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First honing attempt

M

mikromicke

Active Member
I did my first honing attempt today. I dulled my razor with one stroke on glass, checked that it didn't cut arm hair and went to work.

I was trying to follow the dilucot and started with half strokes on a milky slurry. It took 4 sets of 20 before it shaved arm hairs again and I then started diluting with a drop of water from my finger, doing 15 half strokes per dilution. In the end I rinsed the stone and did 30 x-strokes on only water. The razor was a 0 on the HHT scale so I did 20 laps on linen and 60 on leather and managed to get it to cut halfway through a hair at least. I went back and did another 30 passes on only water, stropped and didn't see much difference.

I then put a layer of tape on it and did 30 passes on very light slurry and then 30 passes on only water and stropped the razor again. Voila, I was back at the HHT 4 that I had before I started. This took maybe 30 min compared to the many hours I spent on my Arkansas stones! Sweet!!!

I'll try to shave with it as soon as my daughter decides to go to bed. She already managed to dodge my wife's attempt at going to sleep and is right now crawling around in the living room sounding like a zombie. Ah well ... good things come to those who wait :D
 
Oh, and I noticed that the razor is fairly even except for the heel area where it definitely is duller than the rest. I guess I'll have to keep that in mind for my next honing round.
 
I just had time to test shave. I got a lot more audible feedback than I usual do. A very tiny amount of irritation and a nice and close shave. It felt a bit weird hearing the razor cut the stubble so loud without feeling very much on the skin. The razor is definitely usable although my guess is that it could be a tad bit sharper. I'll keep playing and see what I can achieve :thumbup:
 
The slurry did darken very quicky so the stone seems to be a fairly fast cutter.

Could it be worth going back to only water without the tape to try to see if I can get the same edge as I did with the tape?
 
Once you have a unicot (double bevel) edge, you would have to start over completely if you don't retape the spine. You would just be honing at the primary bevel without tape and it would take forever to reach the "fin" again, ..and you would never know when that happened without pre-dulling on glass. You can retape and rehone with the very lightest pressure you can muster, but be advised, you are now widening the secondary bevel, which is only a bad thing in that it takes more strokes to refine it. You sound like you have a good handle on sharpening already. Well done. Denny
p.s. You really should get another razor. It makes it easier to try mad experiments in the honing dimension without worrying about ruining you daily shaver.
 
Thanks for clarifying that Denny. And you're right, I do need a second razor. I'll let the wife know what to get me for christmas :w00t:

It seems that some of all the hours at the Arkansas stones payed off then. I'm by the way amazed that it can be so fast and "easy" to actually get a razor sharp. Thanks to all of you!
 
mikromicke said:
The slurry did darken very quicky so the stone seems to be a fairly fast cutter.

Could it be worth going back to only water without the tape to try to see if I can get the same edge as I did with the tape?
Click to expand...
Your stone may be a fast cutter... and it may also release slurry on it's own (slurry dulling). You may want to dilute the slurry a little faster (instead of 1 drop of water, add 2 or 3 drops per dilution)...

...just a thought
 
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