Thread: First time honing. Vintage Genco.

Good..
Now where are the other pics of the Genco. I have great shaves off mine.

Originally Posted by Str8Shooter

Good..
Now where are the other pics of the Genco. I have great shaves off mine.

I'll be posting them tonight.

Looking at the pic




This spot of the heel attracts my attention it looks as though the honing is starting to ride into the Stabilizer... Understand pics are about useless but every now and then we can see something... I wonder at the lack of wear on the spine and must assume that you are using a layer of tape..

The simple fact of honing is that everything comes down to the Bevel until you have set the bevel from the Toe to the Heel so that it is sharper then any knife you have ever touched then you haven't started yet... The work really is in the bevel set in fact I state it as 90% of honing is the bevel, 9% is sharpening, and 1% is in the finish... That 1% seems to be what we argue about most and spend the most money on too

Get the bevel set, you also might have to fix that heel if it gets worse...

The heel definitely is bent off to one side. I have not been using tape. There is some hone wear on the blade, but it isn't easily visible in this photo. I'll try to take some better pics tonight.

Here are more photos... showing both sides. Again, not great quality, but at least it's something.

Looks like you chose a pretty razor to learn to hone on.
Not a bad one though. In the search for an edge I have found the Genco razors to be smooth and one of the easier razors to hone.

Originally Posted by deighaingeal

Looks like you chose a pretty razor to learn to hone on.
Not a bad one though. In the search for an edge I have found the Genco razors to be smooth and one of the easier razors to hone.

+1
It is a nice little razor. It could become the best
shaver in your shave den with some care.

Did I miss a post that mentions the hone you
used or wish to use after the 1K hone?

One things to search for in the WiKi and FAQ
is the pyramid method. As methods go it
is as much a formula as you might find and
it can do a fine job.

I'm liking the way this razor looks. I just wish I had more gear to give it a good polish. I'd also love to replace the scales with something fancy, but I don't know how (again... or have the gear) to remove and replace pins. I'm not really looking to learn that at the moment anyway. I'm learning how to shave and hone at the same time... and it's a bit of an information overload.

An update on my honing of this razor... I got some new info from the Wiki. I took it back to a 1k and stuck with X-strokes, then did a few back and forth between 4k and 8k (about 15 on the 4k, then 30 or so on the 8k). Then I stropped on a paddle strop with .5 micron diamond paste, moved on to CrOx on balsa wood, then stropped on a plain strop. It managed to pass the HHT, though it took a few tries. It shaves arm hair fantastically, and when hovering the blade over my arm, it catches on to hair very well. I'm thinking of giving it a shave test tonight or tomorrow morning. As far as I know... it SEEMS shave ready. However I don't know much except for how the pre-honed razor I purchased a couple weeks ago works. I have my fingers crossed.

BTW: All hones I used are Nortons. They were freshly lapped. Sandpaper is a pain in the ass, so I'm probably going to end up springing for a DMT D8C to lap my stones.

well, if you ever get rid of those scales for something fancy...that would solve the problem with my genco. and I may be new at this, but I can even replace your pins.
As for why your razor isnt honing even i can not be of much help....did you lap your stones. sorry if they asked you already...
*edit*
never mind that lapping part. i see you said that they were freshly lapped

The HHT "test" doesn't say that much really, shave with it, that's the only real test.