Thread: Honing nightmare

Hi all

Advice needed.

Up to now I've been going great guns on the honing front, having successfully honed a few ebay razors, and this week a Henckels, Kropp & a Boker.

I'm particularly pleased with the Henckles as it has gone from a grubby, rusty razor to a thing of beauty - and I got it for pennies.

Sorry, to get to the point... the first razor I bought was a new one it's 5/8 solingen carbon steel. I bought it before I found this site & very quicky realised that I couldn't shave with it. So today I tried to hone it , and no matter what I try I cannot get this thing sharp.

At the moment I only have norton 4K/8K , but been successful with this on the blunt ebay razors i've honed and shaved with.

Any ideas?? Chuck it in the bin ???


Northpole

Northpole,

Don't chuck that razor just yet. What we need to figure out is why it's not taking an edge.

There are several possibilities. If the edge seems evenly dull all along the blade, it's likely that the bevel isn't quite making it out to the edge. So you could have a bevel with a rounded tip on it. Make sense?

Another possibility is that the blade is warped in some way, or that the bevel is uneven. Is part of the edge sharper than another?

Do a search on the thumbnail test, then give that a try. Let us know what happens, and we'll give you some suggestions.

Josh

Originally Posted by joshearl

Northpole,

Don't chuck that razor just yet. What we need to figure out is why it's not taking an edge.

There are several possibilities. If the edge seems evenly dull all along the blade, it's likely that the bevel isn't quite making it out to the edge. So you could have a bevel with a rounded tip on it. Make sense?

Another possibility is that the blade is warped in some way, or that the bevel is uneven. Is part of the edge sharper than another?

Do a search on the thumbnail test, then give that a try. Let us know what happens, and we'll give you some suggestions.

Josh

Did the thumbnail test, and assuming I did it right, it would fairly smoothly across the nail. It didn't stick or snag.

The blade doesn't appear sharper in any particular part.

Thanks

OK, try this: Take a permanent magic marker, like a Sharpie, and draw a line all along the bevel, on both sides. You want the whole bevel plus maybe a little of the blade covered in marker. (It'll clean right off later, don't worry.)

Now do 10 laps with light pressure on your Norton 4K. Then examine the bevel. Is the marker cleaned off all the way to the very edge, or is there a little left over?

When you're working with a very dull razor, the edge is rounded off. By honing, you're removing metal from both sides to get down to a sharp edge. My guess is that you just haven't removed enough metal yet.

Probably your best bet at this point is to get some 1000-grit sandpaper. Put some electrical tape along the razor's spine. Cut a strip of the sandpaper, wet it, and stick it to the top of your wet Norton 8K.

Then start doing laps as if you were honing on a regular stone. About every 50 laps or so repeat the thumbnail test. When the razor starts to bite and gives an even drawing sensation all along the edge, you're ready to go back to the 4K.

Let us know how things are progressing,
Josh

Originally Posted by joshearl

OK, try this: Take a permanent magic marker, like a Sharpie, and draw a line all along the bevel, on both sides. You want the whole bevel plus maybe a little of the blade covered in marker. (It'll clean right off later, don't worry.)

Now do 10 laps with light pressure on your Norton 4K. Then examine the bevel. Is the marker cleaned off all the way to the very edge, or is there a little left over?

When you're working with a very dull razor, the edge is rounded off. By honing, you're removing metal from both sides to get down to a sharp edge. My guess is that you just haven't removed enough metal yet.

Probably your best bet at this point is to get some 1000-grit sandpaper. Put some electrical tape along the razor's spine. Cut a strip of the sandpaper, wet it, and stick it to the top of your wet Norton 8K.

Then start doing laps as if you were honing on a regular stone. About every 50 laps or so repeat the thumbnail test. When the razor starts to bite and gives an even drawing sensation all along the edge, you're ready to go back to the 4K.

Let us know how things are progressing,
Josh

Josh

Thanks for that.

I'll try it over the weekend.

Send it to Lynn Abrams for honing. He does a fantastic job $20 bucks isn't too much to get a razor into shape and he tests it before sending it back to you. You can send it through classicshaving.com if you like, also. Lynn does their sharpening also . Once you get it back you can ask him what the issue was and know for the future if you have any trouble.

Glen F

If you can, scan the razor, and post a picture of the razor.....

We might be able to see what the issue is.

C utz

One of the things you did not mention was the amount of pressure you are using on the 4K. Generally when the razor does not pass the thumbnail test then the bevel has not been properly formed. Instead of jumping directly to the 1000 grit start buy using the 4k with some pressure, approx 1-2 lbs, and perform 25 laps then perform the thumbnail test again, Do this 4 times max. If your razor starts to pass the thumnail test off the 4k then perform 25 more laps on the 4k using light pressure. If 4 sessions on the 4K do not do it then go to the 1000 grit. Check with the thumbmnail test after every 25 laps.
Remember that the 1000 grit is an extreme measure and very stressful on the steel. Be sure to use electrical tape on the spine.


Hope this helps,

Randy,

Could you elaborate a bit on your comment that the 1000-grit is stressful on the steel? Do you mean it actually weakens the edge?

Josh

When I have used the 1000 grit sandpaper I have noticed two things.

1. Under a 30X microscope the edge looks very ragged and the 4K hone has a lot of work to do to get it back into reasonable shape.

2. When I use either the 1K sandpaper or a 4K with circular honing I notice that I have an increased frequency of microchips developing when I start using the Norton 8K.

Just a datapoint,