Thread: Only Half Sharp

Originally Posted by gssixgun

You do the Honing Hokey Pokey
and ya turn the rock around
That's what it's all about
Hey...

fixed it for ya.

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The thing is, you can't leave the first rock until she's sticky sharp end to end*. Nothing wrong with working the dull end until it matches and blending them. *including the middle. marker marker marker.

Mixing and matching the strokes to fit the blade and spine is just a part of it. Spending too much time with any single stroke is a great way to induce wear patterns (not good). rock and roll.

and hokey

pokey

I do not try to go too slow. I see the pros do real slow finishing strokes but really it is harder to keep the blade steady for me. I am not saying you cannot do it I just cannot keep the blade flat. On the other hand, going too fast can cause issues.

I do hone sitting so raising my elbow will probably help. I also see I can get more value from the marker test than I have been. Hopefully I can try some of this out over the weekend. Thanks for all the great advise.

One thing I've taken to lately is to alternate between heel first and toe first on the hone when using x-strokes. It's not as tough as it may sound after a little practice. Seems like the heel first stroke many times gets the heel much more worked than the toe. So I alternate using toe first for 30 strokes or so then heel first for the next 30 laps, and on and on. I haven't seen any bad effects and it does seem to even out how the edge grinds itself on the stone. Like most, I much prefer a tiny, even bevel and that seems to have been the final twist I needed to make that happen.

Though trying it on a humpback with a smile can get a little like Olympic gymnastics...

Just wanted to close this out. I tried most everything suggested here and even went to honing while standing. I got what felt like a uniformly sharp edge but after stropping still had a noticible difference from heel to toe. I am sure my honing technique has improved over the last couple of weeks but final issue was with the strop. I have a kangaroo strop and since it is so thin I put a fair amount of tension on it to keep it flat, I thought. I was actually preventing the razor from making consistent full contact with the leather. Loosened up on the strop and maintained little more than blade weight for pressure and I am getting and excellent edge along the length of the blade. I am now working through my small collection of razors to get them all to this standard. Thanks again for all the help