Thread: Problems for a beginning honer

Did you do the magic marker test? It will show you if/where your blade is contacting the hone, and will give you a good indication of what type of honing stroke to use.

I read the thread from B&B and it's kind of unsettling how many people told you to reset the bevel. Since your razor came pro honed there was already an established bevel, and your razor likely only required a refresh (aka touch up). Resetting a bevel is pretty extreme, even going down to the 4k level was probably overkill. Next time start off on your highest grit hone and work your way down from there.

Since you got your razor close you can do another small pyramid or two and see if it helps. Or you can stay on the 4k until it shaves hairs effortlessly; move to the 8k and do zero pressure laps, checking after every 10 laps or so. When there is some improvement try a test shave and go from there. If you do have a hone with a higher grit than 8k I would strongly recommend staying on the 8k until you can achieve a comfortable shave.

Other than that, are you using tape on the spine? There is a possibility that whoever honed it originally used tape.

Edit: Looks like Lynn beat me to it...