Thread: Brand new J.A. Henckels razor arrived in the mail - needs honing!

I am a newbie. I have a few old ebay razors, and some good honing stones - 1000, 4000, 8000 - and have made some "paddle strops" out of old belts. And I have some color-coded strop pastes.

Recently I decided to take the plunge and spend some serious money on a GOOD razor. I bought a J.A. Henckels "Solingen" razor, only slightly used, in very good condition, that was advertised on ebay as "SHAVE READY." It came from Japan ($146).

It has arrived, and it is a thing of beauty. But it is NOT "shave ready" by a long shot.

My question: Should I do the honing myself? Or should I mail the razor to somebody who provides this service?

If youve never done it before it would be hard to gauge your own progress. And in the end you wouldnt know what shave ready is. Ive been there myself. Send it out and you will experience what shave ready feels like.

Welcome to SRP. If you've honed razors to shave ready in the past I don't see why not. You have the tools. OTOH, if you've put the hones together but don't have experience, or confidence in honing any razor that comes down the pike, I'd send it out.

Get some practice razors to work on and use the pro honed Henckles as a benchmark and to shave with in the meanwhile.

I'm a do it myself kinda guy. I've only been SS for about a year and after collecting my stones and watching and reading about honing I did hone my first to straights that I had bought and where not shave ready. I took my time and made sure of it. The advice I followed and was told to use with the exsaxt same hones minis the 1k and add the 12k naniwa is as followed .. 20x 4000 1pc tape
20 x 8000 1 pc tape
20 x 12,000 1 pc tape
10 x 8000 3 pcs tape
10 x 12,000 3pcs tape
20 x CromOx balsa bench hone no tape
40 x strop with CromOx no tape
40 x strop bare no tape
As for touch up down the road I use one PC tape and only hit the Naniwa 10 passes

Originally Posted by PLJ

I'm a do it myself kinda guy. I've only been SS for about a year and after collecting my stones and watching and reading about honing I did hone my first to straights that I had bought and where not shave ready. I took my time and made sure of it. The advice I followed and was told to use with the exsaxt same hones minis the 1k and add the 12k naniwa is as followed .. 20x 4000 1pc tape
20 x 8000 1 pc tape
20 x 12,000 1 pc tape
10 x 8000 3 pcs tape
10 x 12,000 3pcs tape
20 x CromOx balsa bench hone no tape
40 x strop with CromOx no tape
40 x strop bare no tape
As for touch up down the road I use one PC tape and only hit the Naniwa 10 passes

Let's be careful when giving advise on honing, different razors may require different counts on the stones. Eventually one discovers that counting is well not necessary, the feel of the razor on the stone tells you when to move on.
What is the purpose of adding a microbevel?

I would agree with that. Do what works best and feels best for you. This system has worked wonder for me when it is a start to Finnish proses. Bevel setting to finishing. I now have 5 of my seven day set that are smiling razors so now once again I'm learning something new, like the rolling X pattern.

Whatever works. When I first came around Lynn was the big gun in honing, and probably still is. I followed what he recommended and it has been working for 5, almost 6 years. Not that I'm not open minded but it is working so I ain't gonna fix it.

I had a conversation with another forum member last week regarding how our definition of shave-ready changes as we become more adept with a razor. Compounding learning to shave with trying to hone your own razor at the same time is a difficult row to hoe. I'd recommend having someone who's experienced with hones give it a once over and hone it if it needs it. It doesn't have to be any of the big guns, either. A fellow forum member helped me a ton when I first started shaving; I shaved with a razor he honed for me for almost a year before it got to the point of needing a touch up. During that year, I worked on my honing skills and I always used that blade as a reference to judge my honing successes and failures by. Without it, I wouldn't have realized just how bad my honing was at the time.

I just saw that you're in Plano, TX. I'm not too far from you at all; I live outside of Greenville. I wouldn't call myself the top dawg honemeister around here by a long shot, but I would be more than happy to help you get the razor up to snuff if you like. PM me if you're interested.

Bravo Myersn for stepping up to help.

Originally Posted by pinklather

Bravo Myersn for stepping up to help.

Thanks, pinklather.

Markddunn, if you're still around, my offer still stands.