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I bought 2 cheap razors for when I start honing so I don't ruin my good one.
Appologies for the pictures, but it with a cell Phone and bad lighting. (How do you guys do it?)
The large ons is a Sendyk's, the smaller one, or what's left of it, is a Giesen & Forsthoff.
I dodn't pay much for both razors.
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The problem with both of them is unevev hone wear. If I get a blade like those I use a diamond hone and carefully run the edge over it until the edge is straight. You have to keep the razor perpendicular to the hone and be careful not to use too much pressure. Once you have a straight edge then you can hone the razor. You may need a layer of tape on the spine. I say this because without an even edge it is hard to determine if you are doing it correctly to get the proper technique.
Hi Yves,
The logic that says - practice on a cheap razor is good - sort of. You're not making your mistakes on a costly or irreplaceable historic blade. But there's also a problem with the approach. Before you can learn to hone, you have to do a pretty substantial and high quality job of getting them ground so that they *can* be honed. The goblin is that narrow area between almost ready or 'looks' ready and a blade that has the smooth good steel with the bevel truly parallel with the spine contact area.
If you're also new to str8 shaving, I might suggest (this always seems futile) that you defer or delay learning to hone until the shave comes easily and you can tell the feel of a good edge (pro-quality) and a mediocre edge. Now - you'll have a feel for when your honing efforts have succeeded. I know the urge is strong to master all the skills, but some of them take a bit of time. I would wager that trying to learn to hone on either of those blades will involve *alot* of toil and frustration.
The way to give yourself the best chance of successfully learning the stones is to start out w/ a sound razor of adequate quality and a particular size/grind/shape. It needn't be expensive. The fastest way would be to buy a low cost razor that's shave ready from someone experienced in honing. Perhaps the second fastest would be to have someone experienced help you buy a razor that's restorable and pay a pro to have the bevel set on it. The particulars of the blade would be at least 1/2 hollow - preferably full, reasonably hard steel (german, us), and a shape that has no smile or curve to the edge. It will be easiest to develope the 'feel' in your hands/fingers of what 'normal' honing should feel like. Soft steel (sheffield), heavy grinds, smiling blades all bring additional challenges that you'll eventually master, but they're probably not best for learning.
You'll find lots of opinions on the topic here. You can, and most certainly will - master the skill. My input only tries to lessen the frustration part of the learning.
Best of luck w/ the learning.
