Thread: Honing tip: If the razor's a-hoppin...

...don't keep a-soppin'-


I have been trying to learn to hone my Dovo Bismarck for about a year now and finally had a small revelation. Sometimes I have noticed that I just couldn't get the blade to make a smooth lap up and down the hone. It would stick, it would hop, it just wasn't working. I figured it was just bad technique. Turned out to be the fact that I was using a kitchen towel to wipe off the hone between passes, and it was leaving invisible fibers behind on the hone. A quick rinse in the sink fixed it.

This may be completely obvious to others but it is kind of embarrassing to think back to how long I have been playing around with this before figuring out that rubbing a soft cotton towel on an abrasive surface just might abrade that towel.

Hey, at least ya figured it out.

I had the same issue, now I always rinse under water and rub with my hands to remove any lint, dust or stray moustache haor (you'd be surprised!).

Just curious - why would you wipe the hone after *each* pass? I've never heard of that, read about it, or seen it in any video?

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

Just curious - why would you wipe the hone after *each* pass? I've never heard of that, read about it, or seen it in any video?

I don't think he meant between each and every pass, just at intervals.

"... I was using a kitchen towel to wipe off the hone between passes..." I read that to mean between each pass, but it's certainly not clear. I still don't get the idea of wiping it with anything rather than rinsing it clean under running water. The whole idea is to keep the surface free of contaminates.

I thought you were going to say if the razors a hoppin...don't come a knockin.

You always need a clean surface (slurry not included) so if any foreign matter gets on the hone be it cloth or paper or anything to impede the honing stroke it needs to come off or it may damage the edge of the blade and it doesn't take much collision impact to damage it.

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

Just curious - why would you wipe the hone after *each* pass? I've never heard of that, read about it, or seen it in any video?

Yes, I mis-wrote -- meant to say that I would clean off the surface of the hone after, say, doing a bout of 40 circles. I wanted to get rid of the swarf, spray on some clean water, and see what I was doing. Getting up and going to the sink to rinse off the hone didn't enter my mind when I could just give it a quick swipe with a cloth.

Live and learn.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I thought you were going to say if the razors a hoppin...don't come a knockin.

Yep, that was the popular reference I was going for! Always looking for a catchy title for threads. Also have read some threads on other SR forums where newbies would ask "Why does my razor hop when I'm honing?" so figured maybe I'm not the only one and maybe someone else will Google "razor hopping on hone" and see this.

I've had it happen when part way through honing I've done a little test on some arm hair or whatever and all it takes it one hair to be left on the blade and next thing you know that hair is on the hone and you get a bump in the feedback as you make your next pass. I'm nearly maniacal about a clean hone so at the very first sign of anything out of the ordinary I stop, rinse and inspect both hone and blade before resuming.