Thread: Noob + naniwa stones = love. or not?

Originally Posted by alexc81

It does have a focus ring and light buttons but the scope is not so good. Those were the best quality pictures I was able to get after adjusting light, distance and focus.

If you move the ring till the objective is as close as possible to the razor, then make minor adjustments you may me able to get the max power into effect.

If it isn't cutting your bevel isn't set. If your bevel isn't set, all the work you did to go further was a waste.

My advice: Don't expect 30 laps - or any set number of laps - to get you 'there.' Stay on each stone until the work is done. Might be 30 laps, might be 200. Give the edge what it needs. Since it's not shaving, your bevel is most likely not set and you polished an incomplete edge.

Can you position the edge straight up and look directly down at the apex of the bevel with your scope? If you can, and you see any white shiny stuff that way, you still need work on the 1K. Sometimes you can also see white traces at the edge from the side, but it's a lot harder to tell for sure without looking straight down. Ideally the line where the edges meet should be more or less invisible before moving off the 1K. Then you can move forward to the 3k.

Play with the lighting, move it around if you can. Any errant white sheen at the apex is the enemy and must be eradicated with extreme prejudice. Or judicious honing, but the former has a better ring to it.

This thread should help out, PCM took some great pictures of his honing adventures:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ggestions.html

Ya no such thing as a best razor, my finest shaver was a $20 Kinfolks, as far as when they need honing, when you get more experience. And your stropping is better, then they will last a long time between honings. And then only seeing the 12k once in a while to refresh. Plus once you get to that point it's more economical to just send it to a pro.

By the way there is a couple super hone guys over there, Jamie(celticrusader) will definantly get your edges right, much better than they were out of the box, most factory edges are not up to par. Tc

Originally Posted by alexc81

I never apply too much pressure. I always apply duct tape to the spine to protect it. I am not sure how I am supposed to "let the weight of the blade do the job" because if I don't at least apply 20-30grams of pressure (used an electronic scale for "tuning") to the blade it just doesn't sit properly on the hone, so that would result in an uneven finish. I kind of guide it with one finger at the tip and two fingers at the tang.

Hi Alex, one thing that caught my eye in your original post was the blade not sitting properly on the hone. If you mean by that the blade doesn't sit flat on the hone you're seeing something that is quite common. Many razor are not made to lay flat on the hone from heel to point.

Give the rolling x stroke a look in our library ......... http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...lling_X_stroke

And read this PDF, also from the library, to get an idea of how some razors with smiling profiles should be manipulated on the hones ......

http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...t_-_Honing.pdf

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Hi Alex, one thing that caught my eye in your original post was the blade not sitting properly on the hone. If you mean by that the blade doesn't sit flat on the hone you're seeing something that is quite common. Many razor are not made to lay flat on the hone from heel to point.

Actually I meant that if I just place the blade on the stone and let it sit there the tip will raise as the handle is heavier, so the center of weight would be somewhere around the pivot pin. So I have to apply some pressure for the blade to sit on the stone properly.

Also when trying to do a straight 90 degree pass on the stone, the heel part of the blade will fall on a somewhat different angle because the heel is thicker. That's not a big issue though, it will just cause the edge to get a bit wider for the first quarter of an inch or so.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Give the rolling x stroke a look in our library ......... http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...lling_X_stroke

This is exactly how I do it now. I start at an angle, maybe 60 degrees between the edge of the blade and the long side of the stone, then I basically slide it towards the end of the stone while applying very light pressure. The tip of the blade gets a somewhat longer motion because the stroke resembles an arc, pretty much like gssixgun does it in his 3 videos.

I'm trying to upload a video of the 3 razors I have. Their edges look real nice with the naked eye, all even and shiny. Save for the dovo which has a liiiitle bit wider edge near the tip and heel. Will post a link to the video here when done uploading to YT.

Can't seem to manage to post the video directly so I'm pasting the link

https://youtu.be/D-rJBCq6CRc