May 1st-Straight Razor Honing With Robert Wiliams****Updated****

RayG said:

Had a great time last night. Good food, great conversation, and an excellent honing clinic. Thanks for putting this together, Ray.

Can't wait for the razor restoration clinic!

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Agreed. Everything was terrific. Ray's shop is very nice. It was especially cool to take a load off in one of the best old-timey barber chairs you'll ever see sitting a storefront. Amazing razors by Robert Williams and just a world of great information with tons of hands-on interactive practise and evaluation. Looking forward to the next one fo' sure.

I was suprised, though, that no one looked anything at all like their Forum avatars........

Woodash said:

Paul - you have me at a disadvantage. Which emoticons should I be scrolling over? (as usual...). Too bad you got called in to work.

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Here are a couple of examples.

richmondesi said:

I'm in

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richmondesi said:

some people furtively post links masked as emoticons

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Just walked in, great evening with a fine group of B&B's best!

Robert was a wonderful teacher and his stereo Microscope was a blast to use.

I left with 2 shave ready razors and the confidence to tackle my grandfathers TI now.

Thanks as always Ray for yor generous and warm hospitality.

Now where did I put those lobsters again???

Jim said:

Just walked in, great evening with a fine group of B&B's best!

Robert was a wonderful teacher and his stereo Microscope was a blast to use.

I left with 2 shave ready razors and the confidence to tackle my grandfathers TI now.

Thanks as always Ray for yor generous and warm hospitality.

Now where did I put those lobsters again???

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That Microscope works awesome, even this morning,oh yes it's in my arsonal now.

It was a great time and all you gents made it so easy to enjoy and a pleasure to host.

I just wish you all would have eaten more....breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next week...lol

Oh and those cookies......

I wish I could have made this. It sounds like it was great. Alas, I'm in the last weeks of classes...

I really enjoyed meeting everyone and I hope that everyone enjoyed the get together as much as I did. Ray was an outstanding host and it was nice to hang out with such a great bunch of folks for awhile. May your razors never rust and may all your shaves be baby butt smooth!

Robert Williams said:

I really enjoyed meeting everyone and I hope that everyone enjoyed the get together as much as I did. Ray was an outstanding host and it was nice to hang out with such a great bunch of folks for awhile. May your razors never rust and may all your shaves be baby butt smooth!

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Hey Robert, I was really looking forward to meeting you in person. Ray told me that it was really a treat, and I love the razor you left him... Very cool!

Thanks, Paul. I'll be adding that design to my regular offerings for those that really enjoy simple elegance and form following function. I was pretty bummed out that you didn't make it, Paul. I was hoping to meet you. Maybe next time things will work out better. I'm really sorry to have missed you.

You just had to leave that mic. Now I see how much work I really need to do.......This thing is awesome.

Glad to see you get back here and join us.

Ray was kind enough to open his store Gentlemen's Best to host this honing session.



Robert Williams (CustomStraightRazors.com) gave the hands on lessons.



Here's those two beautiful creatures up close.


Rob started with a general overview of blades, metallurgy, and what honing should actually accomplish. Then he picked a razor in poor condition, and had each of us look at the blade edge under the microscope. All of us saw visible micro (and maybe not so micro) chips, pits, and burrs on the edge.



He then demonstrated how to hone, explaining what he was doing and why, providing tips as he went along. He stopped after finishing with each grit of stone to show us the sharp, flat angle, the edge imperfections, and the scratch patterns. He went through this for stones with grits of approximately 200, 600, 2k, 8k, a barber's hone, a pasted strop, and finally a plain leather strop, and each time we all took a peak and discussed what we saw.

There were a lot of questions and discussion throughout the session.

Then the focus switched to the hands-on phase, and we all started honing razors. Rob gave one on one attention to anyone who asked, and continued to discuss honing.



Meanwhile, Ray was there helping us poor students in action, and quietly asking questions to help focus the discussion of pertinent techniques by asking the questions the students should have been asking.







By the end of the session, a few of us had razors that passed the hanging hair test.


I took some notes. (Although I had a bit of trouble reading them back.)

• It's all about getting the right geometry onto the edge.
• You want an edge with 0 radius, with no overhang and as flat and finely polished as possible. Meanwhile, the bevel is better rounded.
• You need good steel to take an edge and to keep it.
• The angle of the edge is set by the ratio of the spine width and blade depth. For a more acute angle, look for a thinner spine or deeper blade.
• Just like with sandpaper, there's no given number of strokes to use with each hone grit. Use each one until you finish the job at that grit.
• Use the right grit for each stage, and complete the work with that grit because any other way you end up wasting time.
• Each razor might take a different amount of time to clean up because they need a different amount of metal removed, and the metal itself is different.
• It's okay to go back and forth a little bit on a hone, but finish off edge first.
• You can't over strop.
• Rob's way isn't the only way to hone a razor.

Each of us seemed to get something different out of this honing class. Maybe each of us just thinks and learns differently. Some people were more keyed in on listening to the whisper of the stones.

In learning other hands-on things, I always thought the best way to overcome fear and get started is to watch an experienced person in action, telling us how to do it, what to watch out for, and that it's okay to just do it. Without demonstration and encouragement, things often seem like rocket science. Rob did a great job unveiling the mystery of honing by first explaining the goal of each step, and then actually showing us the result under the microscope at each stage.

After the class, we realized there was one aspect we overlooked. While we did talk about different kinds of stones and materials, there was no discussion about how to flatten stones, or the importance of doing it. This was a particular point some of us had specifically meant to ask about. In all the excitement, we just forgot to ask.


Here's more of Ray's store Gentlemen's Best



oops!



Inside is an intriguing mix of old...





and new





and he even carries shaving supplies





The pictures only show a taste of the interesting things and products on display. It's really a very interesting place.

Thanks Rob, for getting us started honing. Thanks Ray, for hosting this. Thanks Jim, for making this happen. Thanks B&B, for getting us all together.

This was a great class. A week ago I was preparing to send my razors to a hone master and had no intention of ever honing my own razors. While I may still do that for some razors, this class gave me the stones to get and use my own stones.

It was great meeting everyone.

Thank you Steve!

richmondesi said:

Thank you Steve!

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It's my pleasure.

Well, actually... this is my pleasure (new gear for this)



Not to mention one delicious lobster (that didn't survive the 1/2 hour in the fridge). Thanks, Jim.

Great photos, Steve. I always get a little giddy when I see pictures of Ray's shop!

DSB said:

Great photos, Steve. I always get a little giddy when I see pictures of Ray's shop!

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Indeed. I've been many times to Colonial Drugs and Leavitt & Peirce up here in Cambridge, which together are impressive, but Ray's shop is quite another level completely (probably several levels removed). I only hope that I can get a chance to see it before I leave the Northeast!

Jim said:

Just walked in, great evening with a fine group of B&B's best!

Robert was a wonderful teacher and his stereo Microscope was a blast to use.

I left with 2 shave ready razors and the confidence to tackle my grandfathers TI now.

Thanks as always Ray for yor generous and warm hospitality.

Now where did I put those lobsters again???

Click to expand...

thirdeye said:

That Microscope works awesome, even this morning,oh yes it's in my arsonal now.

It was a great time and all you gents made it so easy to enjoy and a pleasure to host.

I just wish you all would have eaten more....breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next week...lol

Oh and those cookies......

Click to expand...

Robert Williams said:

I really enjoyed meeting everyone and I hope that everyone enjoyed the get together as much as I did. Ray was an outstanding host and it was nice to hang out with such a great bunch of folks for awhile. May your razors never rust and may all your shaves be baby butt smooth!

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Oh boy, sounds like ya'll had a great time! I'm so disappointed I couldn't make it. When is the next one?

1st

Congrats to Ray to having such a cool shop

2nd

For Ray hosting such an event and hoping there are more in the future so that I may find myself attending one.

3rd

Thanks from those that were able to attend for sharing their experience with us.


I'll definitely be looking up Ray next time I'm up in CT....

professorchaos said:

Oh boy, sounds like ya'll had a great time! I'm so disappointed I couldn't make it. When is the next one?

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Henry you were missed brother!

Steve fine job on the report!

What a great time. So bad I couldn't make it either.

That's an interesting stropping contraption next to RW in the picture.

I was looking forward to making it until I got up on Saturday. I just couldn't handle a 5 hr ride up there. Sorry I missed it. Next time I'll shoot up and stay at my Sister's in NYC the night before so it's less of a IronButt Challenge.

huracan said:

What a great time. So bad I couldn't make it either.

That's an interesting stropping contraption next to RW in the picture.

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That would be a "Wacker" strop.