Thread: First Hone Experience

I jumped right into honing today and attempted two razors. The first was a VERY nice ShurEdge. I started my day by watching Glen's YouTube videos of the Naniwa progression. I don't have all Naniwa stones but I used the same basic strategy.

I have a 1/4k Norton, 8k and 12k Naniwa as of now, my next purchase will be the 1k and 5k Naniwas.

I did some circle strokes to begin and then changed between X strokes and normal "up and down the stone" strokes on the 1k. I then switched over to the 4k side and did a mixture of the X and up and down strokes. (at this point my arm was half bald)

I went to the 8k and 12k next using the same technique with progressively lighter strokes. I finished on .5 Crox felt and then onto normal latigo.

This razor shaved awesome, I was able to complete a full shave which is all I was hoping for and it turned out great. I really really like this Robeson. (admittedly I was deathly afraid to touch this razor to my face at first because I assumed it was going to rip me to shreds)

The second razor was a Morley with a chip and it was a monster to hone out, took quite a while and by that point I gave up. It'll go back on the stones tomorrow until it's finished!

Sounds like you had a successful sitting at the stones...AWESOME!

Sounds like success is in the air. When I stared honing, I kept a little book. In it I wrote down what stroke worked the best, and which stones I used. That way, if I really like the edge, I could replicate it.

Originally Posted by Maxi

Sounds like success is in the air. When I stared honing, I kept a little book. In it I wrote down what stroke worked the best, and which stones I used. That way, if I really like the edge, I could replicate it.

I still take notes while honing.
Nothing big, just a little spreadsheet that contains all my razors with short notes on what hones, and what progression used on what steel.
I also make notes after shaving. that gives me a count of uses for each razor.
In addition I score the razor from 1 to 10 after each shave.
A 7 yields a touch up before next use

To the OP.
That sounds like an awesome honing session
Good job!

Way to go!!

And so the journey begins..................

Well I honed up the Morley I mentioned, finally got the nick out. It didn't shave as well as the Robeson but I guess inconsistency is going to be expected for a while. I also honed up my smiling Greaves and while it's a bit heavy for my tastes it was also a pretty decent shaver.

I'm starting to like honing just as much as I like shaving!