Thread: honing razors.

GIYF = google is your friend.

Welcome Jeb - it's good to see you've stuck it out. In medical terms I think it's fair to say your intro to SRP was a bit of a difficult birth, but I trust that with time you'll come to see that the good things that have been said about the members here have been well earned.

Best of luck!

Jeb,
Your last post rubbed most of us the wrong way. As gssixgun rightly noted, this IS a gentleman's club, and most of us behave accordingly. I am willing to apologize for my (deleted) comment to you. However, referring to a gesture of respect toward another senior member as unwarranted "back-patting" is uncalled for. Learn our standards of behaviour or begone. I spent too many years of my life dealing with so-called wannabe "tough guys" like you in dressing rooms who never measured up to a tin whistle in a high wind on the ice only to see them crumple and end up crying in the trainer's room when taking stitches. Talking tough here is easy. Try it in real life sometime.
Demanding satisfaction,
mapleleafalumnus

Originally Posted by jebbaker

sorry. im a talker and not a lurker.

if you met me in person you would understand that i dont have a problem asking anyone questions about something i find very interesting.
when i wanted to get my helicopter rating i just went in the door introduced myself and said i didint need in intro flight and that i wanted to take my first hour.

when i joined the army i did the same thing. i walked in and said hello my name is jeb and where do i sign.

i am a member of a pilots forum and we have many noobs stop in and start asking questions. unless they are total jerks then we answer them by telling them where to go for basic information and getting them into a conversation to see where they want to go because many of them dont even know where to start. that is where i am now with shaving with i straight razor. i thought that i would be able to get into a running conversation with some people. looks like i have but not in the way i or anyone here would have liked. i was a little put off by how some that first bunch of posts went. i felt like was being told to do something with no directions and no place to look.

to the gents who sent me links to the vids and answered some questions you do a service to the forum. str8tshooter, jaswarb, smalltank, ignatius.

i am a tradesman my self. i am a welder first and now an inspector. i am learning to fly a helicopter. i am learning to shave with a straight razor. on the things i find most interesting i jump right in. all of these things take many hours of practice and time getting it right. i tell my welding students that your learning curve makes a jump when you make a mistake and learn from it. (i hope to not make too many mistakes on face as i only have one and its gotten me a lovely wife)

ok next subject.
what is....OP (figured this one out)....GYIF...i got out of the army a long long long time ago and surely dont remember any of those and well....i am not to up on the forum slang.

jeb

Originally Posted by jebbaker

sorry. im a talker and not a lurker.
jeb

No, you are a loudmouth whiner who complains when he doesn't get precisely what he wants the first time out of the gate, just like a 3-year old baby.

Thanks for the comments everybody. Much appreciated.
Still i believe that shaving and honing are 2 completely different things.
Why do i believe that? Well here in Belgium is a woman that hones straight razors.
She never uses straight razors... Are they less sharp than a 'honemeister' (as you call them here i think)?
No absolutely not!

I trust her technique... Not her 'shaving' experience...
I do agree on collecting information before you want to hone.
I've read alot on the wiki, watched alot on youtube, read this forum and still reading every day.

But.. it is clear to me that i have to 'filter' the information.
There are alot of techniques to achieve perfection. Different shaving techniques etc etc etc.
For an absolute beginner you really have to struggle to find the right information.
And if we are honest... Not everybody has the will, stamina nor time to do this 'quest'.
Also i've read alot of comments like: 'send your razor to Lynn' or 'let somebody else hone it for you' etc etc.
That doesn't really help alot. It might give you an 'idea' how sharp a razor can be. But it doesn't mean that you can achieve that perfection when a beginner starts to hone or how to achieve it.

I bought a 59€ (74$) DOVO 6/8 razor. Just to practise.
The redwood 5/8 DOVO is to expensive to practise on.
In the beginning it is trial and error for sure. But it will give you a 'feel' how you have to hone.
And as the honing technique is getting better you will eventually achieve a true shave ready razor.
I'm not convinced you have to have a 'reference' point to start honing.
As your honing technique is getting better you eventually will achieve perfection.
I'm not saying that honing without 'sharpness experience' is the best way to do it.
But i believe it really is possible.

A razor bought brand new and not honed by somebody is still a sharp razor.
You can shave WTG without problems with such a razor.
Can you shave ATG with it? No... it lacks sharpness...
Is it necessary for everybody to shave ATG? No...
If somebody is just happy with a WTG shave than you don't need a blade as sharp as a pornmodels body.
Just my 2 cents.

My mothertongue is Dutch... so i apologise for my English.
Don't intend to offend anybody...

Originally Posted by stax

Thanks for the comments everybody. Much appreciated.
Still i believe that shaving and honing are 2 completely different things.
Why do i believe that? Well here in Belgium is a woman that hones straight razors.
She never uses straight razors... Are they less sharp than a 'honemeister' (as you call them here i think)?
No absolutely not!

I trust her technique... Not her 'shaving' experience...
I do agree on collecting information before you want to hone.
I've read alot on the wiki, watched alot on youtube, read this forum and still reading every day.

But.. it is clear to me that i have to 'filter' the information.
There are alot of techniques to achieve perfection. Different shaving techniques etc etc etc.
For an absolute beginner you really have to struggle to find the right information.
And if we are honest... Not everybody has the will, stamina nor time to do this 'quest'.
Also i've read alot of comments like: 'send your razor to Lynn' or 'let somebody else hone it for you' etc etc.
That doesn't really help alot. It might give you an 'idea' how sharp a razor can be. But it doesn't mean that you can achieve that perfection when a beginner starts to hone or how to achieve it.

I bought a 59€ (74$) DOVO 6/8 razor. Just to practise.
The redwood 5/8 DOVO is to expensive to practise on.
In the beginning it is trial and error for sure. But it will give you a 'feel' how you have to hone.
And as the honing technique is getting better you will eventually achieve a true shave ready razor.
I'm not convinced you have to have a 'reference' point to start honing.
As your honing technique is getting better you eventually will achieve perfection.
I'm not saying that honing without 'sharpness experience' is the best way to do it.
But i believe it really is possible.

A razor bought brand new and not honed by somebody is still a sharp razor.
You can shave WTG without problems with such a razor.
Can you shave ATG with it? No... it lacks sharpness...
Is it necessary for everybody to shave ATG? No...
If somebody is just happy with a WTG shave than you don't need a blade as sharp as a pornmodels body.
Just my 2 cents.

My mothertongue is Dutch... so i apologise for my English.
Don't intend to offend anybody...

Your english is very good stax, I wouldnt worry about that

You make some good points, but if I was to give any advice to you it would be read up on the BASICS, I read for weeks and got confused with the subtleties. Get a shave ready razor from a vendor, when it becomes dull grab a finisher and bring it back to shave readyness, Little chance of removing huge amounts of metal and damaging a valuable razor. practice your honing technique with finishers and then move onto bevel to finish honing.

Its not an embarrassment to start with training wheels, we all had to at one point I've noticed alot of newbies have this want for honing to be difficult when they start or it doesnt feel like they're honing... start with touching up a dulled professionally shaved razor and eventually you will need to go to rougher hones to bring it back. by that time your technique should have developed the correct feel and touch needed. Muscle memory doesn't come overnight... relax and chill out man, there's no such thing as the honing express its like reading a book, start at page 1 and take yer time

regards Alex

Originally Posted by stax

As your honing technique is getting better you eventually will achieve perfection.
I'm not saying that honing without 'sharpness experience' is the best way to do it.
But i believe it really is possible.


Don't intend to offend anybody...

There ya go, you didn't offend anyone, but you did just say exactly what the rest of us said, You have to undersatnd we give advice for the easiest path, if you don't want to walk it that's fine to...
But the easiest path is still just that ...
There are many ways to sharp and smooth there is no right or wrong but there sure are the ways that work for the most people...

It is apparent that this thread went sideways and isn't going to ever get straight again, (pun Intended)

I am closing it down for the rest of the Mods to look over