Originally Posted by
Euclid440
Really it is about pressure and the ability to read a bevel.
First we always say less or no pressure, but that is not true.
Iwasaki loosely translated… very loosely…
35 lbs of pressure to bevel set
3.5 lbs to polish
Weight of the blade to finish.
So if you are cutting a new full bevel where you are flattening the bevels, setting the correct angle and getting them to meet, you need some pressure or a lot of laps. Re-setting where the bevels are flat and in the correct plane/angle requires much less pressure.
As Shaun said, once you get the bevels to meet you are next going to polish the deep stria.
Start with the bevel setter, 1K. I joint the edge lightly to get a straight 1K edge then do 10 laps with just the weight of the blade to polish the deep 1k stria and get the bevels to meet the straight edge, they should come back together quickly.
On your polishers remove the previous stria with lite pressure, your edge will not really get straight until about 8k. From the side it will be ragged.
If you see deep stria, go back, one grit and remove it, sometimes high grit polishers will show deep low grit stria that is hidden in the stria.
I lightly joint the edge at each stone up to 8k and join the bevels to the straight edge.
If 8k is you finisher or whatever grit it is, do weight of the blade full strokes to refine the bevel and straighten the edge as much as possible.
The key is to be absolutely sure your bevel is meeting completely from heel to toe, before you progress from the bevel setting stone, otherwise it is hit and miss if you are actually polishing an edge. Sometimes you get lucky and the bevel comes together at a higher grit, next time it does not happen and you system… is not working.
The other thing to look at is chipping, that is caused by too much pressure on the stones, or stropping (most common) or bad steel.
Look at your edge before you strop, and after. If you see reflections, go back to your finishing stone to remove them. If you see them after, you are stropping with too much pressure.
The more you do and look at the bevels the easier it is to diagnose a problem.
You may be honing correctly and undoing it while stropping.