what do you do to get a new razor "shave ready?"

A couple of things. Regular electrical tape is the thing those that tape use. When you are looking at the side of the bevel it does not really show if the apex is making a 'V' it could be a 'U' and still look the same from the side. Looking almost straight down on the bevel you will see sparkles and white lines where the bevel is not complete and have a really hard time seeing the actual edge when the bevel is fully set. I followed just one teacher in the videos until I was able to repeat the lessons with some consistency. There are many roads to the perfect edge, but you can only follow one at a time. Over time you will likely find your own path.

When restoring, you may not want to remove all smiles, but you do want to remove all frowns.

Setting the bevel, is 90 percent of honing, if the bevel not is fully set you do not have an edge and flat bevels. While the bevels must be flat, they may not be even in width.

I know in knife sharpening, an even bevel is what you strive for, not nesserally with razors. You may not have that choice, as the heat treat of the thin metal will slightly warp the blade. Almost none are perfectly straight and that will produce bevels of different size.

You can grind the spine flat to compensate for the warp sometimes, but then you have an ugly spine. We compensate by using different strokes that hone parts of the bevel as opposed to the whole bevel at a time. Look in the library, Honing a razor, Strokes for Honing.

The first thing you need is magnification, at least 60X, you can get away with less, but you need to see the stria clearly, when starting out to understand what is happening at the grits. You can buy hand held 60X lighted loupes for a couple bucks on line.

I know most folks say no pressure, but not really when setting a bevel sometimes you need pressure to get the bevels to meet, or lower grit stones. Low grits and pressure are a double edge sword. They will get the bevels flat and meeting but can cause chipping at the edge, in the later grits.

Circles will also speed up the metal removal, and if you bread knifed a lot, you will have to remove some metal. Do circles in sets of 10 or 20 and keep checking the edge, a colored sharpie on the bevels will quickly show you your progress. Once they meet then do straight laps to remove all the circular stria.

If you have chipping, you can joint the edge, lightly stroke the corner of the stone and remove the very edge and straighten it. Then re-set the edge in about 10-20 laps, if your bevels are fully flat.

If your edges are not shaving well, I would bet they were not fully set on the 1k. It sounds like you are not doing nearly enough laps.

Here is a good post with excellent photos from a new honer taking a razor from bevel set to finish. His photos will show you what to look for, I think they were taken at 400X. Second Try at Honing.

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Originally Posted by RezDog

Hmmm. Where to start. I am a little stuck on your screen name. They are not knives so the process is different and the same. The part that is the same is that you need to develop a perfect apex and then polish it and refine it. The how the blade sits on the hone is completely different. I would almost never use a 220 with a razor. Skip straight past the 220. Tape the spine so you can keep it from damage until you get you technique figured out and then decide tape or no tape. Lapping hones is pretty important with straight razors. A loupe is your best friend. There are a few threads on what you are looking at when honing. The establishment of a perfect apex for the entire length of the cutting edge is the cornerstone of shave ready. You should be able to get a mediocre shave from a 1K honing with a properly developed bevel. Then it is the process of refining it. I really got a lot from gssixgun's videos. One on one is best when learning.

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I would add only one thing to what Rezdog said and that is to watch Lynn Abrams on honing start to finish. It's very informative.