Why I can't hone my straight razor?!

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richardre06

Noob
When I received my first straight razor I could not hone . For being sure I send it to a resellers of knives who said they were able to hone. They destroyed the blade cutting and the blade took the shape of triangle. It tooked a lot of years to understand how to hone perfectly and to discover there are no professional able to hone well! I discovered also that this was not just my opinion but the opinion of others people who received the same razor from the same artisan or same manifacture and were not happy and totally disappointed by the honing! to sell the razor.
I felt the feeling to share my experience to say you must learn from yourself and almost never you will receive a shave ready razor!
 
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R

R181

Grumpy old man
richardre06 said:
When I received my first straight razor I could not hone . For being sure I send it to a resellers of knives who said they were able to hone. They destroyeg the blade cutting it to a shape of triangle. It tooked a lot of years to understand how to hone perfectly and to discover there are no professional able to hone well! I discovered also that this was not just my opinion but the opinion of others people who received the same razor from the same artisan or same manifacture and were not happy and totally disappointed by the honing! to sell the razor.
I felt the feeling to share my experience to say you must learn from yourself and almost never you will receive a shave ready razor!
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Your first mistake was to send it to a seller of knives as honing a razor is different than sharpening a knife. I have heard quite a few of this type of complaint over the years so you are not the first. You are dead wrong in saying that there are no professionals that can hone well. There are people out there that do an excellent job of honing someone else's razor. You have to ask on a shaving forum to find them.

Bob
 
R

richardre06

Noob
R181 said:
Your first mistake was to send it to a seller of knives as honing a razor is different than sharpening a knife. I have heard quite a few of this type of complaint over the years so you are not the first. You are dead wrong in saying that there are no professionals that can hone well. There are people out there that do an excellent job of honing someone else's razor. You have to ask on a shaving forum to find them.

Bob
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I expected these kind of answer. But you must understand that no one can't try all the artisans doing razors( these are professional ! Not others!!) In my country there is no one. Anyway I am a Goat😸 in honing knowing all techniques and artisan in the world. Further I have all the top line stones and most sophisticated tools !!!in the market. So this post is to share and help people 😴who face the same problems not to have help! Or to ask in the forums!!!! 😝I know honing razor is different from knives but in the post if you read well I said they declared to be able!! And I was a beginner !!!!😁There are a lot of amateurs that hone in a decent way but no one of the ones I saw hone very well🫨 and a lot far from perfect 😵‍💫and anyway I arrived at the top of the knowledge and I lost interest in this. Just happy to help people if they feel to need help!!! Because I saw a lot of people give up or conform with mediocre or standard results still searching for answers that probably they will never find!
 
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Twelvefret

Twelvefret

Forum GOD!
I honed my first straight razor with a progression of non adhesive lapping films and got a great shave. This is the video I watched to learn, but there are others.
View: https://youtu.be/pyAULFtr83U?si=8sEQV4hwpPLfonsE


Later I learned about diamond pasted balsa. Pasted Balsa Strop

Eventually I obtained a yellow Coticule and a Thuringian stone that replace some of the films.

For stropping I found a used Illinois horse hide and linen strop off Ebay for $25. For maintaining prior to use I do 50 laps on the balsa and 50 on the horse hide. Post shave I do 25 laps on the linen strop section.
 
Twelvefret

Twelvefret

Forum GOD!
I don't think he/she is asking for help. I posted what I did for others considering learning to hone and shave with a straight razor. Yes, @JamieM has helped many and has a stellar reputation, but there are times when you want to learn how to do it yourself. There are inexpensive tools that can accomplish the task. For me, I have always tried to encourage people that it is possible to get an old, used, and sometimes abused straight and get it shave ready.

I paid $25 for the films, the marble tile was $3, the balsa was maybe $3, and the diamond past $11. These are or were available on eBay and Amazon.

Perhaps some are unsuccessful because they did not set the bevel properly.
 
R

richardre06

Noob
Twelvefret said:
I don't think he/she is asking for help. I posted what I did for others considering learning to hone and shave with a straight razor. Yes, @JamieM has helped many and has a stellar reputation, but there are times when you want to learn how to do it yourself. There are inexpensive tools that can accomplish the task. For me, I have always tried to encourage people that it is possible to get an old, used, and sometimes abused straight and get it shave ready.

I paid $25 for the films, the marble tile was $3, the balsa was maybe $3, and the diamond past $11. These are or were available on eBay and Amazon.

Perhaps some are unsuccessful because they did not set the bevel properly.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you didn't read my post. I am a Master in honing!! I give help. I don't need help. I use classical techinques and the best material so I can't help you if you use films and cheap toools.
 
JamieM

JamieM

Extreme sharpness is ephemeral!
richardre06 said:
I expected these kind of answer. But you must understand that no one can't try all the artisans doing razors( these are professional ! Not others!!) In my country there is no one. Anyway I am a Goat😸 in honing knowing all techniques and artisan in the world. Further I have all the top line stones and most sophisticated tools !!!in the market. So this post is to share and help people 😴who face the same problems not to have help! Or to ask in the forums!!!! 😝I know honing razor is different from knives but in the post if you read well I said they declared to be able!! And I was a beginner !!!!😁There are a lot of amateurs that hone in a decent way but no one of the ones I saw hone very well🫨 and a lot far from perfect 😵‍💫and anyway I arrived at the top of the knowledge and I lost interest in this. Just happy to help people if they feel to need help!!! Because I saw a lot of people give up or conform with mediocre or standard results still searching for answers that probably they will never find!
Click to expand...

You don't say where you are from? I'm very well known in the straight razor world. I also moderate two straight razor groups, the Straight Razor Elysium and The Straight Razor Community, with more than 8,000 members worldwide. There are many experts and plenty of very good people who can hone razors out there, you just need to know where to look and who to contact.
 
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