Thread: First time honing & post shave test.

So as I posted about in a few other threads I had nicked my razor in several spots on the sink faucet. On top of a norton 4/8k, I had decided to order a 220 grit DMT with it. Then I would have something to lap with, as well as a faster cutting hone for the nicks I had to remove.

They arrived yesterday and I tried my hand at this new craft. First I did many laps on the 220 to get the nicks out and set a bevel. After that I used the same pyramid structure found in the pyramid honing guide in the wiki.

25 on the 4k / 25 on the 8k
20 / 20
15 / 15
10 / 10
5 / 5
3 / 3
1 / 3
1 / 5

Then I stropped and shaved. The razor cut easily, and there was no tugging. But it left my whole face with razor burn after only one pass WTG.

The question is how do I interpret this? Over/under-honed? Micro-chipped?

I doubt it is over-honing, and I'm not sure anything like that exists anyway. Good honing can be overdone, but only in the sense of wasting time and steel.

I'd give it another try and back WAY off on pressure. If you get the same result, please advise.

As for micro-chipping, that should be evident under a 10X loupe. I've shaved with chipped blades but didn't get razor burn.

Start over with some pressure on the 4K and see what happens.

220 to 4000 is a huge jump - you need to do a lot of strokes to smooth out the scratches from the 220 grit.

Originally Posted by HNSB

220 to 4000 is a huge jump - you need to do a lot of strokes to smooth out the scratches from the 220 grit.

This ! 220 - 4000 is a big ask with a total of only 80 strokes on 4k.

If you want to even the gap between 220 and 4000, put some lather on the 220 then try a little slurry on the 4000. Raise it with the 220 and try a few stokes before moving on to just water. Remember light pressure when you finish on the 8000. Also many times i find i over look my shaving techniques and stropping and think that the honing job was the problem. That might not be the case, but you still need to rule it out.

Originally Posted by 111Nathaniel

If you want to even the gap between 220 and 4000, put some lather on the 220 then try a little slurry on the 4000. Raise it with the 220 and try a few stokes before moving on to just water. Remember light pressure when you finish on the 8000. Also many times i find i over look my shaving techniques and stropping and think that the honing job was the problem. That might not be the case, but you still need to rule it out.

Why hello my fellow newfie. Looks like you aren't the only one after all haha. I was born and raised there until I was 8 years old my family moved west to BC.

So I read your posts and did some other research. One big mistake I made the first time is that I didn't lap my brand new 4/8k AT ALL. After learning the pencil grid lapping method and trying it out, I was amazed at how uneven the hones factory surface was. This coupled with the fact that the surfaces got way smoother and nicer the more I lapped it. Now comparing the honing surfaces with the un-lapped sides of the hone is like night and day.

I then figured another identical pyramid would get rid of the leftover 220 grit scratches as well as give me a good edge to shave with. So that's exactly what I did. I skipped out on the tests this time and figured I would just go for the shave test since last time I wasn't really able to interpret anything from any of the tests I did. Upon finishing the pyramid, I stropped and shaved, still with no luck. I think it was partially a bad shave because my skin was still sensitive from the last bad shave, but still partially because the razor wasn't shave ready.

But today I watched gssixgun's honing video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y53SL9QMq6I