9 Attachment(s)
First time honing - questions...
Hi! I have a Union Cutlery Spike 9/16 1/4 hollow that was my second straight and had some contact wear. Two about 1mm wide and a large one about 6-7mm long. Here's the large one very close up, farther away, and two of the others:
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Today, I decided to try the first steps at honing. I took my Norton 1K and did sets of 40 circles with edge toward and edge away. I could see the deepest point of the larger ding, and kept doing this many times, alternating between towards and away (probably 30 mins or so). I then did 30 X strokes. I could still see the ding, so I did (many) more of the circles. Finally followed up with 30 more X strokes.
Note: I had the heel forward on all circles so that the stabilizer wouldn't hit. I went clockwise with the edge away, and counter-clockwise with the edge towards me.
Here are shots at this point:
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These show the 6-7mm ding from each side. Note that it is only 2-3mm wide now. The other dings are totally gone.
Questions...
On the edge, when it is toward me, the bevel seems very consistent. :beer1: However, on the edge that is away from me, it seems to be tapered, with a larger bevel at the heel than at the toe. :gaah: Unfortunately, I'm not sure what it was like before I started (I only took shots of the bad areas). Next time I do this, I'll take shots of both sides with less magnification.
If I did cause the uneven wear, and only on one side, what could I be doing wrong with my technique (moving towards me with circles) that would cause this wear pattern?
What can I do, to try to even up the wear, or should I not worry about it?
I'm not sure if the blade was previously honed with tape or not, but I'm not using tape here.
I've been doing fewer circles, with much lighter pressure, when going away from me, as that side looks so much better, and for the last set of circles, I tried placing my finger on top, a third of the way from the toe of the blade, hoping that would even out the wear. I'm not sure that it is helping (seems a little better).
Here is a picture of the heel bevel (almost 2mm), and then a picture of the middle (around 1mm). The toe is the same as the middle now.
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I clearly need to do more with the 1K, to totally get rid of the wear, but I wanted to bounce this off the group, before going farther (and getting too far off course).
I did try to shave arm hairs, and it only does a few, nothing like my Boker (4/8 extra hollow), which has 20-30 shaves on it and cuts them easily. I lightly tried the TPT (on the Spike) and it seems to grab some (I've never done this before, so I can't judge, and don't want to do it on "good" blades).
Once I get the nicks gone, do I need to do X strokes with no pressure, or should I move up to the 4K/8K Norton, which I was going to try the progressions that Lynn mentioned on his video?
Maybe it's blind optimism, but other than being uneven on one side, the bevel seems to look OK. Here is the Boker and then Spike, at the same magnification:
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I'd appreciate any tips/comments/suggestions/critiques you may have!