Thread: Newbie honing on 4/8 Norton

Well after shaving with a straight for 4 months I broke down and bought the Norton 4/8. Having watched countless honing videos..big thanks to Lynn and gssixgun..without their videos I would have been clueless...I jumped in and started honing a cheap little mulcuto that I bought on eBay. While I know Lynn emphasizes less is more as far as honing is concerned, for a newbie it's hard to get that less part down. It took me 1 1/2 hours on my first razor. I reset the bevel and went through the pyramid. I know it took a while but when I shave tested it was way better than my other razor. I've honed 7 razors since then and the last one took 20 minutes. Thanks to everyone who posts on this site you all have helped me a lot

Richard

Honing can be, fun, right? Congrats on the success! Few things are better than that first shave with a razor you honed yourself.

Good job Rich,

Honing is an acquired skill, Glen and Lynn are both excellent teachers and we are so lucky to have their skills available so we can learn from them. I now use the circle method that was experimented on the site in January of this year. It is soooo easy, even I, a lefty, can get consistent results.

Keep up the good work, we never are done learning.

Tom

Richard, Congrats on the success first off

There is a thread on here called the JaNorton there is so much info in there about just using the N 4/8 it is scary, so many people (Newb & Pro) added various techniques to that thread, it might be one of the most valuable resources out in Razorland .. Keep doing what is working and read about some of the tricks to getting the most out of the Hone...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...on-2012-a.html


Wow I guess it just hit me that the JaNorton thread is 524 posts LOL maybe we should call it a Book now

+1 to all that Glen said. But don't you think, if not a book at least it has graduated to a "String"...

Congratulations on the success Richard. Becoming comfortable with that 4/8k helps you reach a comfort level for sure. If you continue on down the honing path like many of us have or are doing you will find that when several different finishing type hones are involved honing can become a bit subjective. At least for me there are no hard fast rules once I have a blade
where I want it off an 8k or 12k for that matter. I have enjoyed observing the finish effects on different razors from a variety of Japanese natural stones, couticles, chinese and shaptons. And then on to chromium and diamond pastes on
felt and balsa finishing with a variety of leathers available.
Sorry for the tiny thread jack. : p