Thread: Just cut myself twice during honing

I am working on one of the tools that my mother gave me for practising.
I want to get it razor sharp before christmas so that I can give it back to her, since I drew her name for giving christmas presents (she doesn't know).
Nothing says 'I love you' more than a razor sharp knife.

Anyway, this thing has a short triangular point with an edge on each side. I had to recreate 4 bevels, since the current ones are completely destroyed.

I followed the advice I found in various places: Keep one finger of the left hand pressed on the edge to insure proper formation of the bevel, and use the right hand only for moving back and forth in a W shape on the stone.

Of course, since the point is so narrow, my finger scraped the rough stone several times. Then my skin got caught between the edge and the stone while moving forward -> small patch of skin gone on my middle finger.

So I started using my ring finger, but one bevel later it is missing a patch of skin too.

But at least there are now 4 rough almost-flat bevels on that thing.
Tomorrow I'll go to the smoother side of the stone (2000 grit I think) to make them flat.

Maybe this sounds weird (well not in this place probably) but I am really starting to enjoy the sound of the steel on the stone, and the satisfaction from seeing a fresh bevel take shape in my hands.

Btw I will post about my honing journey in this place because I think (?) the honing section is meant specifically for razor honing.
Cheers.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I followed the advice I found in various places: Keep one finger of the left hand pressed on the edge to insure proper formation of the bevel, and use the right hand only for moving back and forth in a W shape on the stone.

I think this is bad advice. At the very least with the "pressing" part. You can use your off hand to stabalize the blade from jumping around, but the best place to do that is at the tip. Adding pressure to the edge will throw off the evenness of the pressure throughout and warp the edge as well as inhibit creation of the shaving edge.

X

Originally Posted by xman

I think this is bad advice. At the very least with the "pressing" part. You can use your off hand to stabalize the blade from jumping around, but the best place to do that is at the tip. Adding pressure to the edge will throw off the evenness of the pressure throughout and warp the edge as well as inhibit creation of the shaving edge.

X

Yes, but in this case, the tip IS the edge. the sharp bit is only 1.5 - 2 cm.
I cannot apply pressure to any other part and still have a good contact between the bevel and the stone.