Thread: I Guess You Could Say I'm Getting There

I've managed to take a razor from what I would have to call the bread knife stage to being able to sort of shave in around three hours. I only got my hones last week and I wasn't 'allowed' to practise during the week (SWMBO said "no"). I took to the Emil Kronenberg last week end with wet and dry (600, 900, 1200) and some courser stuff, + sanding pads) to remove some rust. I was pretty rough with it, maybe should have taped up the edge. It now has no gold wash emblem, but that's OK. I still don't know if I'll continue to hand sand it, leave it together or take it apart, try and use my brother's wheels, send it away, or what. In the meantime it gives me a good razor to practise honing with. Today first off I guess I almost blindly followed the pyramid pattern with a 4/8 Norton. I modified it at the end with a pyramid with the 16k Shapton (pyramid below). In hindsight this was foolish. I then shaved and at first thought, "Wow, this is smooth, I can hardly feel it" but then realised I couldn't feel it as it was completely dull, it removed no hair at all. Nice and smooth, but dull.
So I tried again and this time tried to really really get into 'the Zen' of honing, you know, that 'special place'. This time I really tried to get an even edge (with just eyes and an old magnifying glass). I paid attention to how the little pool of water moved before the blade, what parts of the blade allowed the water to 'sneak' under the blade, and how the edge looked in the light. I needed to work the heel a bit, as I do like to use the heel in shaving; esp round my beard, and it appeared to have no edge at all. I tried the TNT and found it REALLY grabbed a bit 1/2 way down; but not at the heel. I felt quite a bit of resistance on the nail. I did a 'normal' pyramid with 10 strokes on the 16k at the end. Stropped (30/70) and shaved. THIS time it actually shaved. Still no good really, but hair removed, no irritation, probably equal to a bit better than a shave with a Bic disposable with water but no cream.
So, now what? I sort of now get what setting a bevel is. I get the nice even silver line stuff and I also get when to press a bit and when not to. I was pressing WAY too much first time I think. I KNEW I'd heard no downwards pressure at all a million times but STILL for SOME reason found I WAS pressing down. Then again, I found I needed to a bit too on the heel to get an edge there. So do I now do the whole thing again do you think, or maybe just with the 8k or the 16k? I wont do anymore till I get some advice from here.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice and words of encouragement. Several of you gave really really good timely advice. I'm sort of quite proud I get to being able to get it to shave. I think it's a really REALLY cool thing to not only shave with a straight razor but know how to hone one. How much more fundamental can a skill get?

BTW, I now know the pyramid at the end is too much and illogical. Now I know what was meant when someone said the Shapton is an aggressive stone. Maybe I should have got all one system, like all Shapton or all Norton? Anyway, tell me what to do next....

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