Thread: For practice, should I blunt the edge before honing?

I have my first straight, a Dovo 5/8 half-hollow that I'm thinking of practicing honing on.

Should I dull the razor first before I mess around with it?

I do not dull razors before I hone them. This was a practice started, IIRC, about two years ago and seems to have caught on with some. I would suggest you examine the razor with an eye loupe, a microscope is better and check the condition of the bevel. See it the edge will pop arm hair without touching down on the skin. If it won't do that try a TPT ( thumb pad test). If it won't pass that try a TNT (thumb nail test). If it passes that you can , depending on the condition of the bevel visually skip the 1k. If it doesn't pass that you need to set the bevel. At least that is my routine. Others may have different methods. You can find descriptions of the TNT and TPT in the SRP Wiki honing section. Honing razors can be enough work, depending on the condition of the edge, without dulling them on purpose. That is IMHO. For others it is YMMV.

It's a bit like throwing a handful of gravel in your motor to practice engine reconditioning. Why create more wear than exists already.
You can buy a blunt razor for a few dollars. Don't do that to a serviceable new razor. YMMV.

Just voicing my support for JimmyHAD's answer. Also, if you want to practice honing, I'd suggest getting a junk, or spare razor to practice on. I guess it might not be that important, but I leave my "member honed" blade alone. You can get a razor for cheap money to practice with. Any old razor would do I think. I mean that's the progression I'm taking anyways. I got a couple razors for 7 bucks, and I use them for all my practice.

Congrats on your first razor! I don't know if this is a new or preowned razor, but I would not recommend dulling the edge. I would recommend however, that you consider sending it out for professional honing to one of our qualified members. Then once you have it back, use it as a standard for comparison when testing your honing skills in your shaves. This of course means that you would need to pick up a 2nd razor to practice on, which can be done on the cheap. Learning to honing a razor properly is a learning curve and having something to shoot for can be very helpful. Forgive me if I am being too forward here but, I would also suggest that you get a good grasp on the actual shaving aspect, then progress to the honing. Of course, that is not to say that you should not or can't do a little of both simultaneously, I just think that it is easy to get the cart before the horse when getting a start on things. Just a few thoughts here that may be of help.

Best Regards Ken

I should clarify, the razor that I'm thinking of turning into my practice razor for honing is the first razor I bought. I now have four so I thought instead of buying a cheap one I could just use a serviceable razor that I already had. But the consensus seems to clearly be NOT to dull it. Thanks guys.

No! Try the arm hair first. If it pops/cuts a hair without touching the skin, then the edge is in pretty good condition. Be sure to test across the blade, heel, toe and middle, which usually is good if the toe and heel are. If you have to touch the skin and there is a little resistance to the cut, but it still pops, then you're still in pretty good shape. Even if it doesn't cut hair, there's no reason to dull it, you're already there. Just judge how much more effective it pops as you set the bevel and when it pops, easily, move to the next stone and it will, or should progress in sharpness an ease of the cut. Look at advanced honing for a lot of useful posts. Regards, Howard

It actually depends on what exactly are you trying to learn. If your goal is to simply learn how to maintain your razor, then no. If on the other hand you want to learn how to restore a bad edge then blunting your razor can be a very good thing. You can use other options too - there are plenty of razors with really bad edges that you can use for learning instead, but the one you've used for a while already has the advantage that you know it can be done, you have good estimate how much the damage on the edge is, and you know what your final goal is (yes every razor shaves differently).

If you ask for my recommendation I won't start with blunting the razor. Start with where it is. Once you can get it good, cut a piece of paper or cardboard and do it again. Once you're comfortable with recovering from that state go further and dull it more. You get the idea - get a plan of how to make progress starting from easier tasks and progressing towards harder ones by building on what you've already learned.

If you go to old antique shops you can find cheap old razors to practice honing on and they're already dull..