Thread: Just can't get honing right at the moment :(

Chipping in the later stages of the 1K can be caused by different things. Two come to mind right away. The first is using too much pressure. Often we get in a hurry to get to the finishers and rush the edge. Slow and steady wins the race. Also because the bevel is the most important part of an edge, we should do it well. The other thing that comes to mine is subsurface damage. That is pretty typical of restored or beaten up razors. Think about the serial number on a gun. You can file it off but the lab techs can etch it back with the use of acid. How that works is the metal has sub surface damage that makes the metal softer where the numbers were stamped. It can be the same in edge restoration. Diamond hones have been accused of causing such damage in more than one thread. the only solution is to hone past the damage. Try to rester the bevel two or three times and see what that does, but watch the pressure and don;t rush.

Just based on what you are saying I'd say stop honing until you emotional state is back to normal. Then let us know what's happening with the honing.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Chipping in the later stages of the 1K can be caused by different things. Two come to mind right away. The first is using too much pressure. Often we get in a hurry to get to the finishers and rush the edge. Slow and steady wins the race. Also because the bevel is the most important part of an edge, we should do it well. The other thing that comes to mine is subsurface damage. That is pretty typical of restored or beaten up razors. Think about the serial number on a gun. You can file it off but the lab techs can etch it back with the use of acid. How that works is the metal has sub surface damage that makes the metal softer where the numbers were stamped. It can be the same in edge restoration. Diamond hones have been accused of causing such damage in more than one thread. the only solution is to hone past the damage. Try to rester the bevel two or three times and see what that does, but watch the pressure and don;t rush.

You know i was kinda thinking the same thing... Not to that level of knowledge but that maybe the edge is damaged and I need to just keep going though it until it stops chipping...

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Just based on what you are saying I'd say stop honing until you emotional state is back to normal. Then let us know what's happening with the honing.

I by what ur saying is that you have also experienced issues with ur honing when life gets a little crazy? I only mentioned that life is a little upside down because I think it might be that... That in just allowing my self to get too frustrated too fast... Just a couple people in the fam are in the hospital nothing serious with them it's just normal life stuff

Is your honing area quiet where you can concentrate? When I hone, most all else disappears, radio on, that goes away too, it might still be playing but I don't hear it when concentration is locked to honing, that's where I have to be to do the best work.

When my emotional life is a mess I can't hone to save myself. A combination of being agitated, unsettled and with a distorted sense of time, I can't even get passed the 1k. It's a cruel irony, being that honing is a nice way to spend some quiet time when other areas of life aren't going too well.

I'm thinking pressure could be the issue. If you ever question how much pressure you are using, use less. Rezdog mentioned metal issues, but you say this has happened with four razors, which makes that less likely. Is this only an issue with your 1k? Have you chamfered or rounded the edges on your hones? If you lap it flat and leave that corner sharp it's not that difficult to put small chips in a blade while doing X strokes.

My thinking is that , if you are bread knifing the edge , then it will take a lot longer to set a bevel with , so you'd need some patients to get that perfect apex . Also less pressure as mentioned before should stop the chipping.
Try check the edge after each hone so you can see where you are losing it.

+1 again to center yourself first. Honing is a ghung-fu. A skill learnt over time, and is as much meditative, mental and harmonious as it is physical. Bread knifing is a very aggressive procedure and seems apropos to the current stress you're in, and indicative to the cause of your honing woes. Shaving is done with a very delicate edge, taking out stress on that edge isn't going to allow it to grow and develop. If you can't give it a rest, try some classical music and a glass of absinthe, or wine. Stay away from wagner, something very subdued, and pretend the orchestra is your hone and your conducting it with your razor, with as little weight as possible applied as you progress while being able to keep the razor attached to the hone. There should be no hand, and no honer. Just a razor passing over a stone without a pursuit for a goal- you will suddenly stop, and when you do- realize you're there. Oh, and this is a natural you should be spending 90% of the time on, so you don't over hone. You have an apache gila right? how do you like it?

If you don't have a natural, pm me your address. I will ship you one of my jnats and some nagura to borrow through this stressful time, say 2 months? You will be responsible to not break them and save the packaging- pack them as I did, and pay the return shipping. A natural is mediattive and relaxing, and you don't have to police the edge to watch for overhoning. It's done on a meditative level. no horse no rider. No honer, no hone- just a sharp razor. my best- g