Thread: Help please.

Lynn says less strokes is better and I'm sure it's true but it takes me more to get a sharpened blade for me. I am concerned about flattening out the spine.
Should I put electrical tape on the spine? Does it change the angle to much?

also. After I used the Norton 4k8k my blade was very sharp popped the hairs right off my arm, however when I used my 12k it seemed to dull the blade. I used a slurry stone so I don't really know what if anything I did wrong. The only thing I can think of is to many strokes on the 12k. So I took it back to the 4k8k and put it on the 12k but only about 5 strokes. It's fine now but I'm confused.

Anyway looking forward to your responses

What kind of 12k? What kind of slurry stone?

More strokes aren't necessarily harmful, depending on the stone...

Too many strokes with pressure can be harmful and any pressure on most finishing stones is definitely harmful.
More strokes provides more opportunity to make a bad stroke.

I know it's from china but that's all I know

Oh and a norton slurry

Originally Posted by pbsd

Lynn says less strokes is better and I'm sure it's true but it takes me more to get a sharpened blade for me. I am concerned about flattening out the spine.
Should I put electrical tape on the spine? Does it change the angle to much?

also. After I used the Norton 4k8k my blade was very sharp popped the hairs right off my arm, however when I used my 12k it seemed to dull the blade. I used a slurry stone so I don't really know what if anything I did wrong. The only thing I can think of is to many strokes on the 12k. So I took it back to the 4k8k and put it on the 12k but only about 5 strokes. It's fine now but I'm confused.

Anyway looking forward to your responses

My experiences with slurry has been that beyond bevel setting, you are likely to do more harm than good. Slurry seems to help cut fast but leaves behind a rough unfinished edge. I use it only in the initial bevel setting and continue on with just water after that. The one exception seems to be with natural stones. But even there I've had mixed results. I suggest you try with water alone.

Ok that makes sense. I watched Lynn use the slurry with the finishing stone but he was using a Belgium stone which I think is natural. Mine is from china so prob not natural. I will try with just water.

What about the electrical tape? More harm then good.

Originally Posted by pbsd

What about the electrical tape? More harm then good.

irrelevant.

Lets start from the beginning.
What razor are you honing? Vintage, new, what condition?
What stones do you use more specifically your 1k, and what is your honing process?

I'm not the resident expert on honing so hang in there and give some others a chance to reply. But yes, I suspect water alone is better and the tape is of no consequence at all. Use tape if you like, don't if you don't like. As for the slurry, its a tool that you can use. But while you're still, like me, figuring out the capabilities and personalities of the stones you're using, this added element is more likely to be a problem. For now, I'd eliminate it. Later you can revisit it and do some experimenting. I think you'll see improvement by just using water for now.

Ah, and here it the expert advice I was speaking of.