Thread: Honing a brand new razor.

Are all new razors from the factory not Shave Ready? Do they really need to be honed? I have a new Dovo on the way will it be dull? Thanks for your input. MisterClean

Who is it coming from? Some vendors will hone a new razor before shipping, others will not. If your vendor does not hone before shipping then you will need to have it honed.

Most of the time they will need to be honed. Just depends on where you bought it from. If you bought from SRD it will come shave ready.

Some are more "shave ready" from he factory than others. I bought a Ralf Aust direct from Germany. It was perfect right out of the box.

Most however are not like that

Do they really need to be honed?

It will, unless you asked for it honed.

Factories hone razors with the spine off the stone, to protect the spine, so the geometry is off a bit. Some are pretty close and possibly with a good stropping can be made to shave.

Hone a lot of new Dovos and TI’s and they look like a pretty low grit finish stone. Next one I get in, I will try to see if I can match the stria to a grit.

I did hone a new TI recently, that the buyer asked to be “Factory” honed, the bevel was almost stria free with some spine wear, looked like a diamond paste stropping with a chippy edge.

It's coming from a retailer that didn't provide honing as a service. I should learn to hone. I'll study the videos available and read as much as possible on the subject. Please suggest a starter set of stones to learn the process. Thanks to all for your responses. Mister Clean

Originally Posted by MisterClean

It's coming from a retailer that didn't provide honing as a service. I should learn to hone. I'll study the videos available and read as much as possible on the subject. Please suggest a starter set of stones to learn the process. Thanks to all for your responses. Mister Clean

You can do both, learn to shave with a straight razor and learn to hone at the same time, but it is generally advised not to do so. Normally it may take 3 months of everyday shaving to become proficient with a straight razor. It has a steep learning curve as does honing so it's best not to combine the two.

You want to start shaving with a good shave ready edge so you will know what a good edge feels like. You will also need to learn how to strop properly to help maintain your razor. That too takes a little practice till you get it right and you may dull your razor before you learn to strop correctly.

I'd put learning to hone on the back burner till you get those two things sorted out first.

Bob

Yup, learn to shave and maintain a razor first… then learn to hone.

But if you really want to hone, read the first three posts in the Honing forum and honing section of the Library for much more.

A good 3 stone synthetic progression will get you started, but there is more to it than rubbing steel on a stone, as the honing forum post indicate, 7,500 threads, 98,000 post.

I strongly second the "learn to shave, THEN learn to hone" strategy. They both have a learning curve and learning one before the other is a good idea. I would also strongly suggest you don't learn to hone using a brand new razor. I would find a cheap vintage that is in need of tlc to learn the process, or there's a good chance of doing quite a bit of damage to your new DOVO. The classic Norton set is my recommendation for a starter set of hones. you can get a really decent edge off of them, and they tend to be consistent.

Or only buy from those who do hone. That way a man that shaves with a razor is taking care of said razor before he sends it to you, I,ve found it to be the same price buying from the reputable guys. But since it's bought send it out , you,ve been told that honing isn't as easy as it sounds, and learning to shave and "strop" properly is in itself more important, than the honing at this point. I didn't hone for over two years and still don't really, just learning to maintain, but in the meantime I shave with perfect edges. Tc