How did you begin honing?

Just curious as to how you guys started on your honing journey?

I find myself becoming obsessed in thought with how to maintain a proper edge. Aiming at becoming fully self supporting in my shaving needs - Off the grid, so to say. Today while working in the machine shop at the university I even caught myself daydreaming about how to customize my own razor.

So how did it start for you? Have you always enjoyed working with blades? What tools did you start on?

I started as soon as I recieved my first "shave ready" straight. Being an engineer, the first thing I did was take a look at the edge under a scope. I wasn't too impressed.

I had some diamond lapping film at the lab, so I gave that a whirl, and whipped that edge into shape in no time. Thus both my honing journey, and love of lapping film began.

I sent a freshly polished blade to be honed(and spent $25) only to get it back with scratches and rust on the blade(they put oil on over moisture).

That was the moment I decided to start honing myself.

Razors?

Had a roommate in college who wanted to start wetshaving. He wanted to use a DE, I didn't see the point in doing it unless you at least tried a straight. Bought a Shave ready. It shaved decently, but I was used to horrible shaves (disposables and electric razors are miserable shaves in my opinion, I'd been just trimming my beard for about five years at that point), and I could tell that the edge could be improved on. Bought a Swaty and then a Jnat, and shaves improved. Replaced my garbage zeepk strop with a real one, and shaves actually got good. Probably bought fourty or fifty eBay specials in these first few weeks and figured out how to repair most damage on razors.

I've been buying hones with the majority of my expendable income (and some not so expendable) since. Ironically, I have a laughably huge knife-honing stone collection now that I'd never have gotten if not for razors. I get stones I don't like for razors, use them with knives and often love them in that capacity (charnley's, Tam O Shanters, Washita's, etc). I'd probably still be using Crystolons and Arkansas exclusively for knives if I hadn't started shaving with straights (not that there's any problem with that, crystolons and arks work great).

If people are happy straight shaving but not honing, that's great for them. Probably saves them money. For me, that'd always be half-hearted. I KNOW there's no one on this planet of any skill or experience who could come anywhere near honing an edge that suits my face the way I can. And that's been the case since less than year after I put a razor to a hone. Tailoring an edge to your face and beard offers a quality that no amount of expertise can substitute for.

Seraphim said:

I had some diamond lapping film at the lab, so I gave that a whirl

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I'll have to double check the composition of lapping film in the lab, it's Buehler and I know they make diamond lapping film but I think we have Al oxide. We then use 1-0.3 um pastes for final polishing of olivine crystals. After reading about lapping film in another post I've been curious. Do you only use diamond films?

No, he actually uses standard (I assume that's AlOx mostly) if I'm remembering what he has said in the past correctly. Diamond films don't improve the edge (according to most people) over cheaper films, and while they last longer, it's not long enough to make up for the cost difference.

SliceOfLife said:

No, he actually uses standard (I assume that's AlOx mostly) if I'm remembering what he has said in the past correctly. Diamond films don't improve the edge (according to most people) over cheaper films, and while they last longer, it's not long enough to make up for the cost difference.

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Thanks Slice of Life, and thanks for sharing your journey. I guess, like you, I want to be the master of my own shaves. Although, at this point I fully trust members of the community to put on a good edge for me.

I got my first straight razor on impulse while looking at knives. It was one of these bad-*** looking damascus blade made in Pakistan.
When it arrives, it did not shave, of course.
I started out by buying a cheap hone at ACE hardware (something super-low grit) and I got some sort of a bevel, but that still did not shave.
So I bought a Chinese 12K stone and that did not do anything.
I then bought a barber hone and that still did not do anything.
At that point I gave up AND my wife got me a shave ready Thiers Issard for Christmas and that really got me hooked. I found B&B then and started understanding the process better. Got a Norton 4/8K and after some trial and error manage to hone an eBay beater.
From then on, I got more stones.
Now I am mostly experimenting with various level of success with some gem stones.

AlOx films work fine.

Diamond cuts a bit faster, and lasts longer but that isn't worth the price difference at all.

I decided that if I was going to get use a straight, I had to learn to hone it.

I knew I'd be honing one day as soon as I got my first straight in 2011. It wasn't until a little over a year ago and my first restoration when I took the plunge. It quickly grew into an obsession and I now own more hones that I should ever need (yet my collection isn't nearly as large as what I've seen from some other members here).

It's been a steep learning curve. Took me close to a year to get a solid B shave off my coticule. In retrospect, should've stuck with the same hone/razor combo (duh), but I was too impatient. No regrets, however.

I now hone knives (and enjoy it immensely), chisels and scissors (!!). Looking forward to learning some of the other hones that have been collecting dust in my closet.

Gamma said:

I decided that if I was going to get use a straight, I had to learn to hone it.

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+1 That pretty much sums it up for me right there.

One month after switching to straights from DE's, I decided not to give up and figured I should learn to hone my own. I first bought a Coticule bout for touch ups, (still learning how hone mid range with it) then came the Chosera 1k, Naniwa's 3k,8k,12k, and a two sided Thuri I bought on the BST.

I've been enjoying honing my own razors and shaving with different finished edges. For now while learning, I feel most comfortable setting the bevel on the 1k then using the pyramid method on the 3k, 8k, before finishing on the 12k, Coti, or Thuri.

Well i rolled my edges on the strop for 2 weeks! And got tired of starting/ stopping. Then i bought a few ''shave ready'' razors that were anything but. So i decided to do this. And now With what I have in stones and razors, I will be even if I live to 143, but after that its all gravy!

As a young man I used barbers hones exclusive to basically maintain the edge on a Boker my father gave me when I was 15 years old and would give to my fathers barber for proper honing. This worked fine until he retired and I sent out four razors for honing and they came back worse than I sent them. I bought a King 1K and the coticule and the rest is history.

I purchased a shave ready razor and quickly rolled the edge, I attempted to contact the place I bought it but after a couple attempts(no returned emails or phone calls) I was extremely irked that no one would get back to me. I figured I did not want to be without a straight while it was out for a hone and I really hate dealing with the post as I live in a condo, so I got a whipped dog and a razor from SRD as comparisons and bought a set of Naniwas, 1,5,8,12k.

I am resisting the urge to buy more stones. I was thinking about a Gokumya 20k because I can't find a yellow/green Escher...

buca3152 said:

Well i rolled my edges on the strop for 2 weeks! And got tired of starting/ stopping. Then i bought a few ''shave ready'' razors that were anything but. So i decided to do this. And now With what I have in stones and razors, I will be even if I live to 143, but after that its all gravy!

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I'm really enjoying the straight you sent me Buca. And as of yet, I think I'm doing okay stropping and haven't damaged the edge you put on it. I'm just going nice and slow with very little pressure. It's got me obsessing though...

Bayamontate said:

As a young man I used barbers hones exclusive to basically maintain the edge on a Boker my father gave me when I was 15 years old and would give to my fathers barber for proper honing. This worked fine until he retired and I sent out four razors for honing and they came back worse than I sent them. I bought a King 1K and the coticule and the rest is history.

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That's a great story.

I got interested in honing first. Shaving was just a way of proving to my self that I did a good job honing. Now I enjoy all of the aspects of straight shaving.

I honed knives when I was younger and working in kitchens. Once I started straight shaving, I tried my hand at razors too.

I must couldnt get used to sending out a razor for honing. It made no sense from an emotional or financial perspective.

global_dev said:

I must couldnt get used to sending out a razor for honing. It made no sense from an emotional or financial perspective.

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This is my reasoning. Since I'm just starting out, I'll send the razor out until I can put a nice edge on one. I'm currently researching different stones and lapping film to start.