Thread: Hone of the Day

I too like the Genco. I have three and they are all very good. I consider them some of the best buys in my collection.

A Bruno blade off the Norton India....

Nice!

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by sharptonn

A Bruno blade off the Norton India....

I really like India stones. Carborundum stones seem to leave deep scratches like diamonds but those India stones leave a nice fine edge. IMO

Honing last week sucked. I tried the Gok20k but was getting chippy edges even with jointing and going back to 8k. Next I tried the Ohzuku and the shave wasnt great. So when it all fails I go back to the green Nakayama, raised slurry with 1200 Atoma this time and worked all the way down to water.
This AM the shave was perfect with the 6/8 Dovo. Alum didn't sting a bit. I know that HHT is subjective but after stropping on the fire hose and then the Kanayama this razor is giving silent ones.

Originally Posted by alex1921

Honing last week sucked. I tried the Gok20k but was getting chippy edges even with jointing and going back to 8k. Next I tried the Ohzuku and the shave wasnt great. So when it all fails I go back to the green Nakayama, raised slurry with 1200 Atoma this time and worked all the way down to water.
This AM the shave was perfect with the 6/8 Dovo. Alum didn't sting a bit. I know that HHT is subjective but after stropping on the fire hose and then the Kanayama this razor is giving silent ones.

Just a thought. All the extra work after the 20k may have solved the problem rather than any one stone being the solution.

Slurry work on fast cutting Jnat finishers can often "heal" an edge especially after restorations where one can sometimes miss clearing up early stage bevel work.

Testing a members pretty pretty coticule.
Mike

Finished up some Japanese blades on some jnats.
A couple Saito creations, the SK3 and the Gloria, a Trade Mark, and a folding kami 'Hatori Deluxe' that seems to be made of very hard steel..
And also put my Riga to the Escher to clean up the edge a skosh.

Some very sharp edges, and a nice way to finish a long weekend.
Cheers men.

Originally Posted by Steel

I really like India stones. Carborundum stones seem to leave deep scratches like diamonds but those India stones leave a nice fine edge. IMO

Carborundum stones are pretty bad for razors unless they're really fine. Their cut depth is more suitable for high speed steel or something that doesn't fracture.

I've not used one on a razor, but I learned a lesson about them with a Kiyotada chisel. Kiyotadas were sought after in japan for a while (still are to some point), but some of them are not as similar in hardness as you'd expect (I have three). The one of mine that is really hard will literally not tolerate having its bevel set on carborundum stones - diamonds would be out of the question. When you work the bevel on carborundum, it looks fine, and then somewhere around the final stone, it crumbles. I'd estimate the chisel to be somewhere in the 66 range, which a lot of japanese tools claim, but I haven't found to be true when trading time on a versitron (some can be sharpened on arkansas stones, too, which means they definitely aren't close to that).

Anyway, that creates an issue where the steel is too hard to sharpen easily on natural stones, but it won't tolerate anything other than slower synthetics. I got by with an india, but have been careful with the chisel not to damage anything.

totally different thing, though. Japanese carpenters didn't want to be seen sharpening a tool on a job site, so they wanted their tools to be as hard as possible, even though it made sharpening a lot harder. Some english craftsmen did that, too, taking several chisels and plane irons to work (instead of seeing if they could push one all day) and then resharpening them at night while they weren't on the job.

Long useless story, but agree - carborundum and crystolon stones in the coarse variety are a no-no (they are friable, too, when they're new), and when they're fine, I don't know what they are accomplishing on razors, because they cut deep tiny grooves - so they're not fast, but you have to make a lateral move to a slower/shallower cutting stone around the same grit level before you can move up.

Did I mention that I have about 10 carborundum stones? I got them in a machinists lot and found out quickly why so many of the old ones show up without much use, despite the fact that they cost about the same amount as a washita back then. The coarse ones did get used in shops and jobsites, though - but a washita or india stone usually followed them.

Originally Posted by DaveW

Carborundum stones are pretty bad for razors unless they're really fine. Their cut depth is more suitable for high speed steel or something that doesn't fracture.

Carborundum hones are identified as razor hones or sharpening hones. For the most part only the razors hones should be used with razors, and they work quite well.