Thread: My first restore W&B 7/8

Originally Posted by TheGeek

Thanks

This was done ages ago. Almost 4 years phew. Since then I've done quite a few cleanups and become proficient at honing.

Geek

Just curious - what were the biggest aspects of honing that you needed to refine in order to become proficient?

I went out and bought a honing block set and just couldn't get the hang of honing. I'm now back to using regular razors instead of the straight ones.

I wouldn't mind giving it another shot, but if I can focus my energy on some slightly different area's maybe I'll get better results.

Originally Posted by thorxes

Just curious - what were the biggest aspects of honing that you needed to refine in order to become proficient?

I went out and bought a honing block set and just couldn't get the hang of honing. I'm now back to using regular razors instead of the straight ones.

I wouldn't mind giving it another shot, but if I can focus my energy on some slightly different area's maybe I'll get better results.

For me Ibwas often jumping too soon before bevel setting and between grits. It ended up ruining all tge work that went before. A good starting point is the pyramid here in the wiki.

Geek

Originally Posted by TheGeek

For me Ibwas often jumping too soon before bevel setting and between grits. It ended up ruining all tge work that went before. A good starting point is the pyramid here in the wiki.

Geek

Follow up: I went out and bought quite a few old straight razors to practice my honing skills. I found that most of them had a "bow" to them (I forget what the proper term is). But essentially if you mark the edge of the razor with a sharpie and run it over the honing stone - only the middle portion of the blade will hit the stone. You would then have to gently rock the blade as you move over the honing stone.

Did you encounter this a lot? How did you overcome it? Or was it just a nuance that required additional skill?

I ended up being able to develop a good edge on certain portions of a blade, but couldn't quite get a consistent edge over the entire length of the blade.

Originally Posted by thorxes

Follow up: I went out and bought quite a few old straight razors to practice my honing skills. I found that most of them had a "bow" to them (I forget what the proper term is). But essentially if you mark the edge of the razor with a sharpie and run it over the honing stone - only the middle portion of the blade will hit the stone. You would then have to gently rock the blade as you move over the honing stone.

Did you encounter this a lot? How did you overcome it? Or was it just a nuance that required additional skill?

I ended up being able to develop a good edge on certain portions of a blade, but couldn't quite get a consistent edge over the entire length of the blade.

I think what you are referring to is a blade that has a "smile", curving downward from both the toe and heel.
Here is an example of a nice smile:



These can't be sharpened like a blade with a straight edge, you have to angle the razor on the hone to get all parts of the edge to properly make contact. To save a lot of explanation, here is a video by gssixgun showing his technique. I have used the same with great success. I tried to hone my first smiling edge like a straight edge with the same result that you got.

gssixgun Honing a Smiling Wedge part 1.wmv - YouTube