The Aoto Thread

[holli4pirating]

Ok, I've done a little bit of messing around on my Aoto, so I'll share my very preliminary thoughs.

I took Wostenholm that I got off ebay with a chip in the middle of the razor. I picked this one because I know it's good steel, but if I did any damage, it wouldn't matter since it's already chipped.

I started off on a freshly lapped surface and ran the razor over it in normal x strokes to see how it felt. Pretty smooth. I then started doing some circles with a "firm" stroke (to use some language I picked up from Lynn today) and found that yes, the hone will generate some slurry when being used with a firm stroke. During this initial stage, I found that the surface was drying out relatively quickly. I'm not sure if this was because I was pushing water off the edge or because the hone was absorbing the water (perhaps more use will tell...). So, as I added water to keep the surface nice and wet, I found that the slurry tended to stay pretty thin. That was nice, because it means that, under "normal" use, I can maintain a light slurry pretty easily. I checked the scratch pattern on the razor, and it looked pretty nice - nothing too deep, but it was clear that metal was being removed.

I then worked up a slurry by rubbing the stone with my pocket sized Spiderco Medium. When I had a bit of a slurry going, I went back to firm circles and X's to see what she did. The thick slurry stayed pretty thick, even as I slowly added water to the hone, so I know that the surface was breaking down as I was going along. I could smell metal, but was unable to tell what was slurry and what was metal on the hone. I thought things were going nicely, but then I spotted some grooves on the surface of the hone. My first thought was that I had not totally lapped out the grooves that came on the stone, so I pulled out the same DMT and refreshed. I then went back with the spyderco med and worked up a slurry and did some firm circles again. Again, after a while, I found grooves in the hone.

Now, I'm not sure whether the grooves were a product of circles with a firm hand or whether the stone was just wearing unevenly, so I'm not going to jump to any conclusions. I can say that this has never happened to me before, but I've also never used such a soft hone. So, this is something I need to experiment with.

But, I thought to myself, maybe I'll not be able to use this hone with pressure, so let's see what it does with just a light stroke. Also, around now, the bevel was starting to form, but not very well. I'm not sure if that was because of the shape the edge was in when I started or the unevenness forming on the face of the hone, but it did tell me that this thing was moving some metal.

So my next step was to figure out what I could do with no pressure.

In order to re-normalize my edge, I pulled out my DMT6c and did a bunch of circles on both sides of the razor. I then tested out a spot on the edge and found the normal stickyness one would expect off a DMTC. That would serve as my reference.

I took the razor back to the Aoto with just water and a light stroke. I did 80 quick circles on each side and then 20 normal x strokes. Over this time, I did find that a light slurry was forming, but not much at all. I then went to test my reference spot of the razor by seeing what it would do to arm hair, and it was cutting quite cleanly.

So here are my thoughs about my Aoto thus far
- I need to see if using pressure actually causes the hone to wear unevenly or if that is due to my use of circles. To test this out, I will do firm strokes straight across the hone (no x movement) to see if uneven wear develops. If there is uneven wear, then it seems to me the hone wears unevenly. If there is no uneven wear, then I would guess it is the circles.
-This thing can remove some metal. At best, it could be used as a bevel setter for edges that need minimal work (possibly replacing my King 1k). At worst, it will be quite useful at removing scratch marks from a coarser, more aggressive hone (like my Norton 1k).
-This razor should fit in nicely between my bevel setter and a med/fine hone, such as my Dragon's Tongue or my BBW.
-So far, I like this hone. It removes metal, it leaves a decent polish, and it provides good feedback. Since the hone is softer, you can really feel the edge start to bite into the hone as it becomes keen. That is a very useful sign, because it tells you it's probably time to go up to the next stone before you even check the edge with a standard test.