Thread: A few questions...

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.

You have bought a fine set of hones.
They should be able to provide great results, after you have learned to use them properly.

1.
You set a bevel on a razor that fails to respond to less intrusive methods first.
That includes a pasted strop, a touch-up on a fine hone or any other method prior to a full honing progression.
For your new razor, I would try a touch up with a finisher first, then give it a good stropping and see where that leads you.

Adding a layer of tape on the spine will create a micro-bevel. This is because of the new and slightly more obtuse angle it creates.

2. Yes. start with that and see what that does!

3. Yes, I would highly recommend that. It will aid in dinging or riding the razor on the edge of the stone.
And that is something you really don't want to see

Good luck with it!