Thread: Well, I Gave It A Try....

... And I just wanted to let all the newbies out there know that honing is not quite as easy as it looks!! I recently acquired a Norton 4/8k Waterstone, and a cheapo Gold Dollar razor (that I don't care about ruining) to practice honing with. After watching Lynn & gssixgun's videos on Youtube I said to myself "Honestly, how hard can this really be?!", so I lapped the Norton with my DMT 325 and went to town... (my 1k bevel-setter has not arrived yet, so this is all I have to work with).

The razor I'm working with is not sharpened, so the first thing I did was to raise a bit of slurry with the DMT on the 4k side, then I tried the Circles; 40x clockwise going up and 40x counterclockwise coming back down. It immediately became evident that I was NOT providing even pressure across the whole blade as I was leaving water behind me. So I moved on to some X-Strokes and those were not much better; I kept inadvertently lifting the point of the blade & digging the heel into the stone. I think I'm just not used to the resistance you feel on the 4k side and to compensate, I was putting too much pressure on the spine of the blade...I realized that getting even pressure cannot be taught; you really just have to feel it...

Nevertheless, I was miraculously able to get the blade to bite when performing the TPT, and it shaved hairs on my arm with a little coaxing, so I decided to flip the stone over and try the 8k side. MAN is that smooth!! I was observing that my X-Strokes were getting a little more consistent as the water line in front of the blade was nice & even. After doing 15-20 of those, I re-checked the edge on my arm and it was able to shave hairs off with little resistance.

I wouldn't say that the razor is shave-ready by ANY stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely sharper than when I started. I can tell I still have a LOT of work to do on my technique, but the fact that the Norton is somewhat "forgiving" helped me here I think. Overall, I think I did OK for someone who has NO idea what they're doing, but my first honing experience was certainly humbling to say the least! My plan is to not get discouraged and give it another try today...Maybe I'll break out the new 12k Chinese Stone I got as well!

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my experience. There is something inherently "Zen" to honing; it really is a relaxing process that it seems like anyone (with the right amout of patience) can learn!

I think it's pretty much all Zen without a bevel.

Originally Posted by ace

I think it's pretty much all Zen without a bevel.

Haha very true! I figured I might be able to set the bevel with just the 4k side and a bit of slurry, but I'm guessing I didn't do such a good job. My 1k bevel-setter hasn't arrived yet and I was itching to try honing, so I tried to make do with the 4k....Oh well, I guess I'll just start from scratch when my King 1k arrives!!

You don't HAVE to start from scratch. Do your tpt and tnt tests, gauge your current level of sharpness, and go back to your 4k w/slurry and this time do 40 circles down and back and 10 x strokes w/ a good bit of pressure. You don't want to torque the edge into the stone, just add pressure to the entire blade, then go back and do the same thing w/no pressure and test again.

Originally Posted by jpcwon

Gold Dollar razor

Wouldn't you be better off with a real $15 ebay razor? There's tons of good steel out there.

Originally Posted by tiddle

You don't HAVE to start from scratch. Do your tpt and tnt tests, gauge your current level of sharpness, and go back to your 4k w/slurry and this time do 40 circles down and back and 10 x strokes w/ a good bit of pressure. You don't want to torque the edge into the stone, just add pressure to the entire blade, then go back and do the same thing w/no pressure and test again.

Sounds like a plan! I will go back & give it a try today & let you know how I make out. As for the Gold Dollar, I figured it was cheap enough where I wouldn't care if I destroyed it, but I may pick up another razor or two off of ebay to practice with. I have a Dovo that needs honing, but I don't want to do it myself so I may send it out to be honed.

Oh ha ha ha no wonder you couldn't get a bevel set, it's a gold dollar. One of the guys here had to grind down the shoulder to get it to hold an edge, but atleast you can get a feel for pressure vrs. no pressure, and if you torque that gold dollar no biggie, it probably wouldn't have been able to test shave anyway. Remember don't flex the blade, just apply downward pressure; I guess ummm almost like you are trying to sink the whole blade down into the stone keeping it flat...I hope that's understandable, it sounded better in my head atleast

Originally Posted by tiddle

Oh ha ha ha no wonder you couldn't get a bevel set, it's a gold dollar. One of the guys here had to grind down the shoulder to get it to hold an edge, but atleast you can get a feel for pressure vrs. no pressure, and if you torque that gold dollar no biggie, it probably wouldn't have been able to test shave anyway. Remember don't flex the blade, just apply downward pressure; I guess ummm almost like you are trying to sink the whole blade down into the stone keeping it flat...I hope that's understandable, it sounded better in my head atleast

No I completely understand! At first when I was trying to apply pressure, I kept lifting the toe of the blade up as I was pushing down on the heel, so I just need to practice even pressure across the whole blade. It really is a feel that you have to get used to!

The good news is that I wasn't even planning on shaving with the GD...I got it purely for honing practice, that's it. If I trash it, then no harm done. I couldn't imagine trying to learn this with my Dovo; I'd end up killing it!!

Search the term "JaNorton" there is a huge thread in here about using just the Norton 4/8 everyone from rank beginners to Lynn jumped onboard to put together a huge thread of info...

it takes some doing to read through it but I promise it will help

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Search the term "JaNorton" there is a huge thread in here about using just the Norton 4/8 everyone from rank beginners to Lynn jumped onboard to put together a huge thread of info...

it takes some doing to read through it but I promise it will help

thanks gssixgun! Yeah I watched the video you did for that thread, but I need to sit down & read the thread which I will hopefully gain some more knowledge from. I think I got the jist of what I'm supposed to be doing, but my technique leaves a lot to be desired!