When is a finish hone - a finished honed edge?

So I read Glen’s post on C12K and read that honers are pasting, post finish honing and call it a C12K edge. My question is, does it make a difference what you use for a FINISH hone if you are pasting after… Chrome Oxide, Poly Diamond or CBN?

If your last and final hone is 4k, but you then paste with Diamond, Chrome Ox and .25 CBN, is it a 4K edge?

Isn’t the edge really whatever you used last? If so, what difference does the finish hone make as long as it is in the finish hone grit range?

Guess that would make it a leather edge in most cases...;)

I suppose it is a valid question, but when someone tells me something was finished on a ####, I do not pay attention.

Here is why.

I have been sharpening things for years and I have learned a few things over this time. The NUMBER ONE thing I have learned time and again is that people can and do (often) polish turds. Said another way, what you finish with is of almost no consequence if you failed to lay a good foundation....you might as well polish the spine...it will do you as much good after the lather is applied.

Beyond that, I have not seen much evidence to suggest that a higher grit finish is universally better for all shavers....then again, I am new here;)

If you do four or five grits of paste after a 4k hone, that's more like honing to me.

Not the same thing as 10 quick swipes on diamond sprayed felt after a 12k naniwa. That's still finishing on 12k IMO.

Michael

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...7-day-set.html

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ving-test.html

That was a fun experiment into what you are asking

So if we use only a pasted strop, is that a 0K edge?

What someone calls something doesn't matter. It is the detailed definition of the name that counts. So if you go to a C12k and then finish on some kind of paste, that is fine. If you then call that a C12K edge, that is fine. But if you let someone believe, by omission of information on pasting, that the edge they are feeling on their face is the sole result of a C12K, that is a lie.

Names are just shorthand for something. They are fraught with subjectivity, lack of clarity, assumptions, preconceptions, variations, and sometimes even ignorance. When in doubt, I always ask what exactly something means. I never trust a pithy label - they always hide a can of worms! :)

James.

Don't pick on worms! They make great bait.

And Fertilizer, almost magical. I've had a worm bin for years.