How I learnt to hone after studying everything I could find on the internet about razor honing.

1. Hit razor on tap to dent the edge (unintentionally I should add).

2. research hones and grit levels to find what I would need to look for.

3. Bought hones according to grit rather than brand/quality.

4. Honed razor on a 1k with a willingness to destroy it if that's what it took, as I had never had a decent shave from it anyway. Kept this up until nick was no longer visible.

5. Managed to get razor about as sharp as my good knives after getting frustrated with getting a decent edge, only to lose it on the next grit stage.

6. Got a rough shave from razor, but a lot smoother than I had ever had from it before. Could have gotten the same from my decent knives though.

7. Went back to hones and tried again. Results the same.

8. Spoke to a member of SRP via PM. Found that my finest hone, a double sided 3k/8k was incorrectly marked. I had been shaving off of a 3k edge. Also the the reason why the edge was coming good before getting worse.

9. Found the shave off an 8k hone to be smoother, but still had higher expectations of shaving sharp.

10. Bought a C12k from OS. Paid too much. Found out I had to lap it and how to go about it prior to it's arrival. Practiced lapping on my other hones, never having done that before either.

11. Re-hone razor with a bit more care on freshly lapped hones. Finally started getting a decent learners shave from razor.

12. Recieved C12k and lapped it over several pain-staking hours.

13. Shave vastly inproved after touch up on C12k.

14. Had another SRP member offer to drop over to show me honing technique. Found to be reasonable, but some pointers required.

15. Later sent razor off to be checked by someone better than me, as it wasn't coming good anymore. Some rust on edge that was honed out and returned with a professional honing job.

16 Realisation that I have been like a hammer in my honing technique where a feather was required. This was my new baseline and a couple of years later, I'm still not there yet.


Lessons learnt: The learning process leaps ahead when you have someone show you, rather than tell you, what you need to know.


Mick