Thread: Hard Arkansas razor hone

Thank you all the the advice.

OK, here's what I would've posted last night, and it's my regimen for every crappy or even just a marginal stone that doesn't give you quite as good of an edge as you'd want when working to the edge. It does rely on you having a linen that is reasonably decent.

1) hone your razor as you normally would. Work all the way to the edge, and do light pressure as much as you can for the final strokes. Linen and then strop the razor, do 5 more very light pressure strokes, and then linen and strop again. Do this about 3 times. You're relying on the linen and strop to set the smoothness of the edge, and using only 5 very light strokes between repetitions so keep the edge from fattening at all, but not to remove the edge that's there.

2) shave with the razor. The first shave might not be that great. Each time the shave is marginal, follow up afterward with another 5 light strokes on your hone. Resist the urge to apply any pressure or do a whole lot of strokes. Linen and then leather again.

At some point after doing that not too many times, you're going to find that you have an edge that's as sharp as any other razor that you have, but you might have to go through a couple of stiff shaves to get there.

Eventually, the very edge of the razor will come into a condition that's induced by the linen and not the hone, and that will be how you want to maintain it from that point on. If it sounds similar to the old instructions from dry barber hones, that's because it's essentially the same thing.

I can get a fantastic edge out of a washita stone doing that, but it takes a few iterations before the coarseness of the edge is conditioned off by the linen.

By the way, that stone looks like what smiths would call a hard, or what dans would call a soft or hard (but not true hard). It will have a lot of bite to start, and it will always have some porousness, so it won't quite be like sharpening on a black or trans arkansas stone. You may want to locate a cheap plane iron (like the one labeled "buck brothers" and sold for about $3 at home depot) or some other similar flat piece of hardened steel and do like others suggested here - work the surface of the stone until it feels like it's no longer cutting.

Then flush it with oil or soapy water (whatever you're going to use) to make sure any of the loose novaculite is gone.

Originally Posted by DaveW

OK, here's what I would've posted last night, and it's my regimen for every crappy or even just a marginal stone that doesn't give you quite as good of an edge as you'd want when working to the edge. It does rely on you having a linen that is reasonably decent.

1) hone your razor as you normally would. Work all the way to the edge, and do light pressure as much as you can for the final strokes. Linen and then strop the razor, do 5 more very light pressure strokes, and then linen and strop again. Do this about 3 times. You're relying on the linen and strop to set the smoothness of the edge, and using only 5 very light strokes between repetitions so keep the edge from fattening at all, but not to remove the edge that's there.

2) shave with the razor. The first shave might not be that great. Each time the shave is marginal, follow up afterward with another 5 light strokes on your hone. Resist the urge to apply any pressure or do a whole lot of strokes. Linen and then leather again.

At some point after doing that not too many times, you're going to find that you have an edge that's as sharp as any other razor that you have, but you might have to go through a couple of stiff shaves to get there.

Eventually, the very edge of the razor will come into a condition that's induced by the linen and not the hone, and that will be how you want to maintain it from that point on. If it sounds similar to the old instructions from dry barber hones, that's because it's essentially the same thing.

I can get a fantastic edge out of a washita stone doing that, but it takes a few iterations before the coarseness of the edge is conditioned off by the linen.

Interesting! Kind of an Arkie/linen pyramid. This helps me understand how some of the synthetic barber hones could deliver an edge finer than their grit or scratch pattern would suggest. Too many laps on the barber hone would also give another meaning to over honing.