Is it a good idea for a rookie to try honing?

[JRobinhood]

So I recently bought the 6/8 Cattaraugus Cutlery N.Y. straight razor that was on the BST and it will be my first foray into this style of shaving. I've been using a DE for about a year now and wanted to try something different. Anyways, I was going to have Troy hone the razor for me, but he said he ran out of time and suggested I send it to someone else to have it honed. I know this probably makes the most sense, but I was just wondering how feasible it is for me to learn how to hone the razor myself. I figure you have to start learning somehow. I've been looking into those lapping films, would those be an option I should consider? Or am I just completely crazy and should have a professional hone it for me? I don't mind if I won't have a perfectly honed razor right off the bat if it means I can start learning a valuable skill that goes along with using a straight razor.

Thanks

[goatee]

get a gold dollar from ebay and practice on that. they really arent that bad. they take a good edge and can be made "shave ready". this will also be a good practice razor as i think they are 6/8 as well. go to you tube and watch videos on how to do it.
also,, read up on it here.
i did none of the above. i just got some stones and went to town. but im more gooder than most...maybe just lucky.

[QuarkVI]

I would suggest that you need one razor reliably honed by someone else if you have never used a straight before - learning to use a straight often coincides with technique issues that mean the straight feels blunt and hence it is important to know that it is shave ready despite the learning difficulties. If you are learning honing at the same time then you won't be able to pick what is due to shaving technique and what is due to honing.

yes this does mean, probably, getting a second razor :-) Whipped dog is by far the most recommended to beginners - get a razor and a poor man's strop and use that for learning to shave and then use the other for learning to hone.

down the rabbit hole you go .....

cheers

_________________________
Robin

[Legion]

Get your first razor honed by someone who knows how. Without that benchmark you will never know what a real shave ready razor should feel or shave like.

Once you have your shave ready razor, if you want to get another and give it a go, go nuts. But your first razor should definitely be ready to go right out of the box. Otherwise, when you have troubles, how will you ever know if it is you or the razors fault?

[smalltank]

Get an ebay razor..no bug bites on the edge..as long as you can see the shine along the edge..your fine..dont worry about condition of the blade...thats cosmetic

[JRobinhood]

I would just hate to keep throwing money at something that I'm not sure I'm going to like. Troy said I should send it to Lynn Abrams, after shipping both ways and honing it looks like it will be close to $30. Are there any other people you guys would recommend sending it to?

[BakerAndBadger]

I would just hate to keep throwing money at something that I'm not sure I'm going to like. Troy said I should send it to Lynn Abrams, after shipping both ways and honing it looks like it will be close to $30. Are there any other people you guys would recommend sending it to?

A sight unseen razor from The Whipped Dog is like 25 dollars - cheaper than sending yours out and it's already shave ready!

I suggest getting one from them and then trying your hand at honing.
I've done it that way and after a couple of shaves with the sight unseen I switched to my own edges, unfortunately I didn't rotate until now and have only just realised what I was doing wrong - my blades really weren't shave ready, I thought that SWMBO's hair was too fine for the HHT until I tried it on my new unicot edge this morning (had been doing dilucot unsuccessfully) and had my first positive result! Now after the big eye opener I've not realised why my shaves were soo bad to date - you need to have a REALLY sharp razor to shave!

[Wid]

I would just hate to keep throwing money at something that I'm not sure I'm going to like. Troy said I should send it to Lynn Abrams, after shipping both ways and honing it looks like it will be close to $30. Are there any other people you guys would recommend sending it to?

I'll do it for the price of postage. You pay the shipping back and forth and I'll hone it for free.

[Doc226]

I'll do it for the price of postage. You pay the shipping back and forth and I'll hone it for free.

^That is the answer.

I second the comments of others. You need a truly shave ready razor to begin. I suffered from dull razor syndrome when I first started shaving, it took me about 20-25 shaves to get over that.

After you get your technique down, then get a second razor, a GD is a good idea, to practice on.

[GreatScott]

My two cents;

+1 on the shave ready razor.. and maybe a second.. from Larry at WD. Go through the learning curve, trash your edge in any fashion you choose, then send it out to be honed by someone with more experience in that area. You'll be going through a learning curve with using the razor... do you really want to add a learning curve with the hones too?

Once your technique improves you can get by with your strops for quite a while... even longer with pasted balsa. No need to add anything else to the mix at this stage, (not that it's stopped anyone, but it's realistic.)

[Legion]

There are a bunch of US guys on this forum who will happily hone your razor for free if you pay for the post. They do it because they like to hone razors, and they like to help their brothers out.

Take one of them up on the offer. The regulars really know what they are doing. After that, buy some hones and take care of your own. All of us will help you get the best edge you can get.

[JRobinhood]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone, I decided to go with a whipped dog razor based on all of the recommendations from everyone.

Thanks again Rick, it was very generous of you.

[xMackx]

The only way to learn is to try, with a cheaper razor like others suggest. Here is one of my favorite paragraphs in an old barbers manual below.

[smalltank]

I sent my razors out to pro's for about a year..before getting into honing my own.

[inspiringK]

Honestly, the first few shaves are rough. You may be inclined to think that the razor is too blunt, or that the air is too thick, or that the neighbour's dog has put a spell on your shaves. At least if you know you have a sharp razor for sure, then you can worry about the air and that dog.

That being said, shortly after receiving my first straight via a generous PIF from member SuperBleu, I decided that I had somehow blunted the razor. I promptly got a 4k/8k Norton (to add to the 1k and hard Arkansas that I already owned for knives) and went to town. It took some trying and frustration, but in the end I was very happy with the results and finished the razor off with .3 and .1 micron balsa that Larry from Whipped Dog added to the original PIF. I must have near on 50 shaves with that setup at this stage and am very happy with the keenness.

You can try lapping film, by all accounts it is highly effective and cost efficient, but the neighbour's dog really discourages using anything that lacks the ge ne sais quoi of a stone.

[drathgeb]

+1 on all comments.
Make sure your first razor is shave ready. If my first shave involved a dull razor there probably wouldn't have been a second shave.

[shakin_jake]

My two cents;

+1 on the shave ready razor.. and maybe a second.. from Larry at WD. Go through the learning curve, trash your edge in any fashion you choose, then send it out to be honed by someone with more experience in that area. You'll be going through a learning curve with using the razor... do you really want to add a learning curve with the hones too?

Once your technique improves you can get by with your strops for quite a while... even longer with pasted balsa. No need to add anything else to the mix at this stage, (not that it's stopped anyone, but it's realistic.)

~~~What's that line Eastwood used in one of his movies?...."A man's got to know his limits"


Speaking strictly for myself, yeah, I read a bunch of times by many straight razor users that it is unwise to try to learn honing and how to shave one's self with a straight razor, simultaneously. I have an idea a honemiester with a commercial interest started that old wives tale

If you can chew bubble gum (w/o swallowing it) and walk at the same time, you possess enough skill to learn honing and straight razor shaving together, unless you say so. A lot of folks talk themselves out of accomplishing easily attainable tasks. So, if you think learning how to hone and shave with a straight razor is above your pay grade...you're probably right, but I never listened to any of those folks

I knew when I decided to take up straight razor shaving I was going to learn how to hone (& all that entails) at the same time, so I did. It's not rocket science...you're rubbing metal against rock

And I wouldn't let economics get in the way of learning how to straight shave and hone together. If you do your homework you'll find you can buy a few strips of lapping film (from a member willing to part with some of his stash) and a lower priced 1 K stone for bevel correction. Heck, you can even get a coticule on the cheap if you know how to shop (just ask Matt) and forget about film. Good serviceable straight razors can be had from ebay for $10 w/shipping You'll have to spend time looking but they're out there. I bought two nice straights a few weeks ago w/shipping from one ebay seller for under $26. One of the razors was $15.50 and the other was $4.35, and they're both very nice German made vintage straight razors

Straight razor shaving & honing is a hobby for a lot of us. If you don't have the time or the inclination, then pony up and buy kit from those that sell it (new or used), but for those that want to go about it on the cheap...yes you can but you'll have to invest your time doing research, but it can be done quite cheaply


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[SliceOfLife]

When I started out I bought about a dozen eBay straights in varying degrees of disrepair and one "shave ready" off SRP classifieds.
I don't remember exactly, but I believe I also got a 4k King, a barbers hone, and Maybe a pair of 2k and 3k stones? It was a long time ago. Anyway, the shave ready was so, but I had such a bad strop (it was that brand on eBay everyone but me knew to avoid Zeeko or something like that) that it didn't really matter. A few weeks in I got the Jnat I still use today and discovered my edges were better right off that stone then they were after stropping. So I upgraded my strop and quickly found that I was better at getting my edges where I wanted them than most honers, professionals included. Top end honing REALLY isn't all that hard to get the hang of if you're working on razors that are decently sharp already, and is more than a bit subjective.

That said, I certainly wouldn't recommend starting on a razor that you don't know the condition of at all. If the razors got a good straight edge, no serious problems such as warping or pitting down south, and is already well beveled and sharp, just not shave ready yet then you could have an easy time getting it sharp. If however it was someone else's mistake and the spines overworn at the heel, and the toe is stone cold dull, while the center is unevenly honed on one side and there's microchipping all along the edge caused by pitting that's invisible to the naked eye; you could spend weeks trying to get it shave ready and only be wasting your time since there's too many overlapping problems that you won't ever be able to figure out just what is causing which problems and so learning anything from the experience will be very difficult. You're more likely to just get frustrated and give up.

My experience with gold dollars was pretty decent. I had two or three and I recall one being less than dead straight (although it was the tang, not the blade that was warped), but I've heard they are very hit or miss, so I can't recommend one to learn on unless you get it handpicked and checked to be sure it's in good shape with no major flaws. A better idea would be to have your blade fixed up by someone you trust and then find someone who does restoration work and ask if they can pick you up a low value but good condition straight (a hand picked gold dollar would be great here) and get the honing started (bevel and honed up to 2k or so is a good place to start in my opinion) and ship it to you like that so that you can sharpen it up yourself. Once you're confident in your ability to take a beveled razor and get it shave ready, then I'd start looking at learning to do a full resharpening on an unknown blade starting with removing the edge then a from scratch sharpening.

Also make sure you have a decent strop and that you can strop properly. You'll never get a good shave if you can't strop well.

[fccexpert]

Sure, I did when I first started using a straight razor many years ago.

[ouch]

Get your first razor honed by someone who knows how. Without that benchmark you will never know what a real shave ready razor should feel or shave like.

This.

It's the same problem the Talosians had when they tried to reconstruct a human without ever having seen one.