Thread: Is this right?

Regarding honing.
Harder stones, such as shapton ceramics, are more difficult to use than softer stones, such as Kings? - that is, when you are in the beginning stage of your honing "career".

I have never tried honing, i am gathering information.

Eehhhhh. Let me put it this way, you play golf? Cause if you do think about it this way. Hard stones, soft stones... If you can imagine the way the blade acts on the stone there really isn't much much difference. The biggest and most difficult thing to get over is understanding what honing is about. I remember thinking a hard stone, might fix this problem, or a soft stone might fix this other problem. At the end of the day learning to hone was about understanding the relationship of stone to steel.

I will admit though that hard stones are less forgiving when it comes to errors IME, but the same error on a soft stone also messes up my edge only not as bad.

Not really you will not have any big issues.

Originally Posted by Danskeren

Regarding honing.
Harder stones, such as shapton ceramics, are more difficult to use than softer stones, such as Kings? - that is, when you are in the beginning stage of your honing "career".

I have never tried honing, i am gathering information.

harder stones give less room for error than softer stones.

I am sorry to say why do you guys think this way?
cutting power of the stone could have some result on honing.
what do you see when you use hard stone different then soft stone?
Any explanations?

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

I am sorry to say why do you guys think this way?
cutting power of the stone could have some result on honing.
what do you see when you use hard stone different then soft stone?
Any explanations?

I think for razors it does not matter much because bevel angle is set. Much of debate for soft stones can be made for sharpening knives where softer stones are best for them. I am begining to think that harder stones being harder for razor sharpening is in part a myth that comes from other areas of sharpening that have little to do with razor sharpening.
The only reason I can see softer stones for razors if you have very hard steel but even then slurry helps for me.

Originally Posted by Kingfish

....... but even then slurry helps for me.

The slurry makes a soft stone cut faster, right?

doesn't matter soft or hard stone slurry will make it cut faster then without slurry.

Originally Posted by Danskeren

The slurry makes a soft stone cut faster, right?

I agree with Sham. I dont think theres much difference in the ease of use between harder and softer stones.

My first set of stones was the Shapton on glass hones in 1,4,8 & 16k and I got great edges from them once I learnt how to use them. I got the Naniwa SS's later on (ostensibly a softer stone) and I didnt find them any easier or harder to use. They give different results and some razors seem to prefer one set of hones over the other, but thats the only difference I can think of.

The only possible thing I can think of to say about ease of use is that I find the Naniwa 1k is quite a soft stone and dishes out easily. So its not the best bevel setter if you have a wedge made from really tough steel, but you can do the job with it.

Thats not to say the Shaptons are better or anything. If you did get the Naniwas the easy thing to do would be to pick up a 1k Shapton or Chosera (or even the DMT1200) as and when you do happen across a razor thats particularly tricky to bevel set. Thats how my hone collection grew: I wanted a softer feeling edge, I wanted a faster cutter, I wanted a different bevel setter to tackle a difficult blade.

Anyway, I'm rambling! I could wax lyrical about this all day, but the main thing is that I dont think that one set of stones is easier to use than the other. As long as you get a good make you'll be able to get the job done.

Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by Stubear

.......Hope that helps!

...Anything helps!!

I am like a crispy dry sponge - where knowledge is like water to me!