Thread: Hone Problems

This is not a question but more a statement concerning the number of questions that I am seeing about problems. I was thinking about this as I was working on a few razors and I had to pay attention to what was happening to the edge as I honed. A lot of problems that new people will experience can be eliminated if some care is taken BEFORE you begin.

Hones/stones/rocks: Keep in mind this little adage, A new hone is not flat, a hone you have purchased from someone that said it was lapped is not flat. Also consider that lapping stones are not flat either. When I get a new hone I usually take it to the granite place down the street from me and for a few bucks they will true it up for me to within 0.0007+/-. I have even taken them stones that I have had for years and lapped with different methods only to find out that they were not true but that can be attributed to the fact that I am not using a laser and high tech equipment to lap my hones. I realize that most people do not have the luxury of being able to do that. My usual method is to use a thick flat piece of glass or granite with wet/dry sand paper under running water to lap a stone, and it has served me well when check by the shop but not as close to what they can get. A lot of problems with honing can be traced to the stone not being flat, look there first.

Work surface: This is what got me to thinking about this. I was working on a makeshift work space because my usual was occupied at the time. The surface I was using was not level and I had to pay close attention to what I was doing because of that. If your work surface is not level correct it. Look at this as a potential problem.

Water line: What I mean by the water line is, that area of water the runs ahead of the edge as you make your stroke. If the water line is not level or disappears at any portion of the edge then you are losing contact with the stone at that part of the blade. Any number of things can be attributed to this. A warped, bent or twisted razor, a hone that is not true. But the first thing I would look at is the level of your work surface. My makeshift work surface was not level and the water/slurry would start to run to one side of the hone. At first I thought I had a bent razor but when I poured some water on the stone it started to run to one side and I knew the problem. For someone new to honing, this may not have occurred to them and they would then spend countless hours trying to figure out why the edge wanders or is not even across the blade.

A lot of problems that we run in to can be caused by such basic and simple things that we don't even consider them. My rule, check the simple things first before trying to explain it with increased planetary gravitational activity due to longitudinal alignment with planet X. YMMV and I could just be full of stuff and nonsense.