Quote Originally Posted by Utopian View Post
Well, to quote my fifth grade self...

Duh!

Of course you want to pre-heat the hone. Any idiot knows that molecular motion is faster at higher temperatures. You want those grits dancing around the hone in order to speed up cutting action. The droplets of water on a properly heated hone should dance across the hone in the same manner as when you drop water in a skillet to test for adequate heating. Now the key is to keep the temperature just below ruining the temper of the blade or leaving singe marks in your dining room table. If you go over, you will regret the effect on your razor and your wife.

Now, obviously, the high heat hone is only for bevel setting. As you transition from setting the bevel to further sharpening, the temperature of the hone should be gradually reduced down to room temperature. This will slow down the vibrations of the grits and will allow for finer cutting into the steel.

The real challenge comes in the polishing stage. You would not believe the number of liquid nitrogen tanks Lynn has stashed away in his basement and I bet most of you don't even know about this secret. That's right, the honemeisters don't tell you everything they do to get those perfect edges. They give you just enough to think you are on the right path but they don't tell you the important stuff like the need for a 400 degree temperature drop between bevel setting and final polish. Anything above a 10k hone has to be done on a block of dry ice. Any hone above 20k has to be partially submerged in liquid nitrogen in order to slow the natural vibration of the grit down to a frequency of 42 Hz. That is the only way to get the most out of your hones.

Some of you guys actually remain under the delusion that honing is easy!
Well yeah why do you reckon some of us a dead set against hand held honing!?>?