Thread: Honing

Lets see if it worked

Not saying you were doing straight up and back strokes, known here as half strokes, but the result of such a stroke is very often a frown, and on a smiling blade a straightening of the edge.

X-strokes and rolling x-strokes are, I think, the most used strokes. With the smiling spine you want to keep that same geometry of the edge to the spine. Usually, as it's said here, hone to a smile.

Here's a link to gssixgun's honing vids. Scroll down through them and you'll find many helpful vids for most stones and many razor shapes and grinds..



Howard

Edit: not sure how it comes up on your screen, but on my iPad when it comes up it's on a home tab and I have to click the videos tab for a complete list.

http://m.youtube.com/user/gssixgun

I realize this is a well used razor but I bought it to learn how to hone a (inexpensive) razor so I didn't mess up a good one.

Originally Posted by Anthonyb

Lets see if it worked

It's starting to straighten out the edge, but not bad yet. You'll find the vid for a smiling razor in Glen's vids that I linked.

You'll also notice that he tapes the spine. I recommend taping when learning to hone a razor so you don't hone the spine uneven which can really cause some grief. You can always quit taping later, but it sure makes things easier in the beginning.

Cool video, I will work on it tomorrow and see if I can get it. Thanks!

No problem!!

with it!!

Howard

It looks pretty clearly like the center of your razor's spine isn't making contact with the honing stone. This could be either that your hone isn't properly flattened or that your razors spine is not straight. If it's your stone that can be fixed with proper lapping. If it's your razor, you could have either a bent spine or a razor that someone honed on an out-of-whack stone previously. In either of the latter cases, you are best served IMO by either using a narrow hone (or the side of a hone) to work on that razor or trying to tape the edge of the razor and honing the spine selectively with a coarse stone to try to straighten it back out. You can also make a rolling X-stroke work in these cases but if you're a beginner any of these will be tough. But it will definitely give you a few lessons and be good practice.

Welcome...pics pls

+1 on lapping your stones particularly as you've used them for sharpening knives. Also make sure you don't rock the blade as you hone, easily done when you start out.

I got my stones lapped and improved my technique. Got it sharp all across the edge. I also got a couple more stones so that I dont have to use knives and razors on the same ones. Thanks for the good info!