Thread: ready to call it quits....

Originally Posted by edk442

i'll admit i winced when i heard the words power sander and stone in the same sentence

You winced?

My lightning thought was "How TF did I miss that a power sander is to be used and did not recommend something else?" - even though, to be honest, I have no experience with power sanders... Maybe they can work?

Cheers
Ivo

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....Power Sander .....Arg Arg Arg....

Honing is not rocket science and you can do it. First, are you using magnification to see what you're doing to the edge? That is by far the best way I know of to better understand what you're doing to the steel. The Radio Shack illuminated magnifier for $15 is perfect for the job or you can use a 10x loupe or an OptiVisor. The Dovo should not take that long to get it from "factory edge" to "shave ready". Where are you located? If you're in or near Massachusetts, stop by and I'll help.

Did I say "power sander"? I mean a "hand held" sander: the kind with the no-slip rubber padding. No moving parts.

I DO need to pick up a microscope. Thanks for the feedback.

Howard,

Thanks for the offer to help. The timing is bad: I used to live in Providence but just moved to New York. I'll pick up the micro and perhaps I'll make some more headway-- I've already noticed an improvement since I lapped the stone.

When I buy a new Dovo I do one 4K stroke if needed and 20 or so strokes on 8k. I find the bevels perfect, hopefully they haven't gone down hill in the last year.

I thought of another possibility on my experience with Dovos: Several of the ones I've honed have come from guys who tried honing them on their own and couldn't get them sharp. So maybe I've just had problem children sent my way... Or maybe they were just messed up from newbie honing attempts...

I'm not knocking the quality of these razors at all--the steel is great. It's just been my impression, based on the very limited number I've worked on, that the factory bevel is a little too steep. (I did buy a Classic 6/8 recently for my own rotation, and I noticed the same thing. Mine took a fine edge after I adjusted the bevel.)

Take it with a grain of salt.

Josh

Get a coticule and use that after the Norton 8k and then strop. Are you using magnification? That will tell you a lot about what you're doing.