Thread: My Honing Skills suck!

Today I shaved with my newly restored Carl Monkhouse. I bought it cheap on the bay and had Glen take it from there. Now I knew that I was going to get back a beautiful razor and if your at all familiar with Glen's work you would expect nothing less. What I got back was better than expected, much better. Included with my restore was a humbling honing. I have been studying Glen's videos , reading the threads and have honed a few of my razors using the Naniwa progression technique. I have had what I thought was success until I shaved with one that he honed himself. This was a shave superior to all others I have had in the past. Including ones honed by other professionals. It took nothing to shred through 3 days of growth, in fact it felt as if the blade was rolling over my skin and just disintegrating the hair in its path. It was amazing and when I finished all I could do was acknowledge the fact that I am not even close to honing that well. Not close, not in the neighborhood, hell not in the state!
My advise to all the nubees out there giving the hones a try...Keep it up, I know I will but get a razor honed by glen or one of the other pros here at SRP. Give yourself something to compare with. Shaving with one after having shaved with one you did yourself is a humbling moment to say the least but it is a teaching moment as well.
Good Shaving Gents.
-Ben

Omega,

I totally agree, Glenn is now the only honer I will send my blades to. I actually emailed him about it just a couple weeks ago after getting some blades back asking if it's normal to be able to feel a major difference between the edges of professional honers...i.e. is it the type of thing where if you get it you get it, or if there's a variety of different "personalities" between honers. I'm waiting until I have some extra funds to send 2 W&B's for barber's use to Glenn for a complete restore...after seeing your before and afters now it's at the forefront of my mind and I'll be thinking about how long it's going to take me to save up for the next couple days!

Now that's why we say honing is as much an art as just some methodical mechanical action.

I think most of us can learn to hone to a point where we can get a good serviceable blade. To get to the uppermost levels takes more of the art part and increasingly fewer can attain probably because we just don't hone that much and don't have the patience to experiment and take the time to master and probably there's some innate skill involved which you either have or don't. I guess it's similar to learning a musical instrument eh?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Now that's why we say honing is as much an art as just some methodical mechanical action.

I think most of us can learn to hone to a point where we can get a good serviceable blade. To get to the uppermost levels takes more of the art part and increasingly fewer can attain probably because we just don't hone that much and don't have the patience to experiment and take the time to master and probably there's some innate skill involved which you either have or don't. I guess it's similar to learning a musical instrument eh?

I couldn't agree with this more! Its that innate curiousity to experiment and play and continuously learn that the select few upper echelon (sp?) guys have that make them stand out from the rest.

Very nice restore and comments.

I agree with the innate talent being some kind of difference at the higher end of cultivated ability, but I lean on the side that if people are pushed by circumstances or push themselves and devote themselves to learning the variable of their own body (time of day, medical conditions, drug use, etc.) and change in their relationship to the use of their own body (pressure control) they can achieve very good edges. Super-astounding like the higher ranks of professional honers, maybe not, but certainly safe sharpness and smoothness for a very good shave. Perhaps with honing surfaces that have some "give" to them (like abrasive pasted strops) would be the "DE" way to superb shaving similar to the pros?

I don't believe that honing is like a gift like being able to play a musical instrument. I'm a musician and just like every other guitarist out there it's something you turn into an art form through pure passion, perseverance, and compulsiveness. It is the same with honing as anything else involving skill. You either have the drive and need to better yourself in that area or you don't be it musical instruments, honing or anything else involving high levels of skill. Some people can learn faster than others but you're only limited by what you personally accept in levels of skill.

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers. 10 000 hours to reach an area of expertise. Now, he also states that 10 000 hours beginning in childhood will far surpass the 10 000 hours of an adult who practices the same skill.

Maybe Glen began honing when he was 5.

Sharpening is a combination of things only one of which is the
tool set (hones). The other is skill from practice. If find it interesting that
butchers subscribe to sharpening services because I can touch
up a knife so quick and easy. Learning to hone razors closed that
gap for me. It takes practice lots of practice and knowledge.

The prices I see are a bargain....
When I bought my first razor in the '70s
barbers were out of the business and
honemasters were invisible. With the good coticle
I was sold and a very tender cautious hand I muddled
through. Now with a Norton 4k/8k and all the dozen
other hones I now have it is a lot easier.

For goodness sake... give it a try. Be gentle
and cautious and if you need to send it
out to the likes of Don, Glenn, Lynn and more
(see the classified).