Thread: How do i remove small scratches in blade from honing?

Ahh, the Coticule...
I've found I too get scratches from some of them.
Think it is bigger particles in the slurry that's the problem, at least it got better with a more carefully made slurry.

Curious how you were able to make a slurry with smaller particles.

Originally Posted by ChopperStyle

Curious how you were able to make a slurry with smaller particles.

Hmm, how to explain... well here it goes.

If you rub your hone with the slurry stone very light and careful you will get a fine slurry with small particles,
but if you use to much pressure the friction (my guess) will pull up chunks of particles, you get the same when honing with to much pressure.

It's common with very hard jnats that you get a scratchy/toxic slurry if your not very careful but it can happen on most stones.

As soon you get some strange noise or feel there is something bad on your hone, rinse and start over.

Makes perfect sense. Thanks for the explanation.

I don't know. The kind of slurry you get is more a function of the hardness of the hone in relation to the hardness of the slurry stone. If you press harder you will pulverize the particles more and get a finer sorting and more of it. Press lightly and you should get less slurry material and coarser material.

That makes sense to me anyway.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I don't know. The kind of slurry you get is more a function of the hardness of the hone in relation to the hardness of the slurry stone. If you press harder you will pulverize the particles more and get a finer sorting and more of it. Press lightly and you should get less slurry material and coarser material.

That makes sense to me anyway.

I'm not sure at all what really happens, just know that to hard pressure will mess it it up.
Usually I make it with very little pressure, it takes time but the result is almost always good.
On the hard jnats, 5+ things, I can sit for minutes making slurry, if I press it to go faster it sometimes make a sound like a train wreck and it's all ruined.
Scratches on the hone and a bad slurry, friction is the only culprit I can think of (if I don't know I messed up and tilted a corner of the slurry stone down the hone).

After the slurry making part I sometimes work the slurry with the slurry stone or a piece of scarp steel to make it finer, then I'm sure it's like you describe it, and of course the slurry get worked even more when honing.

I believe the thing that can mess it up are not coarse or fine slurry but lumps of stone breaking free that don't belong in any slurry.

If you have two perfectly flat surfaces there will be no gouges or scratches no matter how hard you press. Either there is debris doing the deed or one surface is not flat or unequal pressure is being applied so as to cause uneven pressure in differing areas of one surface.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

If you have two perfectly flat surfaces there will be no gouges or scratches no matter how hard you press. Either there is debris doing the deed or one surface is not flat or unequal pressure is being applied so as to cause uneven pressure in differing areas of one surface.

You don't buy that a piece can come loose from friction?

Unless you have some flaw in the surface it's a massive piece of whatever the material is be it synthetic or rock. I don't think I have ever seen a post where someone has said their hone was coming apart.

Just as a post script to this when I was grinding down the chunk of Beryl I have though the surface seemed perfectly smooth I kept hitting tiny craters, vugs we call them which had crystals in them and in that case debris was being thrown out but that is very unusual.

On the subject of too much pressure on the honing in general, a full hollow is thinner than a piece of copy paper at the edge. Doesn't take much to flex some of them. We can feel the blade flex on our face when we are shaving. So when someone posts a video or tutorial and talks about applying a "bit of pressure" when setting a bevel it is a relative term that is hard to quantify.