Thread: my trying to hone

I have a hand loupe. A cheep one and its 60x. I tried to put it in front of my phone and get a couple pics. So here is what I got.

Now the only hone I have is a JNAT. I used a diamond card to work up some slurry. And the bevel had been set on this razor by a Honmiester. I just thought that after 6 or so shaves I'd do a touch-up. I worked on it for a long time. Way longer than I needed too. I just wanted the bevel to be smoothed up really well. I have some of those little stones that you use to make slurry in different grits on order but it will be a little while before I get them.

If you can see well enough in these pics, what do you see? Should I get a stronger loupe as I don't see much. Looks pretty smooth to me but I don't know nothing.

Just playing here and waiting for bed time.

Only thing that catches my eye off the bat is a tiny bit of something shiny on that bottom pic 1/3 of the way off the left side.

Might just be a bit of fluff or something reflecting the light, might be a ding that needs attention. Or maybe just a good stropping.

Edit - is that lighting, or a possible double bevel I'm seeing?

Hi Jerry,

You're going to need better lighting (top picture) and better focus (lower picture). Glad to help but I don't believe we can see what we need to see.

Cheers, Steve

Shave with it that'll tell you everything. Tc

Looks like a double bevel, or not honing to the edge. If that's a hollow ground blade, it's very easy to use too much pressure and cause the blade to flex thereby lifting the edge. Let the stone and slurry do the work and use just enough pressure to keep the edge and spine flat on the hone. Did the 'honemeister' use tape on the spine? Are you?

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

Looks like a double bevel, or not honing to the edge. If that's a hollow ground blade, it's very easy to use too much pressure and cause the blade to flex thereby lifting the edge. Let the stone and slurry do the work and use just enough pressure to keep the edge and spine flat on the hone. Did the 'honemeister' use tape on the spine? Are you?

Winner!
I forgot to use tape as the man used tape to hone it before me. I agree, I need better lighting and the bottom one was dark and out of focus. I need to do better with my pics and eyes and remembering to use tape. I'll do better next time. I hate to spend the money on some kind of microscope. I'm afraid that's getting carried away for just my own use. I did use it to shave tonight. Not bad but not sharp as I'd like.

The shinny thing was fluff. I seem to get fluff a lot when honing. Don't understand why. If I wipe my finger across the edge after honing and before looking at it under magnification its cleaner.

Its a learning curve I'll get over and I think the hardest thing for me is the REMEMBER!

Well, i nust thought about it more. Sense i didnt use tape and it waz set with tape, i made the rear bevel. So i didnt help the edge at all did i? Live and learn. Its fun to hone. Ill keep it up and will be doing a good job in the next month or two. I just know it. And if not, ill be bere co.plai ing that you all didnt teach me enough. Ha.

You might be able to improvise a jig for that loupe out of a piece of cardboard & some books. That'll help fine tune the focal distance & keep things steady

I see a double bevel. If this is just a touch up and there are no bevel issues I would suggest using tape and doing sharpie test to see if you are hitting the bevel. I don't know about the stone that you're using, but if it's just a touch up, you will most likely not want to use very little or no slurry.

Is the blade pulling or lacking keenness?

Inking the bevel will show you what you are honing and if honing to the edge.

Honing with Jnats and honing with slurry will compound your honing journey.

Get with a local mentor who is familiar with Jnats and first find out if your stone is capable of honing a razor.

Hands on learning will dramatically cut your learning curve.

Given that your photos were taken by putting a camera phone behind a loupe, you did pretty well! Obviously the first photo looks better than the second and it's hard to tell how much is photographic artifact vs honing issue.

You really need to focus (pun absolutely intended) on the positional angle of the bevel and the light reflecting off of it. You need to experiment more in order to find the optimal combination that will provide the best realistic depiction of your bevels and edge.

Until you are able to do that, I'm not sure that it is worth speculating on a double bevel. The photo is just too unclear for that.