Boker 101 hone

This morning I woke up and was going to drive and have breakfast with Rene. I really enjoy driving and sometimes take myself on road trips. Unfortunately the weather had other plans it and it was just plain nasty this morning. Driving 120 miles in nasty weather is not my idea of fun so we postponed a week.
Went home and decided to hone up a razor I purchased last winter but never touched. It was covered in something I would like to describe as rust dust but really don't know what it was. I ran some 0000 steel wool over it and it cleaned up nicely other than some patina.

This is only the second razor I honed from bevel to finish. I took my time and looked at the edge with a Radio Shack hand held microscope. I was able to see that there was no chipping or rusting on the edge and it was clean.

I started with the Norton 1 K and did x strokes and circles. I kept an eye on the bevel with the little scope and when it appeared to have a nice even edge I tried to pop arm hair. It just walked over the hair so I went back to the stones. After a while it popped arm hair nicely so I moved over to the 4K. I did not do the progression like last time, I just ran it on the hone in an x pattern for 100 laps. I then did the 8K the same way.
I finally finished the razor on the 12K Naniwa. I did 50 laps on that stone and then did the hair test again. It was popping hair very nicely and it had a mirror look to it in the light.


I then went to the shower and after shaved. I had a nice shave. It was pretty smooth and did not pull at all. I passed the BBT with no problem.



Now, was it as smooth as a razor done by Max, Dave, Glen, Lynn or Dylan? Nope, but it was good enough for me and I'll continue to get better.


Have a great day!!


Here is a SOTD pic with the razor.


Attachment 67992

I think that you overdid it a bit if you made 100 laps on the 8k, and 50 on the 12k. I find that tipically after the 4k, you don't need more than 20-30 laps on the 8k, and 10-20 on the 12k. Try it next time, and tell us the results.

Congrats on your honing, great story. I also use a small cheapo microscope and really don't know what I'd do without it, I so often find the answer to my questions in there even if they are not visible to my naked not-so-young eye. If you're anything like me though, there is still much to learn, the honing will improve dramatically and soon you will be able to get great shaves out of self-honed razors. Thanks for posting.

The little scope helps me a lot. It does not say "THE BEVEL IS SET" but it helps me keep the blade flat on the stones and the edge and bevel even. I use the arm hair test to tell if the bevel is set and that always seems to work.

Congrats Jeff, It's a very rewarding feeling to hone a blade for yourself, and then use it. Next time, Instead of doing 100 X stokes, throw some small circles in there, more like ovals, like an ice skating rink. Do sets of 20, I'll do a set of X strokes, (20) then a set of circles, (20) then repeat, and check. If the blade is real bad, I'll do a set of back strokes too.

Enjoy,

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Originally Posted by zib

Congrats Jeff, It's a very rewarding feeling to hone a blade for yourself, and then use it. Next time, Instead of doing 100 X stokes, throw some small circles in there, more like ovals, like an ice skating rink. Do sets of 20, I'll do a set of X strokes, (20) then a set of circles, (20) then repeat, and check. If the blade is real bad, I'll do a set of back strokes too.

Enjoy,

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Thanks, I'll be sure to do that. I and working on one now that the spine appears the have some hone wear which is causing the bevel to look weird. I took it to the 220 to knock all the weirdness off, which it did. Now I am on the 1K working on removing arm hair. I used two strips of tape on the 220 also since there was some wear on the spine. The small angle change seemed to be the trick.