Thread: Rounded stones...

Come to think of it: a convex hone might do the same as a rolling X-stroke on a flat hone that is narrower than the length of your razor.

kinda of, cept in this case you would literally roll the razor, not just the pressure.

Originally Posted by Kees

Come to think of it: a convex hone might do the same as a rolling X-stroke on a flat hone that is narrower than the length of your razor.

Sort of on the line of what I was thinking after reading this thread through.

A rolling X stroke uses the edge of the hone. Rotate the hone and each side gets worn. Sooner or later the hone will take a convex shape. If I sharpen less than 1,000 razors a year the difference will be very slow. [Many men had one....] The hone takes the shape and forms itself to my stroke and fits my style. There would be no reason to lap it and it would then take me much more time to break it in again to me and my style.

A similar example in modern times is if my clothes don't fit me it is because I don't match the ideal body shape or size. They use to make the clothes fit you...........

That little face animation at the end of your comment is really annoying me haha. I wanna punch it.

Originally Posted by alx

I noticed when following the link to the Dovo factory page that some of the original photo was cropped out, and I found on Google images a more complete photo that show the work bench and the other stones that the craftsperson has at hand. Notice over to the right there is what looks like a concave stone that might be the matching correction stone for the convex stone also see the concave or shaped stone with the depressed middle portion. I would surmise that the bench we see is the final finishing or touch up station, and that the razors bevels were already set and the edges finished before they arrived at this station. The hands we are seeing are totally clean and to me do not look like the hands of someone who just came from the power grinder. This person could be the correction expert or final touch up specialist and his/her touch of the razor to the stone could be just the slightest.

Alex Gilmore

Razors come straight from the bevel set on a platen to the final hone there are no progressions. The stones you are seeing are dressing stones for the convexed hone. The big piece of grey slate is probably used as a shelf to keep the horsehair used for edge testing out of the muck and water. The dark object in the bowl is a piece of horn kept soaked to test for a joined edge. Like using a thumbnail test.


Grinders don't hone the razor in a bigger operation. They are passed from station to station.

So it was nice of the gentlemen from thesuperiorshave to make a video in regards to my post here:
After that video I began convexing 2 hones. One is a 1k edgepro sized naniwa super stone, didn't take long. Second is my old crack filled 5k full size naniwa chosera... I have not fully convexed the chosera on both sides, but one side is getting there and I gotta say... it works quite well. I was able to take a razor, that has warps in the blade, and get VERY good contact on the stone.. I am not finished yet though. I am really liking this, and I wish I had access to something I could use to speed up the process.
I am thinking of sending out a 5k and an 8k to have them convexed for me, this actually seemed to work fairly well for knives too! The trick is a very slight convex going all the way from the side to darn near the center... takes a while.
More research is required!

Perhaps we are all looking at honing in correctly, lapping stones flat and trying to hit the razor edge all at the same time may not be the best way! The video was insightful, especially how the guy from dovo says once they grind the razors, they will never be flat... thinking about this YES, there is no way they are putting the blade in and out of the hollow grinder perfectly straight every time, and then there is the quenching! This is fun!