Thread: honeing- X versus diagonal-ish...?

This part of post number 24 had me laughing . . .


"Now, when newbie gets his brand new stainless steel DOVO micarta razor, and his brand new Norton hone, the problems start. The razor, is offcourse, not sharp enough to shave, and the newbie is even having problems to keep his blade in contact with the stone when honing. The obvious honing method a clever newbie is gonna try is pushing his brand new hard as hell razor straight through the hone, with two or three fingers laying on the spine, and with ~45 angle to the horizontal axis on the hone. "Hey, this was easy", says newbie. "I only wonder why even after numerous pyramides, cubes, spheres and what not, the razor is not giving me comfortable shave??" I'll tell you why. Because the razor has even slight smile to it, and the 4000 side is not abrasive enough to straighten the geometry of the edge, especially with the light-as-a-feather pressure you are using. That is also why your razor is passing the damn HHT only on couple of places, which are, you guessed it, the ones that are in contact with the stone. "

What a great thread that was. Sometimes you just wanna say "Sure, try it for a couple of years and will talk later"

The answer to your last question was, yes. But as you noted both methods apply opposing striations. Which is why, on occasion, the straight push will work, ok. But that doesn't make it the best method.