Thread: honing variables

Great! Friability gets added. Now we've got two criteria that aren't really words, but so what.

**EDIT: I take that back - friability is indeed a word, no matter what my spellchecker thinks.

Dishing, hmm. Don't really want to go there. As for glazing, that does affect a hone's action over time, but for simplicity's sake, let's assume a freshly lapped surface.

I think both finish and cutting speed might already be covered. In fact, explaining concepts like those is exactly the point of this whole endeavor. It could be helpful to look at them as a combination of several factors, such as using hardness, slurriness, and friability in the following example:

One particular fast cutter might be a stone with very hard particles (high hardness rating), that tended to give off slurry (high slurriness rating), AND whose particles didn't break up into smaller bits in the slurry (low friability rating). Another hone could also be a fast cutter, but in a different way.


To further clarify my mission statement: I'd like a set of variables by which most everything about the honing action of a hone could be expressed.

So far:

1. abrasive particle density- i.e. how far apart the high points are on the hone's surface

2. abrasive particle shape - shape of the high points, i.e. a surface like a tub of marbles vs. sugar cubes

3. abrasive particle size - perhaps how wide a groove it makes in the steel?

4. hardness - or how easily the abrasive particles cut steel (diamond being the extreme)

5. slurriness - how easily abrasive particles break off to form a faster-cutting slurry

6. friability - the degree to which the particles in the slurry break down into finer bits


Any more criteria?
Also, I'd love to hear anybody's breakdown of a particular hone according to these. You could do each criteria on a scale from 1-10 (least to most) or something.

Do you really think it is harder to explain than just do?

The details you are asking for -to be accurate- would take the capabilities of an extremely high tech laboratory with lots of specialized machinery

I guess it would be a cool thing to have for those interested. I just do the x pattern and the TPT and when it is feeling 'there' I strop and test shave. Whatever the size and shape of the particles doesn't concern me. How the hone performs is what I am interested in and honing the razor is how I figure that out. I am sure it would be good info for the SRP Wiki though.

Originally Posted by kevint

Do you really think it is harder to explain than just do?

The details you are asking for -to be accurate- would take the capabilities of an extremely high tech laboratory with lots of specialized machinery

When I said that, I simply meant coming up with the list of criteria, not finding the relevant data for any particular hone. I didn't have a good way of explaining what I wanted, so I thought I'd just dive in and start listing things so that people would see which direction I was going.

I know any real numbers for a hone would be tough to measure (though sticking some slurry under a microscope would be simple enough). However, I feel a lot of these things could be inferred from the way the hones perform. Heck, we infer a bunch of this stuff already, but we talk about it using (what I feel are) kind of vague, non-specific terms.

I see what you mean. thanks