After a hectic week at work, I welcomed the chance to just sit and do something relaxing. I have about two dozen or more straight razors in need of some attention, so I thought today would be a good day to practice my honing skills a bit. I went through the collection and picked several (5, actually) that were in 'user-friendly' shape and simply needed a quick polish and a new edge. I recently received a new Naniwa 1k super stone that I wanted to use to set the bevels. Also I picked up a nice 16" bench strop from GemStarCustoms (thanks Glen!) to use as a pasted strop with chromium oxide (.5). I used to try to set the bevels with my Norton 4k, and I know this can be done (per both Glen's and Lynn Abram's videos), but being the novice, I've only had marginal success. My bevels were inconsistent, uneven and irregular. My New process: Set the bevel on the Naniwa; proceed next to the Norton 4k > 8k (mid-hone), and finish with the Chinese 12k waterstone. Next a few laps on the pasted strop before 50 linen/100 leather laps on the #827 strop. My first attempt (re-setting a bevel on the Bingham 7/8) took a while. I used an illuminated 40x loupe to check my beveling process and I was noticing where my 'weak spots' were occurring—usually at the nose and heel. Eventually, I achieved what I believed to be a good, even bevel edge on the razor. By the time I reached the finishing stone, hairs were 'popping' off my arms when testing the razor—very encouraging! Post-pasted strop and the 827 stropping, the razor's edge was popping arm hairs all across the blade—something I hadn't achieved in my previous honing attempts. Bottom line: I now have five more razors that are truly 'shave-ready'—and although they may not match the exacting level of Glen's work on one of my razors, at least I feel more confident in my abilities. I think I'll shave with one of these newly-honed razors tonight...
And who knows, they very well could be as sharp as Glens. Don't sell yourself short. Just because you don't hone razors for profit does not mean you can't get edges every bit as good as those that do.
Yeah, it feels good when you just can't get the razor to shave, put it aside and weeks later turn it into a great shaver. It feels like magic sometimes.
You can mess with that 4k quite a bit and make do, but when you are actually bringing the bevel back off a restore or an e-baby a good 1k really makes a difference.. Congrats on the success let us know how the shaves go
I had late night shave tonight with one of the razors I honed earlier today. The razor (a 6/8 Herskovitz - a ebay pickup) happened to be one I had attempted to hone before and never really got a good shave off of it (tugging and inconsistent along the edge)—even though I've still used it many mornings with usually disappointing results. This time, however, the shave was considerably smoother and there was little if any resistance. Post shower with a good pre shave balm, lather applied a decent badger brush; I took 3 good passes and wound up with one of the closer, smoother shaves I've gotten in my limited (8-month) straight shaving experiences. Very encouraging, to say the least. Makes me look forward to tomorrow morning's shave—even though I may not need one.
Kevin, you are going to find that as you get the bevel set down solid that everything else falls into place,, I have said it over and over and over 90% of the work is in the bevel set, after that is done honing is actually fun hehehe.. Now that being said watch out because as soon as you think you have it figured, a razor will cross your path that tries your patience LOL in fact I can think of one rather recently that gave me a good challenge
And THAT (the bevel set) was indeed my biggest challenge. I was no hurry so I do a set of circles—then have a good look under the loupe to check the progress across the blade—then fix where it needed help. Time consuming, but it was educational. Glad to see we can make things interesting for you! That razor, by the way, and what you accomplished with it, inspired me to proceed with today's honing session.
You'll get to know the "feel" of a truely set bevel with practice. I agree that 90% of the battle is the bevel. That's where the majority of the metal is removed and the microscopic "ridges" are evened out. After that its basically polishing the blade to acheive a "shave ready" result.
