Thread: The Celebrated Water Razor Hone

Originally Posted by Utopian

...Just experiment and make sure it doesn't fall off the sink.

Ouch!

Originally Posted by Shoki

Ouch!

Honestly, I only wrote that because mbaglio100 asked if it would be good to use "sink-side." I only thought of you AFTER I wrote that!

Originally Posted by Brando

It looks just like a thurington I recieved not long ago, it was only 1 in x 5 in , I personally did not care for working with such a narrow stone. What size is that hone.

All the thuringian stones I have seen in those cases are the same 1X5 size.

Narrow stones are actually very good for handling warped or smiling blades.

When I use mine I build a slurry from my DMT on it and then use it, I like my Eschers with a slurry same goes with Thuri stones. I use more laps than 10 or 20. Test and see what is best for you, there's no real rules of the hone with these old rocks.

Originally Posted by Disburden

Narrow stones are actually very good for handling warped or smiling blades.

Hmmmm Ya know I read that so many times in the early days I have a set of Nortons 220/1/4/8 cut in half that I split with another restorer...
I used it maybe 4 times, I honestly have never seen any advantage or disadvantage to the width of any hone... Excepting anything under about 1 inch, I think that would be a disadvantage..
I got into a heated argument with somebody about this very thing on another forum and actually used both sizes in a Vid with a Magic Marker test proving that a thin hone and an accomplished X stroke do the exact same thing on the edge... (No I did not post it I was in full SA mode hehehe)

Has anyone else actually tested this theory?????

Glen,

Gary Haywood, a member here and on coticule.be has been cutting his coticules into very thin stones lately and experimenting with the results. Maybe he can chime in on the topic of narrow hones, there's a lot of talk about it over there too. I, personally, have only used narrow hones on warped blades a few times but I felt I had more control holding the hone and"pushing" the edge in certain sections than when I use my big stones. I know you usually go two handed on a bench size stone until finishing.

It can be all in my mind, ya know? I am not good on these scientific proof thingies. Lol

Originally Posted by gssixgun

:
Has anyone else actually tested this theory?????

I have repeatedly told people an easy strategy for obtaining a DIY narrow hone for smiling razors, so here I go again...

Take your three inch wide hone, a ruler, and a marker. Draw a line down the hone to demarcate a 1 inch wide region. You now have a 1" narrow hone.

Just hone only on the 1" region. The same stroke you will have to use to maintain contact on the real 1" hone is exactly the same stroke you will have to use to maintain contact on your faux 1" hone.

I like narrow hones for very smily blades. Especially when I find that large part of the bevel on heel or toe end of the edge does not touch the hone. I have a couple of narrow Thuris. They work for me.

This may all change with the narrow hone though since seeing that Swooping stroke in the video, Glen.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I have repeated told people an easy strategy for obtaining a DIY narrow hone for smiling razors, so here I go again...

Take your three inch wide hone, a ruler, and a marker. Draw a line down the hone to demarcate a 1 inch wide region. You now have a 1" narrow hone.

Just hone only on the 1" region. The same stroke you will have to use to maintain contact on the real 1" hone is exactly the same stroke you will have to use to maintain contact on your faux 1" hone.

I tend to agree Ron, I am not saying the thin hones are bad or good I just think there is no advantage or disadvantage either way...
What started the "discussion" on the other forum is when somebody said "You need a thin hone to hone a warped edge" I of course said "No you need the correct stroke on a 3 inch hone" which is what the guy had, it went downhill from there...
So in that context I would say that use the hone in your hand, wide or thin, it can work just as well either way...

I think that the thing with narrow hones for smiling/warped blades started because, when you have a hone that narrow, you have to pay a lot more attention to keeping the part of the razor that is on the hone totally flat. When the blade is smiling, this forces you to do the slight rolling motion (or whatever you want to call it if you don't like "rolling") that is required to hone a smiling blade. When the blade is warped, this forces you to do the "honing off the edge of the hone" stroke that gets into the concave part of the blade which is necessary for the concave side of a warped razor.

In short - a narrow hone makes you compensate for a smile or warp without you thinking about it as compensating for the smile or warp.

But once you KNOW how to deal with a smile or a warp and you consciously do what you need to do to adjust for it, the width of the hone is totally irrelevant (just as Ron and Glen have said above).

So it's not really incorrect to say that a narrow hone is good for or makes it easier to hone a smiling or warped blade, it's just not the full story.

At least that's how I see it.