Thread: Skipping grits when honing

Question guys. Have any of you ever skipped grits when honing? I bought a Wade and Butcher arrow a while back, and it said shave ready bit couldn't cut butter. I put it aside. Now that I've been slowly learning to hone, I decided to give it a shot. Off the 1k Norton It was going great, even cut some hair. I moved to the 4k and everything went south. It's like I lost the edge. This kept happening, until I skipped the 4k and went to the 8k. Everything worked out good and it has a great edge and shaves really nice. But just wondering what happened, or why. Is that something anyone had to deal with?

Impossible to diagnose over the internet. If it were me, I would go and re-lap my 4k and try again.

The point of using multiple hones is to save time. You could, in theory, go from no bevel to shave ready on any high grit hone, but it might take a while. The purpose of a good 4k (or mid grit hone) is that it saves you from having to do more work on a high grit hone.

The weird thing is that this has only happened with this particular razor. I always lap the stones before use, and haven't had any problems, besides me being new and still learning, but all the other razors I've put on them come out fine. It's bugging the heck out of me.

So, as I understand what you are saying, you did a 1/4/8 progression, and set the bevel, but got chipping after 4k. So you did another bevel set and went from 1k to 8K and got a nice edge?

Yes, that is absolutely possible…. because you already did all the heavy lifting when you set the bevel the first time.

A proper bevel set, 1. Flattens the bevels, in one even plane, from toe to heel and spine to edge, 2. Sets the bevel angle, spine to toe, and 3. Brings the bevels to meeting at a straight edge.

The largest amount of work is flattening the bevels, where you remove the most metal. Once the bevels are flat and angle is set, or at least close, getting them to join only takes a few laps on a quality, high grit stone.

That is why Jointing, lightly dragging the edge on the corner of the stone, to remove chipping and straighten the edge, then re-setting the edge is possible in a just few laps.

I doubt you would have the same results with a razor that had not been bevel set, although modern 8k stones are very aggressive and more than capable of setting a bevel on a razor that had previously been bevel set. It will just take some laps.

You can make large jumps in grit size, but you will pay for it in time removing deep 1k stria, and as a novice run the risk of using too much pressure or ruining the edge in a missed stroke.

The smaller the steps in progression the less time you have to spend on each grit.

Yes that's what I did. Now when I looked at the blade through a scope, it looked fine, it just lost its sharpness with the 4k. As soon as I took the 4k out, it was fine. I just don't get how that happens. I tried pressure on it, no pressure on it. Changed my angle, position, everything. No matter what I did that blade did not like the 4k stone!

Is it a new Norton 4k?

Some Norton's need a bit of the top layer remove, before they will cut evenly. Or as said it could need Re-lapping or the edges chamfered. Most new guys lap the stone by gridding with a pencil once and call it good. But the stone slurry may be washing off the marks and the stone is still not flat and uneven. Use a 300-400 Diamond plate or 325 Wet & Dry on a flat surface.

When you hit grit with a razor, that has never been lapped smooth it tears up the edge.

Re-lap your 4k, by gridding it, 2 or 3 times ,spinning the stone 180 degrees to ensure you have lapped off the grid mark and the stone is flat, and not just washed them off with slurry.