New honer - feels grainy

Hey guys!

Well, my first hone went average. Guess why? I never put the spine on the hone. Anyways. Fixed that. Bit of tape and off I went again touching up my Dovo on a tojiro whetstone (8K). Much better. Can see the edge.

Few HHT's later and I'm happy with it - kinda. The top half of the blade is sharp while the bottom half is dull. Am I right in assuming that's my poor application of even pressure to glide?

My real issue is that the hone doesn't feel smooth anymore. Feels a bit grainy? What can I do to clean any residue off it?

Also, my tape has left watermarks/rust spots on the top of the blade, and i've tried toothpaste, baking soda and about to hunt for some metal polish as a last resort. Again, if anyone has advice that would be great!

Jye

Hello Jye,

You're correct about uneven pressure causing uneven keenness. I always hold the hone in my left hand; I can adjust the angle as I hone with my right hand. That just works better for me than keeping the hone stationary and doing all the adjustment with my right arm only.

Metal polish--Maas or Flitz are popular--is a good bet for your marks. It's strange that tape would leave rust spots.

I don't know about your grainy feeling hone. Besides lapping it with a DMT plate or wet/dry sandpaper on a flat surface, I have no suggestion. Does it hone any differently than before?

As far as the tape goes,
I only had that happen when I was first starting out and would set one down and walk away from it (8hrs or so and yes I wiped down the blade)
then I would see a water stain right where the edge of the tape was. Now if I cannot get it done in one sitting I remove the tape and re-apply.
roughkype has hit it on the rest.

Shoot a PM to most senior members and they will be willing to talk to you live as you can cover a lot of ground that way,

Pat

Hi Jye,

Where are you located? It's hard to guess what might be causing a 'feel' issue via the forum. :) Perhaps there's someone close who could give you a hand?

Tape leaving water/rust marks on the blade sounds a bit weird to me too. I've never had anything other than adhesive residue left on the blade by tape. I'm afraid I don't have any other suggestions for that one apart from agreeing with Roughkype about trying some metal polish.

:shrug: