Hones and Edges Under the Microscope
I just finished doing an initial study, with pictures. I thought some of you might be interested.
http://www.tzknives.com/razorhones.html
Eventually, there will be more, and better pictures.
Many thanks to Lynn, Howard, and Charlie, for letting me borrow their expensive hones.
Tim Z.
Great Minds and Similar Thoughts
It turns out that Tony Miller and I were talking about doing a photomicrographic study of different hones just a few weeks ago. I even contacted a professor at a local university about having him make a microscope available to us for this work. I really like the way you correlated stone texture, edge texture and especially the edge texture of different stones with and without a slurry. Tim, this is truly ground breaking work, and your methodology is very scientific. Do you have a technical backround? Getting back to the results, I would like to try to summarize them in a systematical way:
1) The presence of a slurry has the most dramatic effect on the edge of a blade when it is honed with a Belgian stone. The second greatest effect of the presence of a slurry is seen with the Chineese stone. In both cases the effect translates to sharpening, i.e., the removal of metal to yield a sharp edge.
2) The presence of a slurry yields the smoothest edge with an Escher stone. These prized German stones have a great reputation for being the best at polishing the edge of a razor and here is the photographic evidence.
But Tim goes beyond merely confirming photographically what we all kind of knew, his work suggests how to hone to best effect. Once a bevel is established with a Norton stone or equivalent, should we not sharpen it using a Belgian stone with a slurry and put the final polish on it with an Escher stone with a slurry? That's what the pictures indicate to me, what do all of you think? Also, a legendary type of hone is missing from all this, Japanese hones. Tim, would you dare to delve into that world? Thanks for your beautiful work and your "a picture is worth a thousand words" approach. I am learning a lot from looking at and thinking about your pictures.