Thread: I can't seem to get it sharp enough. I have a video of what I'm doing. Please help

Please take the advice of the more experienced folks over mine, but here is my experience as a fellow beginner. I have only honed 2 razors at this point, but I did get both to a shavable edge. Both were ebay specials and the blades were very dull. I dont have a 1k stone, so I set the bevels on the 4k side of my norton. I used the circle method with a fair amount of pressure...20 circles on each side. I kept doing these until I got an edge that would cut arm hair. After that all my strokes were much much lighter...just the weight of the blade..just enough to keep the edge on the stone and move the water line. I wonder if your scales forward of the edge are too much weight at higher grit?? I then used a mini pyramid with x stokes, stropped real well and shaved. Keep at it, watch Lynns videos and any others that help and you will get it.

Hey Chris,

I think you may be canting the blade the wrong way on your pulling stroke. I did a really quick picture in paint to try to show you what I mean

Also I can hear the edge of the blade hitting the hone if I am not mistaken. Not all the time but sometimes. This is a result of not flipping on the spine.
Regarding honing with 2 hands, not as much a problem I would think. I do it that way as I find it gives my more stability, but you need to only be stabilizing the blade and not putting pressure on it. I could probably do with learning to hone with one hand too though.

Also definitely do circles it will get you to your goal much quicker. Watch Lynn's videos on youtube, he knows what he is talking about. Also try to get his DVD.

Also I couldn't see in the video as your hands were kind of blocking the hone but are you actually doing a x stroke or just going straight? You need to be taking the toe of the blade almost from one corner of the hone to the other. Something helpful which I read was to imagine that there are dots along the edge of the blade and lines evenly spaced out on the hone and try to give each dot an equal amount of time on each line as you go through the stroke.

Also allow me to point you to a thread which I started a few days ago upon my first real success with honing my razors. The method I use may not be perfect, it may need improvement , but at the moment it gives me a shave ready razor. Maybe it could give you an idea.

LINK: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...zen-steel.html

Remember this is just my opinion and I have not been doing this for long at all so take into account the advice of more experienced members.

Most importantly: DONT GIVE UP

Good Luck

Daniel