Thread: What do you think of this picture?

Do you want to Look at it or Shave with it. Strong advocate for: hone it, strop it, shave with it. By the time you take pictures of it, you could have gone to the Barbers and had them do it.[emoji41]


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I routinely only look at razors under the scope during the bevel set. That pretty much tells me all that I need to know and it prevents missing things that the most sensitive thumb can miss. I know when my bevels meet in a good edge because I can see it.

AFTER the bevel is set, as confirmed under the scope, I am fine with "hone it, strop it, shave with it."

Originally Posted by Utopian

I routinely only look at razors under the scope during the bevel set. That pretty much tells me all that I need to know and it prevents missing things that the most sensitive thumb can miss. I know when my bevels meet in a good edge because I can see it.

AFTER the bevel is set, as confirmed under the scope, I am fine with "hone it, strop it, shave with it."

I do that after every stage because sometimes microchipping can happen and it is easier to go back and fix as soon as I see it.

Originally Posted by mainaman

I do that after every stage because sometimes microchipping can happen and it is easier to go back and fix as soon as I see it.

At the risk of derailing the thread. How do you fix it? Go to a coarser stone?

Originally Posted by Rami

At the risk of derailing the thread. How do you fix it? Go to a coarser stone?

Depends on why the chipping. Sometimes going back and working more at the lower grits with controlled pressure helps. Sometimes one just needs to use different hones.

How on Earth do you find these on facebook?

Well, most everyone came to the same conclusion that I did. Doesn't look like the bevel is meeting. And honestly doesn't even look like it's polished to 4K, much less enough to shave.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yeah, I think that it is hilarious when people go to extremes with pastes on fancy cloth to show pristinely scratch-free bevels that look beautiful, knowing full well that a few days of real world stropping is going to make that bevel look "real" again.

Another example of that was a knife sharpener guy on facebook bragging up the polished 20k bevel he put on an EDC knife! I cut open boxes, cut rope, and whatever else I need to cut with the knife in my pocket. For that reason, I've never seen any point going higher than 1k on my knife.

Knives and razors first and foremost are tools, and the way that they are sharpened should reflect the purpose for which they are to be used.

Agreed to an extent. My pocket knives are generally cared for on Arkansas stones, so the edge gets pretty wicked IF I have time to go all the way to a translucent. Most days I'll stop on the Hard stone and be happy though. I'll agree that 20K is definitely pointless. The first time you cut anything with that you've more or less ruined half the work you put in to get there. My target is 4-6K, but I like my pocket knives a tad sharper than most.

Actually, in my opinion only, it is hard to tell what the degree of polish is. The resolution of the camera is insufficient to show the polish.

I have not spent any time on FB hone stuff. I have had enough people there tell me they are happily shaving with the sweeny todd razors they just picked up to not even care to bother.

Based on how the blade looked toward the bottom, at a glance the edge just looked rough. In retrospect it's hard to tell if that's low resolution diffusing light reflected off the edge or if it's just not polished to the level it should be. Not that it matters with the bevel not meeting.

Originally Posted by Utopian

And if I saw that edge under my microscope, I would not shave with it. That is because I would know that the edge is not near as good as it could be, so there would be no point shaving with it in its current state.

I believe the difference here is that you would not shave with it because you are an experienced honer and know better. I would shave with it because I am a newb. I only trust the shave test at this point- I assume from the photo the bevel is not set, but I would have to test blade on skin to be sure.

Oh, and bad resolution is bad. In this guy's defense maybe he's just a hobbyist who hasn't shelled out the money yet. If he is a so called "pro" and hones for other people then that is another story and the photo is just embarrassing. Humble opinion.