had my best lucking setting bevels by checking the edge with 10X magnification. If I see any reflecting light, the bevel is not there yet.

Originally Posted by ace

Any problems you may be having probably result from the razor's lack of quality or the bevel not being set well enough. If you want to give it another go, save yourself the trouble of dulling the blade first because that just adds work (trust me on this one, I've done it). You don't have to dull the razor to reset the bevel, just reset it using your 1K stone, make sure the bevel is good, then go on from there up through your progression. Good luck with it. I've had my best lucking setting bevels by checking the edge with 10X magnification. If I see any reflecting light, the bevel is not there yet.

Thanks, Ace. I'm going to get some form of magnification here shortly. I shaved again with the razor and it shaves ok....not at the level of my SRD Dovo. But, it is doable. The biggest difference is the closeness of shave on the first pass WTG.

the first time i tried to hone my razor i was just about as frustrated as a cat trying to catch a fly on the other side of a window but i reread the forum and decided to give it another try tonight man did it make a diffrence, the thing i found out is to do it slow and to keep working with the razor and not fighting it. thanks for all your help on here.