Thread: Honing poor/hard steel and bad geometry???

Man I am relieved that you were talking about shaving angle and not honing angle. I was clearing not getting it. Are you using a loupe for honing. Hair tests take quite a while to get to understand. My go too is a 30X loupe. If I am looking almost straight down on the apex I can easily tell with great accuracy that my bevel is set. Which is a short way of saying that my bevel has come together from each side and makes a perfect apex from toe to heel. One of the tricky things with honing that is very hard to learn is the use of pressure. Too much pressure and although you will have an apex it will be a very rough apex or you may also use enough pressure to flex the blade. Unlikely because it is a 1/4 hollow in this case. A good pressure experiment is to take you razor and pass it down your hone with the lightest pressure you can. Eventually the water will pass under the blade, if you keep just the minimum pressure require to keep water in front of the blade that is the minimum amount of pressure required to actually effect the steel. It takes only a slight amount more pressure to get it to quickly remove steel without being destructive. When getting to the last stokes on a given hone I go with a light touch on the hone to get the stria to be less. It could be a pressure issue, or it could be a hone wear issue but likely operator malfunction. With a razor that is being difficult to hone it is best dealt with over multiple honing sessions. Walk away and come back fresh is most often a great technique.