Thread: Honing Woes

Join the club. I too run across this from time to time. Guessing the bevel just isnt as good as you think it is. Ive even gone as far as to kill the edge a fter 8 think im there and go some more. Sometimes it just dont go as smoothly as other razors. Ive got two right now that ive spent hours on and still no go. Keep at it. Setting bevel i mean.

Ive gone as far as trying to sneak up on the bevel set with 1k, 2k, 3k and it still fails. Shows you and i just dont have the secrets figured out yet.

Yea, what RezDog said.

Bob

Experience will fix all Woes, the razor mentioned is a good razor,

Famous quote " honing is easy till it ain't " Tc

You cannot expect to use the exact same honing method on two different razors and get the same result. Razors differ in grind, hardness, carbon content, etc. The steel in a Gold Dollar razor is rather soft, so the razor will hone up quickly. A Thiers Issard with C135 steel will test your mettle. Razors with O1 steel that have been cryogenically treated can also be quite hard and difficult to hone.

As has been said previously, the key is getting a good bevel set. You keep honing on the 1K until you get a good bevel with a uniform apex. No body can tell you how long that process will take on a given razor. It takes as long as it takes. that is where a good magnifying glass or microscope can come in handy.

Well, provided that the bevel is set, it sounds like maybe the blade/edge has a different shape or profile and your stroke isn't removing the coarser scratches as you go up the grit scale.

You should at least once in your honing development shave off each stone that you use from the bevel setter up. You'll find that the coarser stones will actually shave better than you might have thought, but the shave won't be very smooth. To get the edge 'shave smooth', you need to remove all the scratches at each stage until the only ones left are from the final finisher.

In most cases, this does not mean that you need to hone more, but that you need to hone smarter and ensure that the entire bevel looks the same when you check it under magnification, toe, middle and heel. I hone a lot of razors, but as mentioned, they're not all the same and you kind of have to feel each one out with respect to your stoke and pressure management to keep the full length of the bevel consistent as you progress up the grits.

Cheers, Steve

Yes, indeed it's that 1K stone the magic 1K stone, where your journey begins and where your happy ending will be determined, get it right there and the rest of the progression is a walk in the park.