Break through! I think...

Gentlemen I think I have made a breakthrough. I few months ago I bought a straight razor from the Art of Shaving in Dallas, my first straight razor. In my excitement I neither stopped it nor did I have it honed. Needless to say my first shaving experience with a straight razor was not a pleasant one. Prior to this I was shaving with a shavette. After the strop I had on order came in I stropped it and shaved again. It was still not a very pleasant experience, especially going against the grain. I'd been eyeing a Dovo Special and went ahead and bought one from Vintage Shaving. Now I was able to feel what a well honed straight razor shave should feel like. So I went and bought a Norton 4/8 and made an attempt at honing. After several you tube videos it looked so easy.

First attempt I couldn't even get the thing to cut arm hair. Second attempt it would cut arm hair but would pretty scrape hair instead of cutting it. I attempted several more times over the next couple of weeks and just called it quits. I was prepared to just go ahead and just send away or take it to someone local to get professionally honed.

Then today I had the house all to myself and just out of the blue I watched gssixgun's video on you tube, again on honing with the Norton 4/8. I did about 30 or so circles on the 4000 side with pressure and proceeded with about 30 circles with little or no pressure. After that, 10 strokes on the 4000 thousand side followed by shaving arm hair. I'll be darned, hairs were popping off! I finished up with the remainder of the steps in the video, stopped it, and shaved. I couldn't believe it. The thing was actually cutting hair instead of scrapping it. Although it doesn't feel as sharp and smooth as the Dovo Special and Dovo Ebony Silver Steel I bought from Vintage Shaving, I'm just happy the thing is cutting hair.

Am I getting too happy to soon? Is my second shave with AOS razor I honed going to be as good as it was today or am I in for a rude awakening?

Latherneck, nicely done.

You ARE doing what most counsel against, which is learning the str8 shave at the same time you're learning to hone. I did this also. I regret it.

You might consider having one of your blades honed up by a honemeister to that you have a standard against which to compare your honing work.

Should you pursue other blades, buy them shave ready from either a honemeister, SRD or someplace that does professional honing. I wish I had learned the shave before learning to hone. It held back my shaving skills significantly & i bled alot.

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Originally Posted by pinklather

Latherneck, nicely done.

You ARE doing what most counsel against, which is learning the str8 shave at the same time you're learning to hone. I did this also. I regret it.

You might consider having one of your blades honed up by a honemeister to that you have a standard against which to compare your honing work.

Should you pursue other blades, buy them shave ready from either a honemeister, SRD or someplace that does professional honing. I wish I had learned the shave before learning to hone. It held back my shaving skills significantly & i bled alot.

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The Dovo Special and Ebony Silver Steel were both bought shave ready from Vintage Shaving. I will not be making an attempt to put either of those two on a hone until I can get the AOS razor shave ready. With those two razors I think it will be a while before they'll need to be touched up, as I recently purchased them.

Sounds like progress. Having the Dovo to compare
makes setting standards much simpler.

A Norton combo will give you good shaves
when honed and used with a light touch...

Take time to improve you "lathering" and
you will be making progress.

Enjoy the journey.