Thread: Hone of the Day

Originally Posted by Thug

I have a Carson Micromax which I've always battled to use and which has prevented me from re-setting bevels and doing a full progression. Last night I was looking online for USB microscopes and ordered one which has the following main specs which hopefully will now help my honing skills:

Image Sensor: 1MB Colour CMOS
Focus Range: 0 - 40mm
Magnification: 50 - 1000x

Good luck. Hope your works better than mine. Magnification said 200x but my 60x loupe has better magnifiction. Cost mec65 bucks too. Well it does work for posting close-up pics at about 30x.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Good luck. Hope your works better than mine. Magnification said 200x but my 60x loupe has better magnifiction. Cost mec65 bucks too. Well it does work for posting close-up pics at about 30x.

Thanks, this was also in the region of $60 which was the middle of the range price wise. Let's hope it does the business.

These are shots of my recent acquisition, an Ozuku Asagi, clearly the first picture is of the stone prior to lapping, showing the stamps. The second of course is post lapping, and the stone is wet showing the Asagi colour. I honed a Thiers Issard Spartacus 7/8 just now, and I took it to the Ozuku after the 8k synthetic level. I looked under magnification and saw that the synthetic striations were all but gone leaving the desired Kasumi finish. I used a fairly thin slurry made using a diamond plate, from the stone itself. I then diluted to water only, doing say, 10 minutes of x strokes. I'll have a shave with it in the morning. This stone is very hard, and an ideal finishing stone, it is full sized and double sided, weighing 1664 grams so it will last well.

Final finish on unknown French or German oil stone for a Pradat Thiers.
Mike

Rain on and off today and I needed a break from a presentation I am working on.
Dovo 6/8 that was previously finished on a Nakayama Asagi. I did water finish and wasn't that happy with the edge so I decided to try the new Ohzuku. Super hard stone, I was lapping it with an Atoma 400 and after close to 60 min over the last 2 days this is what i got. You can see the pencil grit at the ends but the middle is flat so thats what I used. Short x strokes.
Initially raised slurry with Atoma 1200 and shaved, not bad but could be better. Next I raised slurry with a hard Nakayama tomo. Honed until thin slurry and that's where it got interesting. The slurry became almost oily, like the water is not acting like water. That's what water only on my BG Escher does.

Hand stropped x5 and it gives silent HHT for whatever that's worth. Next step strop and shave.

Originally Posted by Learner

That's a good description; I have an 8/8" Filarmonica that sounds like "scraping burnt toast".

Never heard that while shaving with my 8/8 Filly. The sharper the razor the less noise IME.

Originally Posted by Kees

Never heard that while shaving with my 8/8 Filly. The sharper the razor the less noise IME.

Kees, I'll do some more honing and refining and see If I agree. Thanks for the input, It's always helpful to get the opinion of others
and to think about those opinions with an open mind. That is how learning occurs.

Received what appears to be a NOS 8/8 Gens razor today. 30 laps on my trusty veinette coticule was all it needed, these beasts hone themselves.

Took out my Filly yesterday: shaved off 3 days' growth, one pass ATG.
Shave not noisier than average.

Learner, that 'burnt toast scraping' is pretty typical of a 'singing' razor. That 'singing' term is marketing at it's best... or worst depending on how you view accuracy lol.

Cheers, Steve