Thread: Present from an old friend

If you have the patience & can deal with the failure (at first) of not matching the pro honed razor you shave with, I don't see any problem in learning to hone while learning to shave. A properly honed razor is an absolute for learning to shave & the caution is for newbs who think they may be able to do both without a reference point. That's what we try to discourage.

Right. I get that. I would definitely be trying to learn on a different razor than the one I was using to shave with...if not even my kitchen and pocket knives at first.

Originally Posted by ryanjewell

If you like, knock yourself out...ive noticed that seems to be prime candidate #1 as far as advice that most new people choose to ignore. But the point they are trying to make is, if you focus on one thing, you will make significant strides quickly on that thing. You focus on multiple things, you will slow your progress on all of them. If you were learning Japanese...first you would learn the characters and how to say words, then grammar, then sentences. Its systematic. It's much slower to learn a language by trying to write out complete sentences until you have a good handle on the individual components...kind of a learn to walk before you try to run, you know?

I'm not sure that metaphor works. Shaving isn't to honing as alphabet is to learning a language. You could learn to hone without ever having any intention of ever using a straight razor. Correct? And besides, you get to shave once a day, an hour long ritual at most...where you could spend 8 hours a day learning to make things sharp if you had the spare time. Anyway, the point is moot. I don't have hones, and can't afford them any more than I can afford to have all my razors sent out. lol

Originally Posted by Nonstickron

I'm not sure that metaphor works. Shaving isn't to honing as alphabet is to learning a language. You could learn to hone without ever having any intention of ever using a straight razor. Correct? And besides, you get to shave once a day, an hour long ritual at most...where you could spend 8 hours a day learning to make things sharp if you had the spare time.

well...just my opinion...a sharp razor is one of the foundations to shaving. you can't shave unless your razor is sharp (i mean, you can...but it won't be very effective or fun)...so to me, razor to stone, razor to face...they are pretty inextricably linked. So whether someone else hones it or you hone it, it is one of the foundations of shaving. I suppose you could learn to hone without any intention of shaving, but as the shave test is the best indicator of whether or not you have successfully honed a razor, i'm not sure how well that works.

the reason i used the japanese metaphor is, if you come out of the bat starting to try and write sentences in japanese without any foundation...mistakes could be the wrong character, the wrong grammar, or the wrong way of putting together a sentence. conversely, if you have a bad shave, you won't know if it was bad honing, bad technique or a combination of both...if you have it honed by someone who knows how, you will know it is technique. no one here tries to stop people from honing, it's just waiting until your technique is solid enough to where you truly know whether you honed a razor well or not.

like i said, everyone has their own way of doing things...some people like to dive in with both feet. i personally like the more systematic way because my first goal is a close comfortable shave...some day i will be a decent honer, but just so i can get more close comfortable shaves...so as long as i'm getting one, i'm in no rush.

I'll have to agree, a sharp razor is the deal when shaving! I had almost given up on my old Boker King Cutter this morning. Thought I just as well send her out to Lynn for honing. Decided to try taping the spline (2xs) and trying 50 laps on the old Pike (Best Barber hone), 25 moderate pressure+ 25 light pressure + 25 on the Crx oxide and 60 laps on the Latigo bridge strop and low and behold, a miracle. It came back to life as possibly a new like Boker!! I now have a very close BBS!!! Trying will get you somewhere.
MHW

Originally Posted by Nonstickron

You could learn to hone without ever having any intention of ever using a straight razor. Correct?

Only if you had someone to test the razor or you'd never know if you succeeded.

Conversley,you can hone 100s of never shave tested blades and call it 100% success rate