Thread: Hello from Nebraska

Good afternoon fellas,

I am 25 year old, and new to straight razor shaving. I have done a fair bit of reading on this site and others trying to educate myself about the subject (as well as watching a couple of Lynn's videos and others), but obviously won't run out of new things to learn any time soon. I purchased a white Boker King Cutter a couple weeks ago, and have shaved with it a handful of times with moderate success. Unfortunately, when I ordered it, I was unaware of the industry practices with regard to sharpening a new blade. I made the terrible mistake of assuming that the blades were honed by the manufacturer, and as such did not take into consideration to ensure that I purchased my razor from a reputable vendor who would professionally hone it for me.

Anyway, so after trying it out a couple times, it was very obvious that the blade needed more than just a good stropping (or at least that is my judgement, granted that I have no prior experience with such things). I ordered a Norton 4K/8K, as well as a (I think 6 micron) green strop paste and a Chromium Oxide crayon. I performed the Norton pyramid following a guide on this site starting at 25 strokes and finished with the stop past/etc. It seems to have helped some, but I still seem to be having issues with the sharpness of my blade. My biggest issue is when shaving my mustache and chin (even the flat part at the front). It seems like the blade just isn't sharp enough to get through some of the rough patches. It will pull, and requires many passes, and even after re-applying shaving soap/etc. there are hairs left that I don't know how it could have missed.

I guess my main question if someone can help me out is: for a new razor that is not professionally sharpened, do you need to set the bevel yourself? And if so, what grit is recommended to set the bevel (hoping I can just get one more stone to complimen the 4K/8K and strop setup I have already purchased)? Thanks in advance for any help guys!

I'll make it simple. Get a hold of Lynn or a reputable vendor here or just someone from here who knows how to hone and get them to hone it first since it was not shave ready when you received it. Then buy a practice blade from somewhere (Vintage Blades LLC has some for $50 or less). I would do this before the possibility of hurting your new beloved Boker. Plus this will give you an idea of what shave ready feels like when you go to honing yourself.

There are quite a few honing vids that should be watched. You have a very nice razor that should be honed by an experienced honer. As said, get a cheaper blade to learn the art.
Search the community section to find a mentor in your area.

After all that you can start to have fun with this hobby. A lot of guys are here to help.

Agree with all of the above posts. In spite of what some say, honing a razor is not the easiest skill to learn, and best to practice with a sound, but expendable razor, not your best.

Thanks for the advice! I feel like I wasted a lot of time not ensuring that it would be shave-ready when I received it (although the small upside is that now maybe I will appreciate it more, haha). It seemed like most of the videos/discussions on honing that I found prior to purchasing a razor were focussed on "refreshing" blades as opposed to setting the bevel and whatnot so I made a silly assumption that this would have already been done. I'll try to get ahold of Lynn or someone about getting it honed by a master.

When you refer to getting a practice blade, is the concern basically that I will damage my main blade through inexperienced honing/stropping? I certainly don't want to take the advice of more experienced members of the community lightly, but at the same time have some level of confidence in myself to take care with my treasured new blade (and honestly could do without yet another start-up expense). Am I being ridiculous and overconfident?

I'm definitely not as you would say an experienced member, but yes it is just that you will not damage your new blade while you go through the learning curve. It can be a little overconfident, because me myself I have been sharpening knives for years, yet when I went to try to hone my razor it was a totally new animal and takes a lot of time and patience. Even so much patience that I have heard many of very experienced hone masters here say that you only want to hone your blades when you are in the best of moods and put them down when you are frustrated.

Also getting your blade honed by an experienced hone master here, you will have a landmark that you can work on hitting while you are working up on your skill, because there are so many variables when it comes to honing a razor that it is an art only learned through trial, error and as my band director used to say perfect practice makes perfect.

But we are not saying that you should not try to hone your razor. But we are saying that the risk is high if you haven't honed a razor before, for you to unevenly hone your bevel/edge and do some work to it that may require a hone master to correct.

Gotcha. Thanks again for the feedback! I think I'll take both pieces of advice (although I may need to have my wife read this thread to explain yet more spending for my early Christmas present, and she may be getting another purse, haha).

Spivlets, welcome to SRP. I just looked in the membership section, using advanced search, asking only for members from Nebraska. 10 members came up. Try contacting some of the members that have been around greater than a year and see if they can help you get a shaveable edge on your razor. Did not see any Mentors listed there, but if they have been shaving with a straight for a couple of years they are most likely honing their own razors.

Seeking out Lynn, or any of those listed in the classified's service available section is a great suggestion also. Also, in the Library, Local Help - Straight Razor Place Library, check to see if there are any Mentors in nearby states that you can contact. The Mentoring service is free and designed for just such situations. Take advantage of it.

Welcome to SRP!
Just to put your mind at ease with having the pro hone done versus doing it yourself, I have honed a hundred or so razors over the years, but any day now I expect to get my new dovo ebenholz back from Lynn and Don at SRD. I could have done it myself, but I just felt it was better for the razor to have a true honemeister do it. Maybe I was a little scared I might scratch up the most expensive razor I've ever purchased too.
For around $30 with postage, you just can't beat that price to have it professionally set up and later you can do a refresh on your own hones when it needs it.

Thanks Chris! That's what I'll be doing for sure!