Thread: This might sound silly...

Well silly as it may sound, the non dilutting method provides an edge that basically erases any hairs you might think you have. Heres what I did:

DMT C used it with ten strokes checked edge then stropped and did the HHT when is passed it on all the blade I jumped to the JNAT build a thick slurry with a piece of the same stone, started honing and whenever the slurry dried out I would just wash the slurry from the blade and use that water to re hydrate the slurry did this until the slurry was basically gone, then I got rid of all the slurry and finished the blade on the hone with just water, the edge was insanely sharp like so sharp I didn't even feel the hair being cut. What really gave the sharpening away was the noise by the time it was ready it was so silent like almost a tiny whisper.

So surprise this works!!!

the coticule, dragons tongue, dalmore, BBW, Nortons, what was I thinking

seriously guys, tonight I am pulling the DMT out and I have 2 razors to hone, so I am going to work the Nakayama asagi (thanks to Memorael) and I hope I can acheive the same results

Originally Posted by PapaBull

My well-worn DMT 325 (c) is my go-to bevel setting stone. And I go straight from it to very high grits with outstanding results. Once a bevel is established, most any finishing hone will quickly take it from there to a fine, finished edge. And that includes J-nats, Eschers and even barber hones. I just finished a study with 9 different images from a number of different finishing stones and techniques in an article on my site.

My conclusion.... the "middle stones" are unnecessary.

Is the process faster than using "middle stones" or is the same amount of work spread over 2 hones ? I suppose different types of slurries may be an influence on speed.

I really haven't timed myself doing this but my guess is the process goes really fast, most time I have spent is probably 10 min. The idea though is to make sure that the DMT C leaves an edge that after stropping passes the HHT, after that it is slurry heaven and just working that edge, one other thing I forgot to mention is that I do 2 types of x patterns first starting with the heel and then starting with the tip or nose or whatever you want to call it.

The reasoning behind this came to me after lapping a couple of stones, I notices that sometimes I couldn't get rid of some pencil marks unless I changed the direction of the scratches, so I guess it works the same on razors. One other thing is that on all the razors that I have tried this I would have to say that they are pretty hard razors (meaning on the HRC scale, what gives them away is that while stropping you can definitely hear it sing a very high pitched song) on the not as hard type I find the edge of a coticule works better since it appears to be a more robust edge for some reason.

The key when using this method is that when you are done you should hear almost no noise from the honing, think of it as the hone whispering to you, like a very tender shhhhhhhhhh when you run the blade across the hone. Hope this helps !!!

Interesting concept & I'll try it on a junker that needs a DMT but I'm not about to put any of my good razors on a DMTC

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Interesting concept & I'll try it on a junker that needs a DMT but I'm not about to put any of my good razors on a DMTC

With that I agree completely.

This is an interesting experiment worthy of more study. The problem I see is that most guys do not have a JNat and cannot afford one. If the idea can be transferred to other stones, like a 600 grit sandpaper and then jump to a 8K Norton ( as an expample) using a Norton slurry stone then it may be useful to a much larger group pf people.
This strongly resembles what Bart did with the Coticules.

I have never actually tried it with razors buy on my Jknives I have done some ridiculously large increments in grit and I get the same results not using Jnats but naniwas and other hones. So I think it should work fine with other abrasives. If someone does try it with something else gimmie a call.

As soon as you are using slurry you are essentially creating the middle stones on your high grit stone...

Myself I find adding more stones in the middle actually works the best, many small steps to climb steadily to the top...

But keep in mind you are basically doing the exact same thing with the dilution of the slurry or in the case of some of the J-nats the creation of finer slurry...

We did this long ago with the Norton 4/8 by using slurry on the 4k side for better cutting, then again on the 8k side from a light slurry to clear to an almost dry hone to get the most from the stone...

All these things work, some better than others, but they are a kick to play with...

Just this morning I was playing around with using slurry on a Thuringen and got a fantastic shave from it...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

As soon as you are using slurry you are essentially creating the middle stones on your high grit stone...

+1. Thanks Glen. My thoughts also. The slurry is substituting for the middle stones. Many ways to get to China.

^ +1. I think several of us do something similar. Bart wrote an excellent guide to this method in the Wiki here... A simple honing method with DMT-E, Belgian Blue Whetstone and Coticule - Straight Razor Place Wiki

That's what I've been doing the last couple weeks - going from a DMT (mine's an "E" / 1200) to a BBW to a Coticule. Works pretty well.