Thread: Bought a Norton 4k/8K but I'm too scared to use it...

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Whatever you do don't drop it on your bare big toe !!

Boy's gonna have to hone in work boots.......now that you've jinxed him!

If all it needs is a touch up, just do 10 laps in the 8K side without putting pressure on the blade.
As long as you are gentle with the razor, you can't do anything that wouldn't be trivial to fix.

If 10 laps on the 8K are not enough, do 1 pyramid (which is a combination of 4K and 8K laps, see wiki for more info).
You can't really go wrong with a pyramid.

Do the least amount of work you can initially. Even only five very light on the 8 and see how it feels.

I did exactly this, got myself a Norton for touch up & I've only used the 8K side. Even after I dulled the blade trying to slice the side of my finger off I only needed the 8K side to refresh the edge. If you're light & even with the strokes it's unlikely you'll do anything but improve the edge.

Just remember that if you do the TNT you'll need to do a couple more strokes to remove the mild damage that this does to the edge. I'm finding the TPT more useful now anyway.

Good luck, but I'm sure you won't need it.

Norton 4/8 ya say ???? seems I read something about using them things on here


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

Alot of my fear stems from the myriad of different techniques. I mean I have three (or four I guess) swimming thru my head:
Circle Method (video above)
Pyramid Method
A different progression method sent to me from ClassicShaving.com (which includes using my pasted balsa strop) when I bought the hone
"Just give it a few strokes on the 8K side

And now Glenn gives me a link to another 100 different techniques I guess I'll start out with option 4 while wearing combat boots. The Circle Method seemed so "aggressive" for just a touchup but what do I know...

What is on the balsa hone?

10 strokes on balsa might be enough if you have some diamond or Cro-ox on there. You can try that first and see if it helps.

Michael

Well with all your support I gave it a go. I followed your advice and simply stuck with the 8K side for 10 laps. Then I went with 10 on green chromium oxide (balsa) and 10 on iron oxide. Stropped it up and the HHT passed toward the toe but failed near the heel.

So I gave it another go with the same thing but I was careful with what I was doing with the heel. After this round, the HHT passed along the whole blade. I'm still unsure what I did differently but I guess it worked and I kept all my toes and fingers.

Thanks all!

Originally Posted by EggSuckingLeech

I kept all my toes and fingers.

Where's the fun in that?

Dear EggSuckingLeech-FWIW, I am at your level or BELOW. What's helped me somewhat is honing with relatively inexpensive blades that I bought cheaply off of EBay-trying to keep my professionally honed blades separate from my practice razors. Still, there are some really nice quality vintage razors on Ebay if you have the patience My .02-Gearhead