Thread: Narrow Belgian hones

I am still experimenting with techniques and stones, but these are the things that I noticed:

- use it without slurry after the 8K and it works like a charm for final polishing.
- used with certain slurry stones it is extremely abrasive. much more than the 8K.
- you can use it to remove microchipping without having to fear overhoning.
- you HAVE to round the corners if you want to use it on warped razors, or you'll damage the edge if you are honing the 'hollow' side of the blade

I have 2 small coticule lapping stones. one is cream colored and very hard. it leave a very thinslurry that polishes nicely.
The other one is white, raises slurry like mad and is so abrasive that all your hard work on the 8K is gone after 15 passes.

Like I said I am still finding things out, but currently I use it without slurry after the 8K and that seems to do it for most razors.

The other side is blue (natural combo) but I haven't used that in a while. with a good slurry it is ideal for edges that are prone to chipping. It is very slow, but it seems to me that the slowness is better for edges that would otherwise be difficult to hone.

Oh yeah, my stone is 6" long and 1.5 inch wide. it has a hairline crack near the end, but if it is lapped you cannot feel it when honing.

How slow would you say the blue stone is compared to the Norton 4K?

If I were going to hone a razor from scratch, I would work the edge into shape on the 1K, then do maybe 40 or 50 strokes on the 4K before going to the 8K.

Coming off the 1K, how many strokes would you do on the blue stone before moving to the yellow one?

I'm thinking the slowness will be quite an asset with problem razors, because usually I find that I end up with wires on part of the blade while the rest isn't getting honed enough.

I'm hoping that a slower hone will actually save me time with these blades, since I think I waste a lot of time trying to get the edge uniform. I go through the dull-overhoned-dull sequence several times before I get an edge I'm happy with.

Josh

So many strokes..........WOWZA.........slow or faster cutting will not make the difference. If wires at some part and not others either your stroke is suspect along with pressure or the blade edge needs to be more in line to receive the entire stroke. Sometimes I wonder if folks make honing easier or harder than it needs to be. Tis really not a precise art.

Lynn

Lynn,

I'm mainly talking about warped blades here. I seem to get a fair number of these for some reason. It's really hard for me to get "inside" the warp, so I'll end up overhoning the toe or heel while trying to get the middle sharp.

The 1K and 40 or 50 strokes on the 4K is my routine for an eBay special; with a new Dovo I'd do a quick pyramid and be done with it. After the 40 or 50 4K strokes, a short pyramid usually puts it right where it needs to be.

Just wanted to clarify that I'm not honing these things to toothpicks...

Josh

Between you and Lynn I'm more convinced than ever that there's something wrong with the 4k side of my Norton. 40-50 strokes on the 4k won't make much of a dent in the scratches from the 1k sandpaper, it sometimes takes me 30 minutes to an hour to get to a smooth bevel. Heck it takes ~10 laps just to take the magic marker off the bevel!

Josh,

No matter how ya cuts it, dats a ton a strokes, but........please continue to take on all those ebay dogs.........

Thanks,

Lynn

Originally Posted by mparker762

Heck it takes ~10 laps just to take the magic marker off the bevel!

Whoa! Now that's a slow cutter, indeed. Even my Lithide takes care of the magic marker with 3-4 laps (when I was using it, which was a while ago)

Cheers
Ivo

Yeah, there's a reason I don't use it anymore, and the reason I don't mess with ebay dogs anymore. Those Shapton 2k and 5k hones are callin' my name, though...

I might do 50 to over 100 on the Blue - or even just plain zero and move from 8K to, say, Coticule. Depends on the razor and what I 'feel' it needs.

I am not a honemeister, but have honed more than a few razors by now and I honestly don't remember getting a wire edge more than 1 time. Maybe I just err on the side of under-honing in order to avoid a wire edge (and it was when I was removing a HUGE chip, iirc)

Sometimes I'd spend loads of time on 4K to fix chipping. Especially when I want to stay off 1K.

I guess a true honemeister might do only a few on the 4K, few on 8K and 20 to polish. I have done it on some NOS - but then others have required multiple sessions...

Cheers
Ivo