Thread: Hone of the Day

Put a few razors to the stones, I've switched from shaving every other day to daily and noticed I needed more fine tuning of my edges.

I've been experimenting and finishing my daily shavers on a La Grise Coticule with Ballistol oil, so far these are my best edges for daily shaves. Smooth and sharp.
BBW with oil was also good, but the Coti is a tad smoother and more pleasant to shave off of.


Don't have a picture of it with oil, but here it is with water

Thanks for the tips guys. Next weekend I will give it a try again. I'm going to try to figure out one natural stone at a time now. Boz, I'm afraid that when I'm done I will have more razors to hone. At least I hope so. I'd hate to have all these stones and have no use for them except once every 3 or 4 years.

I don't have any experience with using synthetic hones but if I was following a finishing synthetic with a finishing Arkansas (surgical black, trans) I would not use the ark dry, it will step the edge backwards. On my all ark progression a dry trans steps the edge back from a hard trans (magnification taught me this).
If I was to follow a synthetic finisher with a finishing ark I would go thin to thick (water, dish soap, oil).
If I want to just do a touch up I start dry and progress thin to thick on my translucent. After using CrOx as a slurry on my trans as a final step I've found the best edge I can achieve.
Arkansas' are tremendous hones but there is a learning curve.

Ark porn.

Ark Porn! Love it. We are a strange bunch.

Paul, crox with the final laps? Are you saying mixed in with your thickest oil?

I agree with the thin to thick. The times that the Arkie worked for me this was the way i went. But dont know where you would introduce the crox. Id think mixed with water in the first steps being it is a grit and would remove stria. Than cleaned off and start the oils. JMO.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Ark Porn! Love it. We are a strange bunch.

Paul, crox with the final laps? Are you saying mixed in with your thickest oil?

I agree with the thin to thick. The times that the Arkie worked for me this was the way i went. But dont know where you would introduce the crox. Id think mixed with water in the first steps being it is a grit and would remove stria. Than cleaned off and start the oils. JMO.

I like to think we are 'special'!
I use the CrOx slurry at the very end. My last step before stropping. I've got one of those crayons I got from SRD and rub it on the dry trans then add the oil (I use the stuff Dan's sells). At first it kind of bothered me doing it, sort of negates the arky edge. But if I strop on my CrOx pasted strop after the hone is it any different? Just another, and in my view more efficient, application of the CrOx. I just can not ignore the shave and that's my end game.
I think your going to grow to love your Ark. They force you to spend time with them. Rub them with oil. Learn their intricacies. Progress them to a climax.
Hone porn.

I have learned that what matters is the end result of the individual. I try not to ever say someone is honing wrong. And not saying the crox is wrong. Its what works for you. I enjoy trying different things now with my stones but since im now understanding fully of what im xoing when honing, and just now going to get serious about naturals, i think i will step back from adding crox to the stone. For now, that is. Maybe later.

I have high hopes for the Arkie and dont have an issue doing 100s of laps. My issue is learning when to stop as i like to hone and i know i do more laps than needed. So this should work well for me. I will post my results next week. And in another thread.

We are special alright! And i dont mean short-bus special. Ha.

Paul-I'm intrigued by your contention that starting out dry on the finishing-level Arks takes the edge backwards. I did my entire "thin to thick" progression on my 8x3" SB Ark with several of my blades this week (starting out dry), and all passed the "velvet squeegee" shave test. Of course, it's always possible that I just undid the going backwards on the following three steps (like you: water, dish soap, then oil). I'll admit I haven't studied the edge closely after each step for its effects, so it's entirely possible that you're right. I am not an expert enough honer to be dogmatic about it, and am always learning and tweaking techniques. As you and Jerry just said, the shave test is the only one that matters. Or as I often say, there are many roads to sharp.

Anyway, I will try your way on my next couple of blades to see what happens; I have a Henckels Platinum and an Ern Ator tweaked out to the ultimate Nani 12k edge just waiting for the final step. I may throw in the CrOx mixed in with the WD-40 on my final step just to see what happens. I've tried .5 micron diamond spray on Arks and gotten great results-it sounds like it would work great.

Jerry, I have found that especially with the inherent variability of naturals, it is best to eliminate as many variables as possible while learning their secrets. And what you said earlier about learning one natural stone at a time also makes a lot of sense, as they are all very different, and it is important to know what new introduced variable is creating your results, whether good or bad. They are all very different, and Arks are the most different of all IMO (with cotis and JNATs being close behind).

One other thing-IMO the whole hundreds of laps business on your Ark is not entirely necessary. I am finding that, at least with heavier grinds on a well-burnished (really, almost mirror-like) 8x3 SB Ark surface, more aggressive torque/pressure on the edge over lots of back and forths/circles (who counts?) will get you there much faster, and with zero edge degradation. YMMV, and I would work up to this slowly and check the edge frequently to see how you are doing. I wouldn't try this with any other natural, and of course you even it all out with some perfect x-strokes at the end of each stage. Stop and move to the next stage when it starts to grab/dig in-very dangerous on an Ark! It will just keep getting better and better IME.

I may get ambitious and try Paul's method on a couple here in a bit, then report back. All for now-SHD

Ive now read this a few times from different members, more preasure on an Ark. This just doesnt seem right to me. With my full hollow razors (most of them are) more preasure causes the edge to flex away from the stone and then the only area being honed is part of the bevel behind the edge. I do check for this often with my scope and have seen it many times.

So how can the type of stone keep this from happening?

Aaron, i like it! The Velvet Squeegee. Nice! I think we need to take this to another thread as this is hone of the day. Still, ive enjoyed reading the opinions.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Ive now read this a few times from different members, more preasure on an Ark. This just doesnt seem right to me. With my full hollow razors (most of them are) more preasure causes the edge to flex away from the stone and then the only area being honed is part of the bevel behind the edge. I do check for this often with my scope and have seen it many times.

So how can the type of stone keep this from happening?

Aaron, i like it! The Velvet Squeegee. Nice! I think we need to take this to another thread as this is hone of the day. Still, ive enjoyed reading the opinions.

One last clarification: the extra torque/pressure advice really only applies to beefier/wedgy blades that don't flex like a more hollow grind for the reason you mention. Full hollow grinds obviously get much less pressure, but an intuitive, experienced honer paying attention can still let the blade/hone feedback tell him how much pressure he can get away with, but you're probably back up into that hundreds of laps territory with the real hollow grinds. Back to HOTD.

How translucent is your translucent?Here is my old 8x2 Norton. Crazy sharp edges off this thing.