Thread: Help with honing

I recently started shaving with a straight month approximately 9 months ago. I honed my razor for the first time yesterday and I couldn't get it to pass the hanging hair test. I went to shave with it and it was pulling a lot. I used a 4000/8000 Norton wet stone. any advise would be greatly appreciated.

I attached a couple pictures. please let me know if you can any errors.

There is plenty of info how to use Norton 4000/8000 here. It does take a lot of time to learn master the nack of fine sharpening/honing. Be patient. I would recomend to buy an old razor that you can practice on it rather then damiging your nice one.

ok, is it a new norton and lapped? see this thread

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...zor-sharp.html

note the mention of HHT, and +1 to buying an old razor to practice on first, even a junker. you don't really want to refresh with a 4/8k, either a barbers hone or a 12k, in fact starting to think either of these shold be a potential honers first buy.

have a read of that thread, see if it applies and if not ask away

cheers

Simon

The bevel is inconsistent. Once you start with 4k you must finish, appropriately, with 4k. From the photo it looks like you've only done a few strokes with too much pressure applied near the shank. You have a long road ahead of you.

Buy a junker and practice with it first. Don't ruin your new dovo.

I live in Toronto, but if you cover the shipping, I'll get her back to smooth for you. You can send me a PM.

Honing is an art it took a fair bit of work before I started to get acceptable edges. Its been about a year now and the edges I get are good, however they do keep improving and I wonder how much better they can be. Spend time watching youtube honing vids and practice. Most of all don't be disheartened it will all start to fall into place sooner or later.

I think Nic's spot on, I would be amazed if you could make the first razor you honed pass the HHT, I will tell you now i'm no expert when it comes to honing, but this is what I know and this is what i've taught myself, lots of razors i've honed some good some not so good, but now I do have very good consistency with all my edges, and yes some but not all do pass the HHT, I purchased myself two Japanese combi King stones, a 1000/ 6000, and a 1200/8000, plus I finish on two paddle strops with honing paste, now I will give you my take on getting your razor sharp make sure you put enough time into the lower grade stones, because to me these are the most important, you get a equal good bevel off a 1000 stone that will shave the hair off your arm, then I know without dout if it's shaving off a 1000 stone then it can only get sharper if you are going up the stones, finally finishing with a good strop, there's no easy way around honing, it's repetitive boring but the more you do the better you will get. Good luck.

Jamie.

In the General Razor Discussion Forum here General Razor / Shaving Related Discussion

Resides a sub-section of Videos here Videos

In that section are many video threads on honing including this one


http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...-gssixgun.html

The very first Video in that thread is one I did specifically to help someone on honing with the Norton 4/8 check it out and see if it doesn't flip a few light switches for you

Some good advice so far. The uneven spine wear really jumped out at me, thinking uneven pressure. Looks like, and I could be wrong, like your pushing down on the middle/tail of the blade while honing? Definitley get a junker to practice on, and maybe use a layer of tape on that one, or send it out this time. Most honer's can give you better feedback once they see it in person.

Check out Glen's vids....
Keep your pressure minimal and even.

Thank you for all the advise everyone. i read the when you hone the straight razor you should put plastic tape on the spine to prevent any marks, then i read another post that you want the spine to wear as you hone, this allows for a consistent angle on the edge of the blade. Any thoughts? also how do i know if i over honed my razor? and what can i do to fix it?