Thread: Improper bevel development

You guys have it right--yellow/slurry, blue/slurry, yellow/no slurry.

I'm not 100 percent sure why this works, since I've only done a few razors this way so far. I know it's possible to skip the blue, since that's how LX_Emergency does his honing in the video.

I've tried going yellow/slurry to yellow/no slurry, which theoretically seems like it would leave an even finer, more polished edge. Instead the edge seems too polished to cut. I'm not sure how to interpret this exactly, but it just doesn't seem to shave well.

Lynn and Randy, I think, advocate using just five to 10 strokes on the coticule after the 8K Norton. Bruno said that doing a lot more than that seems to dull the edge somehow rather than sharpen it. I've noticed the same thing.

The coticule seems to produce its finest edge within a relatively few strokes after coming off a coarser hone. Right now I do about 20 off the blue, which is slightly coarser than the 8K (and I'm using a tiny coticule). When I get my larger coticule I'll probably reduce this to 10 to 15--we'll see.

I should add that I started out trying to do blue/slurry, yellow/slurry, yellow/no slurry, and the results didn't seem as good.

Anyway, I'm still experimenting a lot with these, so take this as a jumping off place rather than sound advice.

Josh

Very interesting stuff Josh. I'll have to give it a try this weekend.

If I'm getting this right, it's as if the yellow with slurry and with pressure behaves like a medium grit hone, say a Norton 4K.

Does that mean if you come off a 4K, you'd just go to blue w/slurry, then yellow without? That is, skip the yellow w/slurry & pressure stage?

Originally Posted by dylandog

Very interesting stuff Josh. I'll have to give it a try this weekend.

If I'm getting this right, it's as if the yellow with slurry and with pressure behaves like a medium grit hone, say a Norton 4K.

Does that mean if you come off a 4K, you'd just go to blue w/slurry, then yellow without? That is, skip the yellow w/slurry & pressure stage?

That is what it sounds like to me, and that is what I have been doing with good results.

Originally Posted by dylandog

If I'm getting this right, it's as if the yellow with slurry and with pressure behaves like a medium grit hone, say a Norton 4K.

Does that mean if you come off a 4K, you'd just go to blue w/slurry, then yellow without? That is, skip the yellow w/slurry & pressure stage?

If I was coming off the 4K, I'd skip the yellow/slurry stage.

I wouldn't say that the yellow with slurry acts like a medium hone. It cuts like a coarser hone but polishes like a finishing hone at the same time. But then it leaves a really polished edge--just not a terribly sharp one. It's a weird thing, and I can't think of a parallel. I just look at it as a way to get the deep scratches out and prep the blade for final honing. I know I'm repeating myself a bit, but it's kind of hard to explain.

I haven't tried the blue without a slurry yet; that might be an interesting experiment. More to come...

Josh