I Love Honing:

As many of you already know, I made a mistake while stropping a few weeks ago and dulled one of the best edges on both of my straight razors that were honed on a Japanese natural water stone, which was epic. In fact the edges were so keen, they were almost too sharp to use. So I went and got my Norton 4/8K stone out and touched them up to keep them going. Unfortunately I ended up sending them back out to be re honed from scratch which was really comfortable. So later on I decided to take the initiative and hone my own razors from bevel setting on up, and tried to use 3M's lapping film which was about a week ago. So I killed the edge to where it could NOT shave anything. That proved to be a mistake because the lapping film did NOT produce any results. So turning a negative into a positive, I decided to set the bevel using the only stone I have which is the Norton 4/8K combo water stone, and I absolutely love the results I got when I did the routine listed below. No hair or stubble left at all and has NO PROBLEM passing the infamous hanging forearm hair test either, and yet it's similar to using a butter knife in terms of comfort:

One of the drawbacks to honing is the fact that your forearms eventually won't have any hair left and my honing method is very easy to do which I will list below. The possibilities and type of edges are endless when it comes to honing and me attempting and successfully resetting my own bevel proved it to me in every way possible. The biggest shocker is the fact that I had it shave ready in less time than I expected and then some because a lot of people have told me that it does take a while to reset a bevel on anything above 1K grit which is somewhat true, but that's ONLY if you have a huge amount of razors to hone and if you are in a hurry to finish up when you should NOT be:

Remember that this experience is meant to be enjoyed, and NOT RUSHED. If you rush things, you don't get to enjoy anything and you often make mistakes in the process. So take the time to enjoy it.

Step one in my routine is 100 of these round trips found in the video link listed below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsAHKsYPg4

Step 2 is the method in the video listed below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYzcv2HBEJY&index=4&list=FLW2hcvIZ8fo0AN6SJgWDStQ

After using the method in the second video link I posted, I go back and do 20 more round trips shown in the first video which cleans up the edge. Now on the 8K side, I do 50 seconds instead of the usual 40 that's listed in the second video I posted followed by 20 round trips. This seems a little weird, but the end results will speak for themselves. In terms of comfort, this method produced one of the most comfortable edges and smoothest shaves I've ever had in my life which says quite a bit because I've used a lot of DE blades and several different edges off different stones that were really comfortable. Another thing to remember is this saying which is very true: "There's NOTHING like shaving off your own edge". After honing both of my razors from start to finish, I can say that it's definitely true in every sense of the word.