Thread: Beginners Tips: August 2010

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Over-honing:
This one is cropping up again, when you first start honing it seems there is a fear of overhoning... Honestly it isn't that easy to do, be more concerned with under-honing, because most of the problems that beginners have come in the bevel setting stage.. Not in the Sharpening, Polishing and Finishing stages...

However, it is worth noting, you shouldn't go into honing with a fear of overhoning... But you should realize it's possible... I know it's the minority, but I went in taking this too far, I viewed it as almost impossible to overhone (stupid, right?) and ended up making my bevel setting take hours because I would hone so furiously before testing the edge that I made things worse... Don't worry about over honing most of the time, but better to test it frequently as you go and know it's underhoned, then overdo it and start from less than scratch

Hopefully the majority of new guys are smarter than me though!

EDIT: What I said was in reference to bevel setting... With the 5k, 8k, 12k, etc, I usually do quite a few strokes (20? Sometimes 30 if I'm using rolling strokes). I keep the pressure very light and do extra laps on the higher grits

Cheers, and thanks, Glen!
Jeremy