Thread: Naniwa progression honing regime

Hey guys, my hone collection stands at a Naniwa 4k samurai deluxe 25ml depth, an 8k superstone, and a 10k superstone. I have 3 razors, one of which was honed professionally. Today I found a good deal on a 1000/6000 combo 'King' stone. so my reportoire is 1k, 4k,6k,8k, 10k. Yes I am nuts. I have watched Lynn's and Glens naniwa work, and I'm wondering should the 6k have any place in this honing regimen. (I only bought it so I had a 1k bevel setting stone, so the 6k was a bonus and cheaper).
So, if I were to do a progression with these stones, what would you learned men suggest. My main problem is getting a bevel that will cut hair, I go to the 8k and it is tough to get it right. Don't get me wrong, I am able to shave with these, but compared to the pro version done by havachat45 it's less than perfect.
My main questions are 1. How much pressure on the 1k 4k. What role if any does the 6k have. Then, what role and pressure does the 8k play? I know the 10 k is a purely light as possible polishing stone so I'm right there. Should slurry have a role on the 1K 4k? Any ideas woul be great. Rob

Impossible to describe pressure when honing.
You have to experiment and learn by trial. Go light at first and adjust accordingly.
You do not need the 6k in the progression.

Try this! But first let me be clear is just pretend.

Put a lady bug under the edge and squish it! That's the torque pressure to set bevel 1K and 4k

Now put a fly under the edge and pin it down, but don't squish it (weight of the blade would do). That's the pressure for polishing 1k, 4k, 8k, 10k. Yes I finish on the 1k and 4k with polishing stroke, as to go to the next stone with less deep scratches on the edge. And there are variations from pining the bug to squishing the fly that you could use along the honing proses to shifting pressure toward the toe or heel as needed to catch up with the edge.

In a perfect world, super flat stone, super straight spine and edge, super even pressure, all you would need is go straight up and down the edge with the stone. But because we don't live in a perfect world we have to be in constant attention to our strokes and adapt with x strokes, circles, rolling x strokes, 45* heel first and others to keep the edge coming out even on sharpness.

Your markers, TNT, TPT, arm/ leg hair test, lope and others are the ones that are going to tell you when to move from stone to stone. Correlate them to the shave and that's how I l'm learning every honing session at a time. Sometimes I get lucky and put a nice sweet edge on a razor, others not so sweet but shave ready definitely!

It's like fishing, you are pursuing that big whooper, and you catch smaller along the way before the big one.

I recently bought a King 1K at a great price to play with. The King is a nice stone, not as fast as a Norton, not as smooth as a Chosera, but a good stone that will produce a fine 1k edge. It does self slurry, but at 1K you don’t need slurry you are removing metal to make the bevels flat and meeting.

At 1k you do or may need some pressure…depending on the bevels and razor. Hard razors and bevels needing repair or coming off a breadknife will come togeather with some light pressure, but after that every other stone is polishing and pressure will just leave deeper stria that will cost you time and strokes on the following stone and remove metal needlessly.

Once the bevels are set, you are cutting hair or should be. Then just remove the stria from the previous stone, alternate you final strokes on each stone from straight to diagonal so you can easily see the stria pattern and know when to move up. If you do not remove all the stria, the edge will fight you all the way.

A previously honed razor should come togeather quickly as the bevels should be flat and even, you just have to bring the edges togeather.

You can use the 6K in your progression, the smaller the jumps in progression the shallower the stria and the less time it will take to remove the previous stria and the less pressure you will be tempted to use.

Eventually you will develop the feel and your own style.

And feel every edge you come across to learn the TPT. It is the quickest most effective test as you can test the WHOLE edge quickly.

It does take some time to learn.