Thread: What DON'T You Use (and why)

Originally Posted by ZipZop

Nice. I'm really enjoying my little handheld Ocean Blue 12k for travel. Just moved it into the shaving den recently for quick touch-ups when I'm not traveling. But I do have one question. How do you set a bevel on such little handheld stones?
Seems like it would be much easier and reliable to set a bevel on a bench stone, no?

I didn't like stones on the bench because I really didn't know what to do with my off-hand. Hand-held solved the problem for me and introduced a new variable, a fluctuating support that could also be used to a certain effect, in and of itself. In this I started out with a Arkansas oil-stone progression almost exclusively. But more recently, over the past two years, I've moved to the above water-stones as listed. The trick for me has been to treat the spine-edge relationship on a point-by-point basis, rather than a parallel linear basis assuming a large flattened plane. So by default, the stroke is essentially a rolling X-stroke with an emphasis on the latitudinal (width of the stone) direction rather than a longitudinal (length of the stone) direction as often recommended for the larger flattened plane bench stones. Also, the grip of the shank is important, with the grip being from side to side in this regard, biased towards the edge, with a slight turn of the wrist during the flip. Localized pressure as needed can also be exercised by the thumb this way as the blade is drawn more along the latitudinal axis. The only part that loses out in the process is the heel, which is addressed from time to time by straight up and down passes emphasizing pressure in that area, and it is important to move more up and down on the fine diamond hone, rather than from side to side, in dealing with chips. At the 1k "bevel setting" stage, perhaps I use a combination of both.

Hope this makes sense. In following the point-by-point method, it is possible to even arrive at a much smaller useful area, say 1-1/4" x 3", at least with naturals at the end.

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

I didn't like stones on the bench because I really didn't know what to do with my off-hand. Hand-held solved the problem for me and introduced a new variable, a fluctuating support that could also be used to a certain effect, in and of itself. In this I started out with a Arkansas oil-stone progression almost exclusively. But more recently, over the past two years, I've moved to the above water-stones as listed. The trick for me has been to treat the spine-edge relationship on a point-by-point basis, rather than a parallel linear basis assuming a large flattened plane. So by default, the stroke is essentially a rolling X-stroke with an emphasis on the latitudinal (width of the stone) direction rather than a longitudinal (length of the stone) direction as often recommended for the larger flattened plane bench stones. Also, the grip of the shank is important, with the grip being from side to side in this regard, biased towards the edge, with a slight turn of the wrist during the flip. Localized pressure as needed can also be exercised by the thumb this way as the blade is drawn more along the latitudinal axis. The only part that loses out in the process is the heel, which is addressed from time to time by straight up and down passes emphasizing pressure in that area, and it is important to move more up and down on the fine diamond hone, rather than from side to side, in dealing with chips. At the 1k "bevel setting" stage, perhaps I use a combination of both.

Hope this makes sense. In following the point-by-point method, it is possible to even arrive at a much smaller useful area, say 1-1/4" x 3", at least with naturals at the end.

Lol, I'm not sure what all that means but I'm all over that hand-held honing thing.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve56

Lol, I'm not sure what all that means but I'm all over that hand-held honing thing.

Cheers, Steve

Just be sure to have your off-hand and fingers completely outstretched, rather than gripping the stone from side to side with the fingers. The latter can seriously risk to remove a fingertip! And if the stone is too thin, cut a block of wood to a similar size and rest the stone on it.

Aloha!

Merci. Oui, je comprends. I lived in France for two years and used to be fluent. Not so much these days. Personne ne parle Francais a Hawai.

You should do a Youtube video on your method of using handhelds from bevel set to finish stone. I'd watch it multiple times. Since jumping into honing I've tried to be a student of the craft. I have watched hundreds of hours of Youtube (well it seems that many anyway) and I have read all posts related to honing including everything I can find in the library. I may have missed some but all the fairly recent ones have been read. But doing everything via handheld stones (barber hones and smaller) is something I never thought of until your post.

I will say my little 12k Ocean Blue puts a formidable finish edge on my blades. And it's surprised me how easy it is (and natural) to work a blade on a handheld. Easier than I thought.

Mahalo!

-Zip

Sorry to take things off-topic though. It's just that I really don't use large bench hones stones anymore, apart from large kitchen knives. I've tried to explain why as best as I can. My method is more or less my own, in part adapted from what a friend here showed me on the bench on a few occasions. When my game is on, it yields wonderful results; but at other times, I am left wondering if I know anything at all.