Beginners Tips: November 2010
Sorry this is so late in the month but between visiting family in Colorado, then Thanksgiving combined with an early blizzard this year I have been swamped...
"Over Honing" has reared it's ugly head again across the Honing forum...
Let's take a second and discuss this little understood part of honing, because so many things are attributed to it...
Define Over-honing:
Just that question alone gets multiple responses, what exactly is over-honing???
The best way to define it is a weak fragile edge developed by either excessive pressure or excessive laps while honing..
But what does that really mean, are the tiny chips that develop on certain razors as you get right toward the end of honing, or when you get to stropping actually over-honing??? Well technically yes they are, but only in the broadest sense of the over used term...These are caused by the steel itself and they have to be gently worked out...
True over-honing comes in the form of either a burr forming or the edge eroding away into nothing from pressure...
The best way to really understand it is to try and cause it, honest take an old razor and literally press down into it on a 1k-4k synthetic hone and really try and over hone the edge... You are going to be rather surprised at what it really takes to cause it to happen...
Once you understand what it takes to over-hone you will realize that most all of the problems you are attributing to this evil thing, are actually not over-honing but other problems with your honing...
Honestly I said this a couple of years ago and still this holds true for me..
I have never to this date, had a razor sent to me for honing, that has been over-honed not once not even close...
When it comes to honing razors as a beginner, you are 99% more likely to under-hone, then over-hone especially on the bevel set...When you get to the point in honing that you are seriously pushing the envelope at the top end of the honing cycle then you can start thinking about over-honing again...
As always please feel free to add your own perspectives here, especially the Senior members as we all have a different points of view, and the more angles that get covered the more we help the New Guys... :gl: