Thread: Progression

Originally Posted by cbarker777

How do you know it is time to progress to the next stone?

An old SRP mentor taught me that when the slurry doesn’t darken anymore (especially on the lower grits synthetics tape or no tape), move to the next finer stone. If you prefer to use water only then you are abandoning this and other useful visual observations that can be obtained from using slurry.

Another interesting thread topic might be, “How to distinguish the edge between different final finishing stones.” Hint, no slurry is involved. I hope this may help some. Good luck sir.
MIke

How do you know it is time to progress to the next stone?

By looking at the bevel and edge.

A properly set bevel should, make the bevels flat, align the proper bevel angle, from heel to toe, edge to bevel top and they should meet in a chip free, straight edge.

Here is where 90 percent of new honer problems can be found. One or more of the above 3 is not complete. Moving up rarely resolves the issue, just compounds it.

So, once you think the bevel is set, ink the bevel and do 10 more laps on the 1k, all the ink should be removed all the way to the edge, and when you look straight down on the edge, you should not see any reflections. If you do, you need more work on the 1k.

Then it is just a matter of removing all the previous stone’s stria without dinging the edge. The goal is to reduce the stria/land height with each subsequent grit stone and make a straighter edge. Good, lighted magnification and sharpie ink will make seeing the stria easier.