Thread: "Less is more" or honing and the use of RS microscope

You don't need to apologize. Sometimes its just hard to me to really figure out what the question is. Its hard for me to figure out where the problem is.

The RS microscope is set at a mid magnification and with the blade edge facing you you secure the non-apature section onto the spine and the apature side against the table. The entire microscope is secured over the top of the bevel.

Bevels are no different than tightropes. Honing too little or too much won't work. I suggest you just get a good edge off each grit, then move up. Do not hone repeatedly on one grit.

You should be able to develop a sense of what a 4K and 8K can do.

The way I think of it is like this. You have a hunk of steel. Using a flat stone, sculpt a perfectly balanced, smooth triangle on the end of the razor. Sharpness is a matter of using a light touch and removing as much of the edge as is supportable. If, in your effort to make the edge thin, you crumble the steel at the edge, then you've overhoned. Using the 4K and 8K together make the bevel, as thin as possible, without removing any more metal then required.

Originally Posted by mkevenson

AFDAVIS, sorry about the clarity of the post. I guess I understand the concept of honing till it's done and not more and maybe a better way to ask is if you are using the rs scope, (I will use 60 mag if that is all I need) does that mean that at 60mag you hone, set the bevel, or clean up the edge with as many passes on the stone as necessary to achieve a smooth edge, even if it is a lot. I may have misunderstood Lynn's point in the DVD it just seemed like a conflict to my mind to hone so much. I am after all quite new to this.

When I teach honing classes I explain to people that honing is like shaping cheese. If you use a rough grater the cheese will crumble. If you leave the cheese in place and gently, lightly, use a really thin cheese grater, you can remove far less bevel and achieve far sharper of an edge. Like putting an edge on a hunk of cheese, rubbing the end with a heavy cheese grater will remove a lot of the edge, but using a piece of light sandpaper will allow you to sculpt the edge and leave a lot more metal, err I mean, cheese on the edge.

Thanks for the help.

Originally Posted by mkevenson

So put another way, when is the less is more factor supposed to start in the honing of a non-sharp, irregular edge?

I think in the context of Lynn's DVD it's when the edge is chip free and has a proper bevel. The number of laps it takes to get to that point depends on the razor (wedge or full hollow ground), how irregular the edge is, and what you have to work with in the way of stones.

And to get to that point (because I don't like marathon honing sessions) if I'm not getting the results I want after 30-40 laps I drop down to a lower grit stone. But if you have to work with what you have (say only a Norton 4/8K) rather than access to a full range of grits then you might spend a lot of time and laps getting to the "less is more" point.

It would be an interesting experiment to see if doing minimum laps going from say 1k to 4k to 8k causes less spine wear than starting at 4k and doing hundreds of laps getting to the point where you can move up to 8k.