Thread: More pressure?

After a few months of using my feather AC because I hadn't gotten around to refreshing one of my regular straights I finally got tired of it and decided to take one of my straights and hone it up.

Honing is something that I'd say that I'm capable of doing since I usually get it there sooner or later but it is something that I practice too infrequently to actually be good at it.

My progression was:

Chosera 1k

Naniwa superstone 3k

Naniwa speciality stone 5k

Shapton glass 8k

I started out with circles on the Chosera with what I would consider putting pressure on the blade and then a number of x-strokes with a a bit less pressure, then I did circles with pressure on the 3k, lighter circles and x-strokes on the 5k and a few light x-strokes on the 8k.

This did give me a decent edge that shaves well but the thing that confuses me is that the razor didn't leave any swarf on the Chosera(it did on the rest of them though) and now what I'm wondering is if the Chosera actually contributed anything and if what I consider to be pressure may in fact be fairly light.

Try it with some slurry, that will speed it up and it will show swarf better. Some stones seem to show it more for some reason, my King 1k doesn't seem to get dirty where as my Norton 4k turns black but I know they are both working as I check very often with an eye loupe.

I usually use about twice the pressure on a 1k and slowly back down to my normal pressure before I switch hones

The Chosera 1k auto-slurries, so accumulated swarf does not accumulate on the surface of the hone like it does on all the others, so the removed steel is much less visible, but the hone IS cutting steel.

The king 1k also auto-slurries, so that's why the steel swarf also is not visible on Rod's king hone.

The Chosera is a darker color then the 3k SS so maybe it just doesn't show as much. The Chosera is definitely a more aggressive stone and if you're giving it the same pressure as the 3k it will remove more metal. Are all of your stones freshly lapped and clean?

I should clarify auto slurry...

Some stones release their grit faster than others. The Chosera (now Professional) and King 1k both release their grit fairly quickly. You don't really need to create a slurry on these hones because they constantly do it on their own during use. As the slurry is released, the hone constantly has a fresh new surface exposed. You see the steel accumulate on your other hones because their surface does not auto-slurry so steel removed from the edge accumulates, and is visible, on the surface of the hone. Because the surface of the 1k is constantly refreshing, the steel that would have accumulated is released along with the grit and binder of the auto slurrying hone.

Now for the analogy...

Imagine you have a sharp pencil that you want to dull as fast as possible. You have a stack of papers to draw on with the pencil. The rate of dulling of the pencil will be approximately the same regardless of whether you continually draw on one sheet or if you remove the top sheet every 10 seconds and continue drawing on the sheet below. At the end of the process though, if you stayed on the single sheet, you would see a lot more drawn on that single sheet that you would see on any of the sheets drawn on for just 10 seconds.

Originally Posted by rodb

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Will try and see when I hone next time.

Originally Posted by Utopian

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Makes a lot of sense.

Originally Posted by BeJay

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They are now at least, though I'm not a 100% sure if the Chosera was lapped because I haven't used it before but I think I lapped it back when i got it.

I usually agree with Rodb, but I'm not sure raising slurry on the Chosera 1k will help much. Because of how fast the Chosera 1k releases slurry on its own, I don't think it will work any faster by deliberately raising a slurry before starting, but go ahead and give it a try! This is how we all figure stuff out.

It's more of a visual aid to see the swarf if you have to see it working, I had to prove it to myself that way with the King

Originally Posted by Utopian

I usually agree with Rodb, but I'm not sure raising slurry on the Chosera 1k will help much. Because of how fast the Chosera 1k releases slurry on its own, I don't think it will work any faster by deliberately raising a slurry before starting, but go ahead and give it a try! This is how we all figure stuff out.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I usually agree with Rodb, but I'm not sure raising slurry on the Chosera 1k will help much. Because of how fast the Chosera 1k releases slurry on its own, I don't think it will work any faster by deliberately raising a slurry before starting, but go ahead and give it a try! This is how we all figure stuff out.

Making a slurry with the Naniwa dressing stone, on the chosera, makes it even better in my opinion.
It was designed for the professional stones.
It also works well with the SS stones. I've been using the Nanis for a year now, started using the dressing stone a month ago and have noticed a big drop in time on the hones.