Quote Originally Posted by RezDog View Post
Hey binder,
There are several conditions that have me killing an edge. One is to remove any false positives on a blade that does not shave well and needs more lower or mid level work. Another is when the edge is developing at different rates at different places, mostly so that my "V" develops evenly at the same time all along the edge, and that is most often done on a cranky razor that has been slow to get a full bevel. The most common time that I kill an edge has to be when I have done a lot of work sanding and buffing a blade and there is some deep damage that shows up in the higher grits in terms of chips, the bevel looks clean on the 4K and then on the 8K it gets chips, so I kill it and go back to the 1K. Also some cranky blades are chippy on the 8K even though the blade has not had a bunch of work and those ones need to go back and forth in the grits as well. I do not always got back to the 1K, in the case of a full hollow that is chippy I will go to the 4K and regain my bevel. Generally if I kill and edge I go back to where it will be quick to get my perfect "V" back, which can be either the 4K or 1K depending in part how hard I kill the edge. For example a light pass on my thumb name to kill a chippy edge is a pretty light kill, and effective for lightly chippy thin blades. A big wedge that has had extensive work and has larger chips forming at the 8K might get killed on the edge of the 1K, which would be a very hard kill. So it does vary a little and is complicated to try and explain all the situation where it might apply.
The thumbnail is a great tool with minimal "kill" as you say. Plus it allows me to check the edge at the same time. Lightly on glass is a very light jointing also but you don't get the feedback like a nail can produce.