Thread: Beginner's Honing Journal

I watched Lynn's and Glen's videos and read the ENTIRE JaNorton thread word for word. It was helpful, but I'm more of a kinetic learner. I almost need to do something wrong to figure out how to do it right. I'm going to hone this razor until I get it figured out or I destroy it...though I don't think I'm going to ruin it. Shorten it, probably.

I was thinking about it this morning in the car and I wonder if the edge itself isn't even...there were chips, of course, but I looked at the razor this morning while I was waiting for my coffee and I noticed that an area on the heel (where I'm having trouble setting a bevel) was frowning. The razor itself has a slight smile, but that one 1/2'' area was a little bit of a frown. I'm not sure how to explain it other than that. Would this cause the problem? Should I just keep honing until it's straight? There's still a tiny chip in the tip of the square-point that's almost gone, so I still have some work to do to even out the edge, but I think I should keep going until that tiny frowned spot it out. Am I correct in that??

Originally Posted by U2Bono269

I watched Lynn's and Glen's videos and read the ENTIRE JaNorton thread word for word. It was helpful, but I'm more of a kinetic learner. I almost need to do something wrong to figure out how to do it right. I'm going to hone this razor until I get it figured out or I destroy it...though I don't think I'm going to ruin it. Shorten it, probably.

Up to you, but it really isn't necessary.. especially on an old wade and butcher.. get an already trashed one on the bay and trash it further until you've figured things out..

it's not a wade and butcher...i don't know what it is and it is in pretty bad shape...lots of pitting that looks pretty deep. I think it would actually work as a decent shaver in the right hands, though it would look ugly.

After a few days away I went back to honing this razor. I ran a magic marker along the edge (as suggested by a few people) and did 40 circles clockwise, 40 counterclockwise is solid pressure. I checked the edge under the 30X loupe and was surprised to find that it was honing across the entire edge, even teh problem area where I was certain that it wasn't honing. So I left the tape on the spine and just went for it.

I did 40 circles clockwise, 40 counterclockwise (again) with solid pressure, followed by 40 laps of x-strokes with solid pressure. Then I did 40/40 circles with a little pressure, 40 x-laps with a little pressure, and 40 x-laps with no pressure at all, or at least the least amount of pressure I could muster.

Then I rinsed the stone, flipped to the 8k side and did 50 x-laps with no pressure. I stropped...100 linen, 70 leather.

I did not test the edge yet in any way, not HHT, TNT, TPT, arm-shaving...My plan is to try it out tomorrow when I shave. i'll have that and a regular razor ready to go. My anticipation is that it will do an ok job. It will shave some hair off my face, but it won't be as smooth or easy as either of my other blades. Really, I just want to know what it feels like after the honing I did. If it's a good thing to experience a well-honed blade, I want to know what a poorly or mediocre honed blade feels like too. Maybe I'll surprise myself.

If it goes ok, I'm going to do some hand-sanding on the blade. I spent a good amount of time with the loupe and my fingertips and determined that the spine is a little more affected by rust and pitting that I had expected, and I believe it may be causing me some issues. So I figure it's worth a try to sand it a little and see if that helps even out the honing a little.

I'm excited to try the razor, but I just have to make sure I don't get my hopes up. Realistically I know it's not shave-ready, but I need to feel it and go from there.

Wish me luck.

So what's the verdict? Did it shave well for you?

So I gave it a whirl tonight and it was actually quite a bit better than I had expected!!! I only shaved my right cheek with it, but it did indeed shave without any pain or significant discomfort. So that's good.

It did, however, pull moderately as I shaved and there was a hair here and there that didn't get cut. Obviously I need to go back to the drawing board, but very encouraging results!!!

In regards to the honing...would it be a good idea to ensure that the spine is even? There's some rusting there and I felt along the spine and it feels like it might be slightly uneven. Would it be a good idea to give it a few passes on the DMT (spine only) to ensure that it's not causing a problem? I'm not talking about the top of the spine, obviously...I mean the part that comes in contact with the hone.

use the marker test to see where your missing the edge and then correct it(maybe rolling x stroke on the trouble side ) you could use the 325 dmt with no pressure and tape spine to avoid spine wear

I've been busy but here's where I'm at with the honing...

I haven't tried the 45 razor in a while...I thought it would be a good idea to sand the blade before I tried to hone it again, and in the process broke the brittle scales on it. So that razor is on hold while I make new scales for the first time. I just need coping saw blades and I'll be off to the races on that one.

In the meantime, my Boker from SRD finally fell victim to my stropping struggles. I've since evened out my stropping and such but it was too late. I shaved with it last night and got a smooth shave, but it pulled a little and it required a lot of patience to get it to shave to my standards...it took almost an hour! I tried it on the barber hone but it just couldn't get it back to that wicked-sharp it was when I got it from Lynn. So I figured I would give myself 3 tries to get it really shave-ready on the 8k side of the Norton. So when I was done shaving I soaked my Norton and did maybe 20 laps on the 8k and 100 laps on canvas. The bevel looks super-shiny and I took it to my forearm and it took hair off with no effort whatsoever (which was NOT the case before, even after a few laps on the barber hone). I will shave with it tomorrow night to see how I did. If I don't get it shaving in 3 attempts, I'll send it back to Lynn and use my free-hone coupon.

My touchup attempt on the went pretty well. It shaved much better, but it still wasn't as smooth and easy as it was originally. So I took it back to the 8k and did 20 laps with light slurry and 20 with water. I used my finger to keep the blade flat, as that was an issue for me last time around.

Much more of a success. It shaved *almost* as good as after I got it from SRD, but frankly it felt close enough that it doesn't matter. I'm happy to say I gave my first proper touchup to a razor.

Now to get my practice razor back up-to-snuff for another go at bevel-setting. stay tuned.