Thread: Hone without circles?

Ah, fond memories of honing in the BC era (Before Circles)...

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Ah, fond memories of honing in the BC era (Before Circles)...

And the seasons, they go round and round, and the painted ponies go up and down, we're captives on a carousel of time ..... old song by Joanie Mitchell ..... Dylan's post reminded me.

Honing using circles has been around for a long time. I can remember watching my grandfather using circles to sharpen all manner of things, razors included. I was probably about 6 or 8 then, I'm gonna be 51 this year...

Going back to 2000, there really was no information on the web about straight razor shaving, honing or even wetshaving in general. When I started the first wetshaving forum, I learned the Pyramid method on the Norton 4K/8K, which still provides a very repeatable and reliable method of honing. The only problem with it is that on some of the old dogs and wedges, it can take forever to get a razor shavable. After a few years and thousands of razors I began playing with the circles and it took those thousands of razors until I could come up with a consistent, repeatable and reliable process using them. Once I got it though, it has really proved to be a method that will work virtually every time and is easily teachable to new people. It works with a variety of hones and can be used exclusively on a lot of Natural stones after bevel setting. Once someone learns to keep the razor flat on a stone and gets comfortable with a little pressure and NO pressure, it all falls into place. The nice thing is that considering all the people around these days who came into SRP and then remembered they were honing for 20-30 years and with all the agenda driven trolls out there, this method continues to hold up.

There are a lot of CAN do methods and alternatives out there and particularly when people use narrow stones for whatever the reason may be. I just hope that people keep trying new methods and materials because that is how we all learn. And, we all learn not only from our failures, but from our successes.

Have fun.

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

I spent a lot of time browsing here in 2006. I never saw one circle then. I first saw vids of Lynn and Glen doing circles when I rejoined last year. As I understand it, Lynn started doing them a few years ago.

Michael

I just looked back at this post. Maybe it's coming across as a little bit cynical? I hope not but I fear that it is. Anyway it was just an anecdote, and when I typed it I had anything but cynicism in my heart. I'm still a beginner here, and learning something every day on this site.

Michael

Didn't sound cynical to me...??

Like everyone has already said, up and down can get you there. I still go back and forth in a linear fashion a lot when I hone, but there are circles and ellipses, and sometimes a corkscrew or two thrown in for good measure when necessary. When you really start to think about what honing is doing, then you'll see it is not the razor that gets sharper, it is your whiskers that get coarser.... (nah, not really. The razor gets sharper...)

James.

Didn't sound cynical to me either.

Actually, there were very few video's back in 2006 and most were of people shaving. In the last several years we have seen an explosion of videos much like the explosion in population we have had. YouTube has enlightened millions and had a very positive effect on us.

Have fun.

I'm one of those "set in their ways" x stroke honers. Of course the only reason I don't use them is that I don't hone enough razors in general to gain competance with the circles over the x stroke. I'm sure that if I honed more than 1 or 2 per month i'd much appreciate doing circles on the hones.

All good info!

I'll keep at the circles and various other techniques to see what works for me.

Until then, I'll keep sending my "worthy" restores off to the pros

Grinding metal is grinding metal. Like the other guys have said using a circular stroke is just one more tool in the honing kit. Preferences differ but experts like Lynn make it all look easy.

It's fun and interesting to watch the evolution of methods as we rediscover an art that was relatively common knowledge a few generations ago.