Thread: Pressure!

If you have areas that aren't hitting while you hone with fairly light pressure on the finer hones, what I would do first is double check that all the stones are reasonably close to flat. If this checks out, I'd go back to a coarser stone and work out the geometry issue you apparently still have.

You can use heavier pressure on a bevel setting stone, but before you progress to a finer stone, you need to go to very light pressure on the bevel setter and be sure you are still getting full contact all along the edge. If you don't have full contact at the lighter pressure on the coarser stone you need to do more light pressure honing until you do.

This is one of the reasons that using pressure is kind of a slightly advanced technique. To use selective pressure in such a case you want to preferably use a narrower stone and apply the pressure only on the areas you are already making contact - the purpose being to remove steel from those "high" areas so they are no longer holding the "low" areas (that aren't making contact with the stone) away from the hone.

Alternatively, if you have a razor that is way out of whack and don't want to remove a ton of steel you can use narrower stones for all the work and that will allow the razor to hit all along the edge a bit easier as well.

Originally Posted by eKretz

Alternatively, if you have a razor that is way out of whack and don't want to remove a ton of steel you can use narrower stones for all the work and that will allow the razor to hit all along the edge a bit easier as well.

Alternatively, you can correct your honing stroke on your current hones, rather than investing in more hones.

Draw a pencil line one inch from, and parallel to, the hone's edge that is closest to your honing hand. Now imagine that one inch strip to be your narrow hone. Focus your honing ONLY on that one inch strip exactly as if it only is a one inch wide hone.

Now that you have a set narrow hones, you will need to learn how to use them. When you do, your honing contact issue will disappear.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Alternatively, you can correct your honing stroke on your current hones, rather than investing in more hones.

Draw a pencil line one inch from, and parallel to, the hone's edge that is closest to your honing hand. Now imagine that one inch strip to be your narrow hone. Focus your honing ONLY on that one inch strip exactly as if it only is a one inch wide hone.

Now that you have a set narrow hones, you will need to learn how to use them. When you do, your honing contact issue will disappear.

I see this claim all the time, and no, that's not correct. On a razor that is crooked or warped, it will work just the same on the side of the razor that is shaped in a convex manner from heel to toe, but on the opposite side it will hit at the heel and toe only, and then will make contact with the toe and the part of the razor that is contacting the edge of the stone as it's drawn off with an x-stroke. The same goes for a razor with a frown but the problem will be on both sides rather than only one. The narrower hone doesn't solve this problem, but allows the amount of steel removal to be lessened before full contact is achieved.

Originally Posted by eKretz

I see this claim all the time, and no, that's not correct. It will work just the same on the side of the razor that is shaped in a convex manner from heel to toe, but on the opposite side it will hit at the heel and toe only, and then will make contact with the toe and the part of the razor that is contacting the edge of the stone as it's drawn off with an x-stroke. The narrower hone doesn't solve this problem, but allows the amount of steel removal to be lessened before full contact is achieved.

Then go ahead and buy a set of narrow hones and learn from them. Alternatively, draw a line with a pencil.