Thread: Beginner Hone Setup

I watched a honemeister use tape on all but one then figured he should. So he then added tape. I'm going with your advise and use tape. Thank you.

Do i use the paddle stone with the blade like stropping or against like honing/restoring? ...and does it need to be wet?
Thanks for advice so far.

Originally Posted by dazpope

Do i use the paddle stone with the blade like stropping or against like honing/restoring? ...and does it need to be wet?
Thanks for advice so far.

It's a hone, I image it ought to be used like one. Edge leading strokes, opposite of what you would do for stropping is my recommendation. It should probably be wetted, but water is likely not a good choice. Might seep into the leather and worst case start to mold it or peel it up off the paddle as it wrinkles. Maybe a nice leather friendly oil like Ballistol? That's probably the route I would go with it. In either case I would do everything in my power to keep whatever I used for honing off the strop, even with Ballistol you can have too much of a good thing.

Might be worthwhile to tape the strop off before doing any touchups with the stone on the back, once you've got the hang of it you'll be using the strop far more than the stone anyway. Maybe every 20 shaves or so with good stropping.

Originally Posted by dazpope

Do i use the paddle stone with the blade like stropping or against like honing/restoring? ...and does it need to be wet?
Thanks for advice so far.

Originally Posted by Marshal

It's a hone, I image it ought to be used like one. Edge leading strokes, opposite of what you would do for stropping is my recommendation. It should probably be wetted, but water is likely not a good choice. Might seep into the leather and worst case start to mold it or peel it up off the paddle as it wrinkles. Maybe a nice leather friendly oil like Ballistol? That's probably the route I would go with it. In either case I would do everything in my power to keep whatever I used for honing off the strop, even with Ballistol you can have too much of a good thing.

Might be worthwhile to tape the strop off before doing any touchups with the stone on the back, once you've got the hang of it you'll be using the strop far more than the stone anyway. Maybe every 20 shaves or so with good stropping.

I have to say that the style of paddle in question has left me puzzled as to use. I discussed it with a dealer of an almost identical Boeker stone/leather paddle version a few years back, and he and I both concluded that using the stone with water would eventually be to the leather's detriment. From this, I'm inclined to think it should be used dry. Perhaps lap it to around 600x to smooth the surface and then treat it like a barber's hone. Just a handful of touch-up laps for starters, perhaps even spine-leading in the interests of caution. It follows the format of the pasted Solingen paddles, which are all used spine-leading. Less is probably more.

Thanks for the reply. Ive given it a go already using water and like you said it stained the leather so i stopped. Ill give it a go dry or maybe even lightly oil it with ballistol as mentioned previous.

Late in the conversation, but were you honing the blade wet then going straight to the strop? I always wipe the blade off to dry it and remove any possible sediment from the stone on the blade before stropping.
Except for actual leather conditioner I wouldn't want anything else getting in the strop.

Never too late for advice! So, in short I dropped it a while back and took a small chip (tiny) on the blade. Used a 1k/3k stone, dried the blade then stropped on paste then leather. I also have the aforementioned paddle leather slate strop, Im told the slate is equivalent to 30k. Just wondering the best way to use it really.

30k is a gross overestimation I would think. I've got somewhere along the lines of 20 naturals between Welsh slates, Chinese hones, Arkansas stones, a coticule and a Jnat. The best of the bunch might be 12K, most are more along the lines of 8-10K. And I hesitate to grit rate them at all because they're natural stones so it doesn't really apply. When a synthetic stone is grit rated, it's because to the best of their ability the manufacturer has crafted the stone out of particulate matter so the stone is homogenous front to back, and when it auto slurries (as most of our water hones do) that is the size of honing particulate that is released.

A good many natural stones either auto slurry little, or none at all. And they're formed in the wild with no control over uniformity or what goes into the mix. You may find hard spots, soft spots, toxic inclusions, benign inclusions, and variance from one stone to the next. My Yellow Lake Welsh slate may or may not be the same as someone else's Yellow Lake Welsh slate.

Not that pontificating on naturals and grit ratings helps any. But I really don't have any new suggestions to add. If it is indeed slate, that does help some and I would use it the same as I do Welsh stones. Which I more or less outlined above already. From there it's just a matter of spending time with the stones you have, learning to squeeze the best edge you can from them.