Thread: Honing advice

I have a norton 4k/8k combination stone on the way from Howard. I also have a flattening stone coming, as well as a variety of wet dry sandpaper ranging from grits of 120-6000. I also have a 3 line swaty hone that I am going to try to get into shape. I also have a TM paddle strop pasted 3.0 1.0 .5 I do have a few questions.

Will I be able to lap the swaty hone and chamfer the edges with a flattening stone?

I have a couple razors which appear to have a microchip in them. I do not have experience in honing and am wondering what I could do to remove the chip and get the razors back into shaving condition. I am sure the advice is going to be send it to a honemeister but at the moment I Really should not spend the money. Plus I am getting a 7/8 W&B back from Joe any day now and I am going to shave with that. Am I going to be equipped enough to handle these razors?? There is going to be a 6/8 TI and a 5/8 Wapienica that I believe need a little help. They both appear to have a small chip, and the Wap I have not touched it to a hone since it arrived a few weeks ago.

If anyone could help me better define what a bevel is and how it appears on a razor that would help alot. I am not sure exactly what to look for when honing a razor other than a blade that shaves well. I have seen other people talking about a burr and really I guess I need a solid foundation as to what it actually means to get an edge on a razor.

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For those micro nicks you'd do best to draw circles with the blade on a coarse hone, say 1,000 grit.

The bevel is quite simply the 'V' the steel forms at the edge.

Lap that Norton on Some 800 grit wet/dry paper before you use it and round of the edges just to be sure its ready to go.

Some guys like the X honing motion, but I prefer the Rolling Hone method where the part of the blade in lightly pressured contact with the hone slowly moves up the blade from heel to tip throughout the honing stroke.

MOST IMPORTANT!!!
Work very hard to keep your pressure even up the whole edge and on both sides. Many out of the gate mistakes are due to not being equal all over. Take your time and pay close attention to the sounds and feels that your blades make across the hone. This is useful information.

X

Yep, a 1000 grit stone is the right thing to start with. And don't try replacing it with sandpaper, that's just not even enough.
Greetings,
oskar

so I have to buy yet another stone? On Lynns DVD he uses the 4000 side of a norton for a chip in a razor.

If you have a bad chip you can mail the razor out to get fixed and learn to hone after you have a good (chipless) razor.

I would recommend just buying some 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper instead.

Lets focus more on your knowledge and techniques for now and not make anymore purchases or trades.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Lets focus more on your knowledge and techniques for now and not make anymore purchases or trades.

Good advice even though for a noticeable chip I think a coarser stone would be better.

Originally Posted by matt

so I have to buy yet another stone? On Lynns DVD he uses the 4000 side of a norton for a chip in a razor.

I have gotten successful use out of my 4k Norton on micro nicks detectable by TNT, but hardly visible. Anything greater than that and I use my cheap Chinese kitchen hone.

X

I just opened up the Norton in the mail and see it has some fairly large chips on the back edge and some small chips on the long edge of the 400 side..

Howard said he was going to lap the stone before he sent it. I am not sure what a lapped stone would look like. The edges seem pretty sharp. What should I do?? I am assuming that I should send it back but I do not know if I could fix it up myself. I contacted Howard a few minutes ago by e-mail and am awaiting his advice.

A picture might help. Its possible that edge chipping wouldn't effect the performance at all. You might even find many members bevel the edges down anyway. Honestly there is a lot of extra honing surface you don't need on a Norton.

How much of the honing surface is actually effected by the chips?

If you decide that the chips are only on the edges and you want to keep it, just soak it and then lay it on a flat countertop. If its reasonably lapped it'll stick hard from suction to the counter top.

The larger chips happen to be on the back corner which I suppose is not a big deal. There are some smaller ones running along the edge that I am assuming would be since the blade would most likely contact them.


The edge seems a little rough


the chips in the corner

It looks ok to me. You might file it down a little in those spots. You can easily avoid that section all together and after a few lapping sessions it'll be a non-issue.