Thread: I did it!!! .....almost

bman,

Here's my take on it. When I get onto the 4k, directly off the 1k, there's a bit of bump and grind going on. I can feel the razor and the stone interacting. It feels rough. There's also a good bit of metal either floating up as swarf, or embedding into the white of the stone. As you move into the 4k, you can feel in your fingertips the lessening of the bump and grind. You can also watch the water interact on the cutting edge, and see the amount of metal swarf taper off.

If found that slurry works well on the 4k, but for the sake of excluding that variable, here's how I get what I want out of the Norton 4k. Please keep in mind that above all, YMMV, you may need more or less strokes depending on the steel, your pressure, etc.

I start on the 4k, taped razor, clean water. 20 circles each way, medium pressure. Followed by 10 x strokes. 20 circles light pressure, followed by 10 x strokes. clean the stone, wipe the razor. clean water. 20 circles no pressure, 10 x's. 20 light circles, clean the stone, wipe the razor, fresh water. 10-15 no pressure, smooth X strokes.

While I'm doing this, I'm paying attention to the feel, and the look of the water at the cutting edge. Like I said, depending on the steel, I may need to knock some strokes off, or add a few on. I'm looking for smoothness on the stone, and water running up the cutting edge onto the blade.

This also is a general starting point, ie: if it's a rehone with no bevel set, I'll start with the no pressure circles and no pressure X's and see if that does the trick first.

I hope this helps a bit. Remember that honing is about 2 parts reading, 8 parts practice. Its difficult to describe exactly what you should look for or feel. I've tried. You'll develop a feel for it as you hone more and more razors.

I also did my first honing with Red Point blade however I don`t have 8000k stone (not yet:-) and I had to use 6k followed buy 15k polishing. I stared with blade restoration (if I can called since I`m beginner) stone 320, than followed by 1k and then 6k, 15k. I Have also perform stropping as closed i could to recommended by many in this forum. Blade (not)passed HHT but with one exception- very soft hair (my wife :-) as they just bend over the blade where any other hair just pass it with sound of ding.... hair cut. Next test was little of shaving, which I can tell failed... It looks like I failed first time... I hope next I will get better but looks like there is long way before I will achieve this goal.

Originally Posted by bman40

I didn't cut myself, but I did get some irritation on my lower neck which I have not experienced with my other straights....I think i was over-compensating for the lighter weight with too much pressure.

That could very well be the case. However, as an ex-beginner I can say you may find the same phenomena from a very fresh blade off the hones if it is really sharp, but not smoothed out on the strop. Some blades take an edge so sharp that the edge seems to "stick" into the usual lather, even if properly wet and providing plenty of glide.

Originally Posted by Maxi

. . .
Once you believe you have gotten as far as you can on the 8k, try this: Clean the stone, wipe the razor. Add new water to the stone, and now wipe it off with your finger. Make sure there's no bumpies on the stone. 10 super smooth, ultra light, no pressure X strokes. Going down the hone should take 3-4 seconds, coming back on the hone should take another 3-4 seconds. Nice and slow.

See if that helps any.

This makes a lot of sense. The size of the scratches on the edge are determined by:

a) the size of the grit, and

b) the pressure of the stroke.

So heavy strokes make deeper and broader scratches than light strokes, on the same hone. Rather than go to a higher grit, one should "max out" a stone by using lighter and lighter pressure.

Thank you --

Charles

Originally Posted by bman40

one side of the bevel is 'longer / deeper' than the other - it goes further up the blade.

An asymmetrical bevel is caused by a) uneven spine wear, and b) an uneven honing stroke (more pressure used on one side of the blade than the other). Over the long term, b) is the cause of a). Unless your razor has excessive hone wear no "spine correction" should be necessary, and if the razor shaves fine I wouldn't worry too much about the bevel size.

Second try - with pastes.

I pasted some balsa strips with the Dovo red and black pastes, and the shave this morning was much better. I also took a lot more care with the Morley, and made sure to use almost no pressure. The ontl problems I had was the blade 'caught' the edge of the cut I gave myslef late last week, and nicked it a bit - otehr than that, a pretty decent shave.

Thanks to all for the tips and advice.

Barry