Thread: I Drew an Inch and gained more than a mile

Originally Posted by rodb

My brain knows it works, the hands are hard to convince!! lol

I guess I was lucky as once I started it just started to seem 'Natural'.

I guess it's a Leap of Faith. You need to Ignore what you 'Know' and just take that first step.

I learned this on a 2 x 3 Frictionite #0. With the help of Mike I started fixing some heels I was having problems with. Then blending them into the rest of the blade. That translated to the regular hones easy enough. Now when I get stumped that little hone reminds me to concentrate on what I'm doin'. It doesn't take much :<0)

I hone the line... Apologies to Mr. Cash

There's some voodoo I've yet to master, despite having a blazing fast coti that's under 2" wide at the widest. I still find warped, wavy blades way more trouble than they're worth. 'Not to suggest the 1" doesn't work, just that I can't do it consistently & even when it works, its a PITA.

BTW. 'Very classy, 'gunner - talking about how the head may get what the hand can't quite grasp. Many thanks to you & other kind guys - alot of us learned how to hone.

Kinda like this.

Just like that , i began just like that
Well now i have a bigger platforms , for maximum performance

Originally Posted by RusenBG

Just like that , i began just like that
Well now i have a bigger platforms , for maximum performance

From small beginnings. If its all you can afford no shame in mastering this hone before spending the big money on a full size hone. Thank-you Sir

If seeing a line drawn helps you in some way to execute the correct strokes it's good, but the part of the hone that does the work is the edge of the hone.
That's why it doesn't matter if you have a mile wide hone or half an inch one - the edge is exactly the same.

You most definitely can't hone a warped razor using the middle of a hone and it's trivial to prove - just chip your hone's edges to ensure that using them will not work. Or cover them in CA, or add two strips of some hard material along the sides of the hone if you want a less damaging option.

I think this has unnecessarily been turned into some mysterious hard to explain stroke. If one understands that all that happens is honing with the edge of the hone, I suspect that they'll have much easier time figuring out a stroke that works.
As an example it immediately becomes clear that regardless of anything else it has to be a 'slanted stroke' (e.g. X-pattern) i.e. the razor must move across the hone not only along it.

I tend to stay away from the edges when honing myself...

Charlie's vid especially at the 2:24 mark on the 4k shows the x pattern pretty well, note how the contact point rides pretty well down the center of the hone, and nearly all the marks bear that out also...
The contact ripple shows the concept

That can be adjusted as needed to fit to the razor and the hone.. Simple as that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHZ4rmL-6Fg

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I tend to stay away from the edges when honing myself...

Charlie's vid especially at the 2:24 mark on the 4k shows the x pattern pretty well, note how the contact point rides pretty well down the center of the hone, and nearly all the marks bear that out also...
The contact ripple shows the concept

That can be adjusted as needed to fit to the razor and the hone.. Simple as that

Not sure why you are going into honing smiling blades as it has absolutely nothing to do with honing warped blades and narrow hones.

Really, next time you draw the concave side of a warped razor across a hone, just pay attention and you will no doubt notice that you are honing with the edge of the hone.
Or if you still think you aren't prove me wrong by fixing 5mm strips of aluminum to the sides of your hone so that you really have no hone edge and hone a warped blade on it.

Smiling blades are no problem whatsoever because of the convex curvature. The issue is when the curvature of the razor is concave because you need functionally convex hone, which is what the edge provides.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Don't think about it, just try it on our next Warped or Smiling razor, anything that you would consider using a Thin hone on, use the exact same movement that you have to use on a thin hone but do it on only a potion of the wide hone...

If you already own a thin hone then there is no need,,, but there is also no need to buy more hones to hone wonky razors..


ps: This exact discussion goes back to 2008 when AaronX and I got together to make the Thin set of Nortons, we both learned very quickly that they are simply not needed

Originally Posted by gugi

Not sure why you are going into honing smiling blades as it has absolutely nothing to do with honing warped blades and narrow hones.

Because that is what the thread was about

The need to buy thin hones to do difficult edges... and the point being is that you do not if you simply utilize a thinner portion of a wide hone...

If that thinner portion is by the edge or the center so be it , just so long as it works by adjusting the stroke