Thread: Bevelled versus Rounded Edges for Narrow Hones

I have been using a set of narrow hones in the 35-40 x 130-135mm range. At present they are chamfered along the edges. Normally, I'm fine using them, but given their relatively small and narrow size, every now and then a stray stroke sort of flies off the honing surface and onto the honing edge as it were. I am wondering if rounding the edges, rather than chamfering them, might ameliorate the outcome when this occurs.

Personally I would leave it and just slow down to avoid running off the edge.

Rounding is better because it softens the contact during the mistroke. However, in either case you are risking edge damage because all the pressure is concentrated on a single point on the edge rather than along it entire length.

With a narrow hone, you can’t avoid running off the edge. I don’t think it matters much but I do give the edges a light rounding at the end of a quick lapping with the 1k side of a 400/1k plate.

You don’t need much, the goal of both is to smooth the corner and either should be done lightly, after any lapping. For a narrow hone or an X stroke, the edge is the last part of the hone to touch the edge.

Thanks all for your comments. I am aware that the goal is to never have this happen, the issue not being so much speed as its occasional inevitability. Very light rounding would seem to be a good way to go. But sometimes, the stone as received from the producer or seller already has a significant chamfer, so it's a matter of rounding the closest line there.

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

But sometimes, the stone as received from the producer or seller already has a significant chamfer, so it's a matter of rounding the closest line there.

Exactly! You just want to round over that line between the honing surface and the chamfered surface.

+1 for rounding the edge

Originally Posted by Utopian

Rounding is better because it softens the contact during the mistroke. However, in either case you are risking edge damage because all the pressure is concentrated on a single point on the edge rather than along it entire length.

Originally Posted by bouschie

Personally I would leave it and just slow down to avoid running off the edge.

These 2 pretty much sum it up. If you don't run off the edge, it won't matter if it's square, beveled, or rounded. I do prefer a rounded corner because it's more forgiving, but at the end of the day if the blade slips off the hone due to a miss stroke you're more than likely going to have to fix the damage you just did to it regardless of what the stone's corner profile is.

Just to clarify, it's not so much an issue of the blade or tip/toe running off the edge, but the blade lifting up at some point during the pass given the relative narrowness of the stone being used. The blade lifts up, and a point-by-point contact is suddenly made between the edge/bevel of the blade and edge of the stone, as Utopian has mentioned. The trick, I think, is how to arrive at a momentary steeling effect to lessen the damage should this happen. Rounding the very edge of the stone would seem to help in this case.

I bevel/round all of my stones.