Thread: Second try at honing...seeking opinions/suggestions...

There are different aspects of honing, or categories. There is the touch up, where you simply refine an already made bevel and tune the edge up a little. There is a full hone, where a bevel is reset, but one had already existed. This is done sometimes because of minor issue like the edge has been mildly damage from a light faucet kiss or a rolled edge, or a friend checking out you razor and killing the edge on their thumb nail.
There is also chip removal, where again a bevel exists but the edge needs to be honed back a bit to remove larger chips.
Restoration honing is the big one. You are essentially creating the entire bevel from scratch where no reminants of a bevel exists. This one may also include damage anlong the edge that is visible, or invisible damage where the steel has suffered sub surface damage and chips show up sort of all of the sudden.
This is all to say without any geometry issue being thrown in just for fun. The principles of honing are simple. As long as you are honing a solid blade and working in the first two categories all should be easy to deal with.

Originally Posted by MrZ

Having read this thread makes me think razor honers are veritable magicians. Stuff seems overwhelming.

Magicians? Nah. Just patient and diligent. Practice makes perfect, and once you have a feel for the pressure/torque involved it can be fairly easy to get a good shaving edge on a blade. Having a site like this that has an excellent catalogue of how-to threads and many a knowledgeable member to learn from makes it that much easier to get results.

It's been well worth the cost of hones and time I've put into learning their ins and outs. At least from my perspective. YMMV.

Originally Posted by MrZ

Having read this thread makes me think razor honers are veritable magicians. Stuff seems overwhelming.

Honing is one of those things that looks deceptively simple and it is once you have gained enough experience through practice. It is getting to that point that can get frustrating. It is not something that you can do by rote either, there is a lot of art to it. Once you learn a few things it can be good fun to do.

Bob

Bob is correct. Honing can be fun.

One problem on the learning curve is few razors are alike. Learning how to address the vagaries of blade manufacturers and previous often inexpert honings makes the curve seem insurmountable and terribly difficult. Practice is the best way to get to that perfect edge.

Attending meets and spending time with experienced honers is the best way to learn.

Originally Posted by Marshal

Magicians? Nah. Just patient and diligent. Practice makes perfect, and once you have a feel for the pressure/torque involved it can be fairly easy to get a good shaving edge on a blade. Having a site like this that has an excellent catalogue of how-to threads and many a knowledgeable member to learn from makes it that much easier to get results.

It's been well worth the cost of hones and time I've put into learning their ins and outs. At least from my perspective. YMMV.

Nothing to do with magic and everything to do with technique! You don't need a whole bunch of hones either. That may come later as a personal choice. Only need one stone to set the bevel. If you can't get the bevel set, the other stones are useless to you. Again I wish you all the best!

Originally Posted by pcm

I honed with 3 layers (started with circles, then did X pattern with moderate pressure, and finally lighter pressure) and looked at the edge. Was able to get rid of the large parallel scratches I had before easily. There are a few from the circles. Most seems OK. The toe is the only part where there is little bevel. Looking down on the edge, it seems to meet pretty good for all but the toe.

Here are some shots at high resolution:

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Edge (middle is near toe) ^

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Mid ^
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Toe ^
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Heel ^

what do you use to take these pictures? It shows a lot of good detail. I would be interested in providing this kind of detail when I ask a question and feel I need to show a picture of my razor

Id guess its a digital microscope. I have a USB microscope i plug into the co.puter once in a while. Pics are not real great but close enough to show what your talking about. You can find them on amazon

Originally Posted by mitmitzoom

what do you use to take these pictures? It shows a lot of good detail. I would be interested in providing this kind of detail when I ask a question and feel I need to show a picture of my razor

USB microscope I got from Amazon a few years ago. Maybe $60 or so. Brand was DBPOWER, some cheap Chinese microscope with stand.

Rezdog pointed me toward this thread.

Seeing the edge pics of the bevel in this thread was useful, especially in regard to how as the bevel improved the shiny spots went away.

Since the pics in this thread came from a microscope, I was wondering if I would be able to check the edge in the same way with a loupe? I had a decent lighted loupe that I seem to have misplaced. I just picked up a handheld microscope but I can't seem to get the hang of it, so I'm thinking of trying another loupe.

Originally Posted by sonnythehooligan

Rezdog pointed me toward this thread.

Seeing the edge pics of the bevel in this thread was useful, especially in regard to how as the bevel improved the shiny spots went away.

Since the pics in this thread came from a microscope, I was wondering if I would be able to check the edge in the same way with a loupe? I had a decent lighted loupe that I seem to have misplaced. I just picked up a handheld microscope but I can't seem to get the hang of it, so I'm thinking of trying another loupe.

And, I'll in turn point you to this thread, sonny. https://straightrazorpalace.com/honi...pe-honing.html

Pay attention to the discussion points on optical quality versus claimed magnification (e.g., cheap-o eBay $5 30x LED loupes). I recently picked up a BeloMo 10x loupe to replace my cheap-o LED one, the optical quality of which was seriously bothering my old eyes.

The nerd in me would love a USB microscope to play with...but certainly not for the business of honing my razors. A good loupe is all you need.