Good morning,

I’m new to straight razor shaving and I have a few questions with regard to honing.

I very recently purchased (last night) the following hones from SRD, but have not received them yet.

Norton: 220/1000- 4000/8000

Naniwa: 12000 SS

DMT-325

Back ground: I purchased a new Dovo 6/8 hollow ground and Strop. I also purchased a lot of five old razors on ebay to practice honing before touching up my Dovo. Ebay purchase-Three have a lot of toe wear and two are fairly straight. All are dull to the point that I can run my thumb down the blade (lightly). No cracks or chips.

Personality type: Obsessively focused on perfection (example: I stink at taping and mudding drywall because I can’t leave it alone. I put the mud on and keep “touching” it to try and make it smoother.)

1. I understand the principle of setting the bevel, but do not yet understand how to determine if a bevel needs to be set. From what I’ve read, if I put a piece of tape on the spine of my Dovo when I touch it up, it may reset the bevel? I would like to protect the spine, but will it change the geometry of the blade requiring a greater amount of honing?

2. Would it be logical to do my Dovo touch-up on the Naniwa 12K first? It’s just getting to the point where it doesn’t shave as well as when it was “shave ready”.

3. Do I need to bevel the edges of my new hones with the DMT-325 as well as flatten them?

I apologize if I’ve missed the answers to these questions elsewhere in the forums. I’ve read so much that I’ve got drool stains on my shirt. The information starts to run together.