Thread: How many of you guys hone your own straights?

To me now i maintain my straight whit a little hone, chromox balsa strop fire hose strop and a few Leather strops. I'm still in The beginer level but so far i refresh 6 of them and They all came in shave ready, i guess The trick is to maintain them as soon They Start to pull or drag.

Originally Posted by Papabear11

To me now i maintain my straight whit a little hone, chromox balsa strop fire hose strop and a few Leather strops. I'm still in The beginer level but so far i refresh 6 of them and They all came in shave ready, i guess The trick is to maintain them as soon They Start to pull or drag.

Yea I personally found 4-5 laps onece a week on the balsa CrOx along with normal pre shave stropping does the trick for me and my overly tough whiskers.
I think the large jump from the 8k stone to the CrOx is a bit much, I'm hoping the new 12k stone will smooth out the striations then finish with the CrOx balsa, for a bit smoother of a shave. Not that it's uncomfortable but I think I could get it smoother.
Happy honing and shaving ✌

I use the Norton 4/8 to get the basics. Thereafter my Chinese 12 or the Shoubundani Asia that I purchased from Jim Rion several years ago. The Chinese 12 and the Shoubu are my maintenance go stones.
I've practiced on some banged up eBay razors and listening to Glenn, Lynn, Stephan and Bob has been of immeasurable help. It does take practice but the results are well worth the efforts
So thanks guys for your patience and encouragement.

I just got these this week. Honed one and feels great.

Stropping well (learned from this forum) allows me to hone to my Hart's content every four or five months. The money saved over disposable razors more than makes up for the cost of top notch hones, with the incredible bonus of luxurious, relaxing, deeply satisfying shaves instead of perfunctory scrape-and-go ordeals with a multibladed plastic and metal piece of landfill garbage momentarily posing as a razor to line the pockets of the lavatory-industrial complex...

Deep breath. Relax. Strop. Shave........ That's better.

Originally Posted by BanjoTom

I use the Norton 4/8 to get the basics. Thereafter my Chinese 12 or the Shoubundani Asia that I purchased from Jim Rion several years ago. The Chinese 12 and the Shoubu are my maintenance go stones.
I've practiced on some banged up eBay razors and listening to Glenn, Lynn, Stephan and Bob has been of immeasurable help. It does take practice but the results are well worth the efforts
So thanks guys for your patience and encouragement.

I hear that, I spent a lot of time watching Lynn's videos along with many others.
Huge help indeed.

Toy report.

I just got done playing with my new toys, a 30\60x loupe and the Shapton 12k. I'll start with the loupe, at 30x magnification I was able to see the bevel easily, along with the striations I could see a spot about a half inch long that looked slightly different but I couldn't see real details I switched to the 60x and the details really popped out. What I found, my bevel was not set the entire length of the blade, that ½” spot, the bevel was not a uniform width, there was a small what I would call micro chip on the cutting edge approximately ⅛ the the width of the bevel.
The good news is all of the striations were very uniform in spacing and alignment. I have come to the conclusion that my lapping stroke is to blame, the toe of the blade had lifted slightly from my stone on several laps, From a prior honing session. For correction I went to a 3k stone and used both hands to on the razor to reset the bevel, this only took 10 or 15 laps I didn't count, then back to the loupe for a close inspection, nice the bevel was set, on to the 8k and more inspections paying careful attention to the lapping strokes as to not lift the blade.
Now for the new Shapton 12k, with no more than 10 light laps the bevel was so mirrored I had a hard time finding the right angle for viewing through the loupe, with out the perfect angle the light reflection was blinding, how cool is that? 5 laps on the balsa with CrOx and I'm good to go. The conclusion, even an inexpensive loupe is worth It's weight in gold, even a very minor mistake in honing stroke can cause unseen problems and Shapton makes a damb fine product.

Woohoo hold on, I know what yer thinking, “how's this noob come up with a conclusion and no shave test?”

Well he did a shave test, the first pass wtg left him with the smoothest first pass to date.

I have started honing my own after the initial cost and learning curve its worth it. I found a local barber that has a bunch of blades a decorations and display. I talked him into letting hone them since they are just wall hangers anyways

I hone my own, I have more hones than I need, I do use most of em,

Like Jimmy says, I also enjoy it.

A skill that's worth acquiring.


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