I finally found some time to work on honing my homemade razor. Or, should I say, some more time. I didn't use my grinder to set the bevel, so I did a lot of grinding with my DMT hones. It probably took me four hours over three sessions, but I finally got this baby shaving arm hair. I'll be giving it a shave-test tomorrow.

I got stuck for a while as the edge seemed to develop a persistent wire edge. I was starting to think the steel just wasn't properly hardened, but I was finally able to knock the wire off by working back and forth between the Belgian blue and the coticule, both with a heavy slurry. This is a great technique for stubborn razors, by the way. I just did back and forth honing with the slurry, concentrating on the areas that had the wire.

I wasn't able to get a very good edge off my coticule, so I resorted to the pasted hanging strops. After a tussle with the Dovo red and black pastes, this thing is popping arm hairs effortlessly. I have officially made a razor now, not just a razor-shaped object.

Not sure whether the difficulty in honing was due to poor grinding, or whether the steel is either too hard or too soft.

I definitely have my work cut out for me in the grinding area. The honing showed up all the uneven spots, including a high spot right on the toe. The hone wear actually extends along the spine, then runs around the toe and connects to the bevel. Doh.

Shave report to follow...

Josh