honing questions

I agree with many of the comments above. Learn to shave on a properly honed blade. It will give you a sense of what a sharp blade should look and feel like. As for honing all you really need is the following ( this is what I use): 1k, 3/8k Naniwa stones, a strop, a good source of magnification, eg. 30x loupe. With this basic kit you can set the bevel and achieve a fine, mirror edge. Your edge will only be as good as how well you set a proper bevel, and then progress through the 3k and then polish with the 8k. And go slow and check your progress frequently. There are lots of good resources on the web to read on honing and stropping. Best of luck.

Just an update, I have a few straights now, and I have a stone progression of 1000, 3000,4000,12000 I have been working them and getting my technique down and I have been making some good edges that shave very well. This was a bit of a challenge because the information in this hobby isn't out there start to finish in detail, you learn from getting bits and pieces of info here and there, and that's what made it harder for me to get the honing thing going. I got it now tho!

thebluesbox I'm glad to hear you're starting to get the hang of it! Keep at it!

Part of the problem with learning to hone via the internet is lack of physical experience. Everybody develops their own techniques, patterns, and tests, and everybody feels the stones in a different way. Unless you have someone that can sit next to you and let feel every step of the progression for yourself, you can't really know what those descriptions mean. Without knowing exactly what "sticky", "glass-smooth", "crunchy", "soft", "dry", or the myriad other descriptions used to describe the process actually feel like, you are guessing as to what is meant.

This means it takes a lot of time to start getting it right, and feeling those descriptions in your own process, and being able to interpret what they mean to you and the edge you are working on.

Now that you have gotten some good edges, try to write down a description of the process, and explain how a brand new honer will know when to move on to the next stone, and what it takes to get there. It only gets more difficult to do with more experience, not because you don't know what is going on, but because you learn that every razor and every stone and every session is different. It is just really difficult to put those experiences into words that someone can utilize without having those experiences for themselves.

That's why so many people are intimidated by the process and don't try to figure it out...