Thread: Learning to the Honing

Hi I am very new to this straight shaving lark I seem to be doing OK on the shaving side the moment. I am using a Dovo RG Shavette but in a few months I will be upgrading to a proper Straight razor. In the meantime I have brought a couple of cheap Razors from fleabay to practice to do honing on now I don't Know how easy it is going to be to get the hang of this honing but I am willing to give it a try. What I would like to know is what tools do i need to buy? polish to clean the blade etc also is there a video that shows you how to do it for a complete idiot like me?! One more point One of the blades i have got has a small nick in it would like to try and get it out Not to bothered about ruining of the razors as they where quite cheap and how do you get the pitting out of the blade. thanks for any advice given. Eric

check under the library tab on this forum. It'll lead you to the shave wiki. You'll find good info to get you started.

Have fun.

thank you twogun

First, please learn to shave with a real & professionally honed straight razor. Once you have that down, typically take around 30 shaves for it "all" to come together. By the "all", I mean face prep, stropping, whipping up a good lather, skin stretching, and so on. Once you have this down, then by all means get into honing. A Norton 4/8 combination stone or a Naniwa 3/8 combination stone is the typical starting stone along with a DMT 325 diamond stone for lapping the stones. Learning to "touch-up" a razor is typically the first step that I recommend & then working back from there...

I recommend using two razors when learning to hone. The first should be professionally honed, and will serve as your standard. You should never strop or hone this razor. Occasionally, for comparison, shave an inch of face, then clean and store. Hone the second razor yourself, and occasionally compare to your standard razor.

Originally Posted by ECD

Hi I am very new to this straight shaving lark I seem to be doing OK on the shaving side the moment. I am using a Dovo RG Shavette but in a few months I will be upgrading to a proper Straight razor. In the meantime I have brought a couple of cheap Razors from fleabay to practice to do honing on now I don't Know how easy it is going to be to get the hang of this honing but I am willing to give it a try. What I would like to know is what tools do i need to buy? polish to clean the blade etc also is there a video that shows you how to do it for a complete idiot like me?! One more point One of the blades i have got has a small nick in it would like to try and get it out Not to bothered about ruining of the razors as they where quite cheap and how do you get the pitting out of the blade. thanks for any advice given. Eric

Good posts above.

What you need....

My first stop for rescuing a razor is 3M wet dry paper
1000 grit. This lets me get the crud off well enough
that I can see what I am doing and also lets me clean
the razor well enough that it satisfies my sanitation needs.
Clean bright steel is easy to clean black and red rust not so
good.

My second stop is to hone my razor. The #1 hone to own
is perhaps the Norton 4K/8K combo hone - the work horse.
The price is about equal to three visits to a professional honemaster.
A honemaster will also have coarser hones if needed and
will also have some expensive finishing hones for a deluxe
edge.

A coarser hone priced about two visits to a honemaster.
A fine deluxe finisher fifteen visits to a honemaster give or
take.

And if you have hones you also need a lap to keep them
flat cost about three visits to a honemaster.

For years the Norton 4k/8k hone was nearly the best money
could buy in the world of man made hones. Many folk
find they are all that is needed.

So 3M wet dry + norton 4k/8k + DMT to lap the norton.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Good posts above.

What you need....

My first stop for rescuing a razor is 3M wet dry paper
1000 grit. This lets me get the crud off well enough
that I can see what I am doing and also lets me clean
the razor well enough that it satisfies my sanitation needs.
Clean bright steel is easy to clean black and red rust not so
good.

My second stop is to hone my razor. The #1 hone to own
is perhaps the Norton 4K/8K combo hone - the work horse.
The price is about equal to three visits to a professional honemaster.
A honemaster will also have coarser hones if needed and
will also have some expensive finishing hones for a deluxe
edge.

A coarser hone priced about two visits to a honemaster.
A fine deluxe finisher fifteen visits to a honemaster give or
take.

And if you have hones you also need a lap to keep them
flat cost about three visits to a honemaster.

For years the Norton 4k/8k hone was nearly the best money
could buy in the world of man made hones. Many folk
find they are all that is needed.

So 3M wet dry + norton 4k/8k + DMT to lap the norton.

By your cost estimation, one could get by for the next 12 years give or take for the price of stones

Originally Posted by epd

By your cost estimation, one could get by for the next 12 years give or take for the price of stones

Yes if you have two good razors.
No if you have a 52 razor rotation.

And if you have a good shaver it is possible to
keep it shaving for years with a nice fine hone
perhaps one from this list of man mades:

Nanawa 12K
Sigma 13k
Shapton Glass 16k
Naniwa Chosera 10k

I do want to make the point that honing
a dull eBay razor is a different project
than day in and day out shaving.

I should also flesh out the budget cautious
side of things with lapping film from the
likes of Woodcraft.com
Pinnacle Honing Film 14", Assorted (3)

15micron == about 1200 grit
5 micron == about 5k
0.3 micron == about 12k

A $10 pack of film and a flat granite tile base or glass
will hone one or two razors. The 15 micron
might last for two razors, the 5 micron for
three, the 0.3 micron will polish six or so, in
my experience.

Good choice!! By getting a decent shaving Str8 professionaly honed you will get as said above, a place of reference to start off with. And learning to hone may have a fairly sharp learning curve, it's well worth the experaince!! Let's face it, if you collect even a modicom of razors, say 10 or 15, sending them off for "touch ups" or complete honing jobs can add up to a lot 'O Bob!!! [and expensive, besides!]
The classified section of SRP is the best place to obtain you first couple of str8's and then go with the flow, all the advice in this thread is good, take from it what you feel is best for you!!

Have a great shave on us, SRP Forever!! [so to speak.]

Sincerely, tinkersd

I've always thought that when your deciding what hones to buy... Hone as you need to comes to mind. when your razor needs a touch up buy your chosen finishing stone, when it needs a little more 3k 8k hones (probably nortan 4/8k) and after that bevel setter everyone seems to be so eager to get a set of hones that they'll use the finishers and the 8k below will sit gathering dust, or honing obsessive disorder kicks in and hone like crazy to use the whole set.

So as above I would recommend getting them honed professionally and touch them up until they need more extensive honing.