Thread: Sticky feeling

So I've seen videos mentioning it, I've read about it and I've experienced it.

The feeling of your razor sticking to the stone, or a sticky like resistance whilst honing.

I have no idea what it is or what causes it and I was wondering if anyone actually does know what's going on there?

Have you personally experienced it, how did it happen and how did the edge shave?


I first experienced it while honing on an Escher with slurry, after quite a few dilutions my razor started to stick to the stone, a little at first, but A LOT after a while.
Strange I thought, but the edge was greatly polished and the shave was very smooth and sharp, almost as if I had reached the maximum from that stone.
If I stopped when it only started to stick a little the edge wasn't quite as good, but it was still a very good shaving edge.

I figured to instead do dilutions on the Escher, I'd try to first max out my edge using a Naniwa progression up until the 12K and then to the Escher on plain water without dilutions.
The razor started to stick not that long after either.

I've also had it happen on Coticules and again had a great shave when experiencing that sticky feeling.

Yesterday I honed 4 razors, 2 near wedges and 2 more hollow grinds.
Bevels were set on a very fast Coticule, then followed a Naniwa progression going from the 5K to the 8K and finished on the 12K.
I then went to an Escher on plain water and both the near wedges and hollow grinds had that same sticky feeling.
I finished 1 near wedge and 1 hollow grind on a Coticule afterwards and again, that same sticky feeling.