Thread: Hello from Chi-Town

You'll still need it to hone up your first razor that you got from Art of Shaving. That one will need more than the 12k.

Welcome to SRP Machiavelli.

+1 on the advice offered by my fellow SRP brothers. Please accept Utopian's generous offer to provide you with a honing of your new straight. It will make a world of difference in your straight razor shaving experience.

No need to try honing your razor at this point. Hold onto your Nortons. You'll be able to make use of them in the future, but not right now. You'll have your hands full learning proper stropping, beard prep and shaving technique.

In the interim, use a butter knife or some other not-so-sharp knife from your kitchen drawer and practice your stropping. That way when you get your razor back, you will be able to proceed with your shaving.

Take care--and smooth shaving.

And speaking of chi-town...lemme know if you need anything! I'm assuming you're referring to AOS that just opened up in woodfield? What parts are you located?? If postage is too much, let me know and i'll throw an edge on there for you. We'll just meet up and do a trade, if we're close-by.

I lapped the Norton earlier today following the directions on this site. I decided to follow all of your advice, and hang on to it. I really appreciate Utopian offering to hone my razor for me, but I'll admit I feel bad putting someone out like that. I really would like to learn how to hone though. Derek C the AOS I went to was in Oakbrook Mall, but I live in Chicago. I'm in Bridgeport right next to White Sox park. Would like to meet up with someone that has some idea of what their doing. AOS was helpful, and all of you are extremely helpful, but it's a lot of info to take in.

First, you wouldn't "put me out." I'd be glad to do it. That said, you have the hone, you might as well figure it out for yourself with as much help as you need from us here.

I actually tried it today with little success, but was just using the 8,000 side. The blade is supposed to be shave ready, so I didn't want to mess it up. Can I go straight up, and down, or do I have to criss cross?

The criss cross is called the x-stroke around here. I'm only telling you that so you understand what you are reading as you learn about this stuff.

Now, the x-stroke is preferable in order to insure that all parts of the blade are contacted, but I would start with the straight up and down strokes. You have to learn to keep the blade flat on the hone, not lifting the heel or the toe off of the hone, so the straight up and down strokes make it easier because the full length of the blade has hone underneath it. This is opposed to the x-stroke in which the length of blade that has hone under it continually decreases and this makes it increasingly hard to keep the blade level. This is all about practice and establishing muscle memory in exactly the same manner as the transition from first learning how to ride a bike, struggling to keep it upright, and later being able to ride it without giving it a thought.

Also, if you bought a razor from A of S, what they call shave ready is not actually shave ready. It only has the factory edge on it and the quality of that edge can vary significantly.

My Naniwa super stone 10,000 is coming in tomorrow. Can I lap it using the 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper I already have?

Yes, that is sufficient. Be sure to do it under running water.

Running water? How do I do that? I have no flat sink that I could do it in. Alternatives?