Thread: Hone of the Day

Been awhile since I've put steel to stone, so getting to put a fresh bevel on a near NOS blade, was a nice treat.

One layer of tape, and set the bevel with the ol' green brick. Next was a butterscotch Washita, to lock it in.

Then the polishing progression of a light blue, Thurigan.
A couple Coties, one slurried, one not.
And final finished on a blue/green Escher.

Thats a small bevel. Cant even see it in the pics.

Mystery Kamisory (NOS)
Mizukihara Tenjyo Suita
Hideriyama Suita tomo nagura

This is a virgin NOS mystery kamisori that was given to me by a friend. It had a light coating of surface rust that was easily removed with mineral oil and fine red scotchbrite. The geometry was pretty wonky but the omote was very flat and well ground. My first attempt at setting the bevel was with Botan but it just wasn't cutting fast enough so I switched to a new and unproven little Hideriyama suita tomo nagura. It is soft and grainy. Kicked up some serious mud with little effort and cut twice as fast as the Botan. The omote came in nicely but the ura required some creativity due to uneven voids in the soft iron steel. Took about an hour to set the bevel then on to botan. The kanji on that tomo was wiped out almost immediately.

Got a little sidetracked this summer, but it is time to get back to some projects. Here's my work area- on the 8k is a little W&B Celebrated. It started cutting arm hairs fairly quickly.

After that, I've got a few touch ups. Nothing serious for my first honing session in a while.

Interesting choice on the NeilMed bottle. How well does that work for you?
Nice tidy setup!

Ha, good eye. Yeah, I like that bottle, it works for me- it gives me just the amount of water I want. A spray bottle would work fine too, but I had that handy.

I'm not a very organized person usually, but it is nice having everything where you need it when honing.

Originally Posted by Straightandproud

This is a virgin NOS mystery kamisori that was given to me by a friend. It had a light coating of surface rust that was easily removed with mineral oil and fine red scotchbrite. The geometry was pretty wonky but the omote was very flat and well ground. My first attempt at setting the bevel was with Botan but it just wasn't cutting fast enough so I switched to a new and unproven little Hideriyama suita tomo nagura. It is soft and grainy. Kicked up some serious mud with little effort and cut twice as fast as the Botan. The omote came in nicely but the ura required some creativity due to uneven voids in the soft iron steel. Took about an hour to set the bevel then on to botan. The kanji on that tomo was wiped out almost immediately.

Just to clear up the terms here. If you look at the pic below, the dark sliver of hard steel on the bigger hollow side is the ura there is no soft iron there. The soft iron is on the omote side & pretty much the majority of the razor.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Just to clear up the terms here. If you look at the pic below, the dark sliver of hard steel on the bigger hollow side is the ura there is no soft iron there. The soft iron is on the omote side & pretty much the majority of the razor.

I get where you are coming from but... It was actually the Ura that was wonky. I had expected the opposite. The Omote side (soft iron) came in quite easily without having to remove much steel. The Ura (front side with kanji) had uneven voids in the steel at the spine causing a teetering effect until it was flattened out a bit. This was a virgin kamisori with zero hone wear prior to this honing session.

Originally Posted by Straightandproud

I get where you are coming from but... It was actually the Ura that was wonky. I had expected the opposite. The Omote side (soft iron) came in quite easily without having to remove much steel. The Ura (front side with kanji) had uneven voids in the steel at the spine causing a teetering effect until it was flattened out a bit. This was a virgin kamisori with zero hone wear prior to this honing session.

OK, let me pull you up there again Ura means back in Japanese not front but I get the issues you're describing. Sounds like the steel went for a bit of a walk in the quench.

With larger kataba (single bevel) tools such as knives it is possible to straighten any warps prior to honing. Flattening the back (ura) on chisels is also done & is called ura-oshi. The back of the chisel is not completely flattened, the hollow is retained but a bevel & the sides are all trued. Might be tricky on something as short as a razor.

I honed up a Sheffield blade on Saturday that really seemed to be sharp. It was cutting through arm hairs with ease, and in my case that usually means it will be a good shaver.

It did technically shave, but it certainly wasn't a good shave.

I decided to try looking at the edge through a loupe. I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I compared it to one of my best shaving razors (again under a loupe) and I couldn't tell much difference between the two. It was only when I looked at an unhoned razor under the loupe that I could see the light reflections that I've been told to look for when the bevel is not set.

In regard to this, are you folks who use a loupe able to detect the difference between a blade that is almost there vs one that is going to be a great shaver? Or is this something that only a shave test will reveal? I did look at the scratch patterns on the bevel and those didn't appear significantly different.

Also, if your shave test wasn't quite there, how far back in your progression would you go- all the way to the bevel setter, maybe somewhere in between?