Thread: Time to Start Honing

THE HONE
Ok, so I used the C12K to bring back the Genco Master Cutler on Sunday after lapping with 160 & then 320 grit sandpaper on a piece of coffee table glass.

I used the C12K dry, mostly because I misread Lynn's post above. After I realized that wasn't what he recommended, I did a little searching on here to see if I might've ruined the stone. It seems some folks prefer to use the C12K dry or start with it wet and continue making passes until it's dry. Those folks feel the stone gets finer, smoother, and slower cutting when it's dry. I guess that would make sense if swarf starts filling in the pores and valleys in the stone's surface. I bet that's especially likely if the C12K is so hard that the blade isn't really knocking particles of the stone loose at all. So effectively the steel that's removed just embeds itself in the stone, kind of smoothing out the stone's surface as if you were smearing some paste or filler over it. Anyway, that's my theory, and I think I'll lap it a litte before using it again.

It is definitely very slow cutting. But that wasn't really a problem for me. As a newbie, it was probably better to use something so slow cutting. I made somewhere between 500 & 1000 passes. I know I counted 250, and I did easily twice that or more without counting. The last hundred or so may not've been necessary, as I couldn't discern any change in the blade during those passes.

While the stone is obviously slow-cutting, I think the number of passes needed was increased because:
(1) I was using it dry so it was getting essentially a finer and finer grit as I went,
(2) the previous owner of my blade used 2 layers of electrical tape instead of 1. So I think I was removing a lot of bevel material before I was working on the edge at all, and
(3) I just let the edge go way too far as it was painfully pulling whiskers, especially on my chin.

So the result was I was working on the C12K for a good 2.5 hours, but that's ok because I needed something to do while we watched The Dark Knight, which I found pretty boring. Anyway, after 500+ passes it was popping arm hairs.

THE SHAVE
I made 50 return strokes on my strop and then shaved with it last night. With the gradual degradation until the blade was significantly uncomfortable, I'd forgotten how smooth and effortless a sharp razor can be. It may've been a bit harsh, as I've heard some note the blade can be off of a C12K. Reapplying lather before my 2nd (ATG) pass, I noticed the slightest sting. But whatever irritation I got wasn't too much for the Nivea to remedy in the end.

CONCLUSIONS
I think when I go to hone my W.H.Morley & Sons Clover Brand, I'll start with the 6k Ice Bear to hopefully cut down on the number of stroke needed. From what I gather, the Clover Brands are an especially hard steel. So I think it'll be wise to start with the 6k side of the Ice Bear combo stone I bought at Woodcraft.

I'm also not going to go more than a couple weeks without making a couple dozen passes on the C12K. I think 20-50 passes on the slow-cutting C12K woud probably keep the razor edge keen and avoid having to sit down and spend significant time restoring the edge.