Thread: Purpose of Polishing?

After reaching a very sharp edge after honing, what are you trying to achieve by moving to a polishing stone, or paste? - and, when, during this process, do you know you have accomplished what you are looking for?

Sorry for the stupid questions.

Thanks,

Steve

A polished edge cuts very smoothly and easaly. A coarse will cut, no doubt, but it will be a jagged biting cut.

Polishing is not the aim but rather a side benefit of producing a very kean edge. A high quality stone will form a great edge and polish at the same time. I don't think anyone tries to polish an edge with the aim of just polishing it.

Zepplin,

Your combining thoughts that don't belong together. After achieving an almost sharp edge you polish to achieve a sharp edge. "Polishing" is the same as honing if you think about it, but with higher and higher grit. If you look at any polishing compound it contains something that acts on the object to be "polished", like honing.

When "polishing" you can can "polish" out the striations in the bevel and they start to get really small and tight. Sometimes this starts to lead to a "break" when the razor is being turned on the stone. You'll hear (if its dead quiet in the house) a pop as you lift the razor on the turn. As you "polish" some more you'll feel tension in the blade/hone contact and it'll start to feel a little "gummy" or tighter as you go down the hone. On the turn over the spine you can feel a slight difference when you recontact the hone as it becomes more fragile. Its almost as if the razor starts "plopping" on the hone because its pushing water away as it lands. It'll still get damaged if you drop the edge onto the hone and blow a lot of high quality passes that you might have been gingerly lowering the edge onto the hone, but hey, its only honing.

Obviously you have to really be in tune with your honing when you do this or you'll not feel or hear any of this and think I'm a complete quack (which is cool).

If you want to feel what this is like before hand without spending a few months learning a perfect stroke just get a barber hone and put lather on it. You'll achieve all this with a ordinary honing ability very quickly. I'm told you shouldn't use lather on a Norton though (I've never tried it).

Now I'm going to go out and hone my motorcycle.

Like the others have said, as you go to a higher grit hone, the striations, or scratch marks that the grit causes on the edge become smaller and smaller. The higher the grit, the smaller the scratch, the closer to polished it looks....and the smaller the 'teeth' on the edge.

Optics/Lens makers of old (and perhaps today) use the same techniques to make highly polished and clear lenses.

The polish or mirror edge is just a result of the high grit hone....( I don't want to go into prism effect and light refraction/reflection due to more/smaller scrathes...)

There is a point in which the needed grit to obtain a great shave is questionable. Some people are happy after a 4K grit, some an 8K, and some even push the limits and feel that the best shave is after a honed razor has seen a 12K or higher grit hone, or fine grit pasted strop....

I am sure there are those people out there that like the mirror edge on their razors due to asthetic reasons. However, personally, I find that my most comfortable shaves are from razors that have been finished up on an 8K hone. BUT that's just me. (and that hone leaves a nice mirror edge too )

AT least that is my understanding....

C utz

[quote=AFDavis11;117749]Zepplin,


When "polishing" you can can "polish" out the striations in the bevel and they start to get really small and tight. Sometimes this starts to lead to a "break" when the razor is being turned on the stone. You'll hear (if its dead quiet in the house) a pop as you lift the razor on the turn. As you "polish" some more you'll feel tension in the blade/hone contact and it'll start to feel a little "gummy" or tighter as you go down the hone. On the turn over the spine you can feel a slight difference when you recontact the hone as it becomes more fragile. Its almost as if the razor starts "plopping" on the hone because its pushing water away as it lands. It'll still get damaged if you drop the edge onto the hone and blow a lot of high quality passes that you might have been gingerly lowering the edge onto the hone, but hey, its only honing.

These are the things I need to hear! Back to the drawing board....

Thanks,

Steve