Thread: Experimenting with some jointing techniques

I'm a big fan of the TNT for multiple reasons, one of which is to help clean the edge up. I've always done it at the 1k level and no more after that for fear of harming the edge. If there seemed to be an edge issue at the higher levels I would strop a little between stones. I recently honed an ERN that looked good under 60x magnification and was pretty good on the HHT. Test shave was horrible so back to the hones. 20 laps 8k, 15 laps 12k and all was well on the test shave. This got me thinking about false edges and the conditions that I can't see under 60x. So I started reading more about jointing an edge by very lightly downstroking it on the corner of a hone and bringing the edge back on the next stone to clean everything up. I honed up a German 1/2 hollow today and figured I'd do some experimenting. I honed out some light pitting and did a light breadknifing stroke on the corner of the 1k. I normally would have downstroked it on a glass after restoration work. I was surprised at how much faster the edge came back after the stone stroke vs. the glass. 10 light strokes and it was popping arm hairs again. The more I thought about it, this seems like a better technique. The stone grinds away all the little nasties vs. the glass smashing and bending the edge(in my way of thinking). I then did a light TNT after the 5k and 8k with the intention of keeping the edge straight and clean. I was also surprised that this didn't seem to damage the edge upon testing afterward. Then on to the 12k and stropping as usual. Then on to the HHT. This is not a pass or fail test for me. It's all about feel and this one felt a little better then most. I use my 5yo daughters hair(it's never been cut) and it was popping the really fine baby hair ends that most of my blades start to struggle with. I'll give it a test shave this evening. I'm curious to hear others experience and thoughts about "jointing" the edge between hones. It seemed kind of drastic until I actually tried it. I'm eager to do some more experimenting.