Thread: I thought i failed on a honing.

I had a half hollow american razor and cleaned it up. Kept the scales, just repinned. Put it on the stones, set bevel without much difficulty. Proceded thru to 20k and it was looking and feeling good the whole time. Gave it a standard stropping (50 linen, 100 leather) and a test shave the next day feeling good about it.

It wasnt as keen as i thought it should have been. Lacking a little. Huh. I couldnt have sworn it was going to be a great shave.
So before i put it back on the 20k, i thought id give it some more time on clean leather. Another 200 laps. Test shaved with it the next day and it was spot on! Keen as i thought it should be and gave a great shave.

So if your like me and think you got a good grip on honing and find one just not quite there, be sure to go back to the strop before the stone as it might come around for ya.
Hope this helps someone as it did me.

Hey thanks! I think that has happened to me.

One thing that seems to happen more often to me though is having a spot on the blade that just doesn't want to get sharp enough, maybe around a half inch of blade.

I was trying to figure out what part of the process was not done well enough.
Thought about getting a microscope and getting all scientific with it to figure it out.
The stropping does seem to be a strong possibility!

@ Jerry : Well you'll never know now but maybe 5-6 laps on the 20k would have saved you doing 200 on the strop
You make a good point tho as to the importance of stropping

I've always been of the mind that stropping is stropping and honing is honing and a strop (talking plain jane strops here no paste) does not hone an edge it dresses it and no matter how many passes you do you still be dressing the edge. If the edge needs to be made sharper you need the hone.

I think if you strop and feel a difference what that edge needed was a real subtle treatment or dressing as we call it.

I agree that stropping is not honing. In my understanding, stropping realigns the edge more to a strighter line. Now this doesnt explain what happened with this razor but i can say, it made a difference for sure. Ive been getting very picky on my edges lately so i know 100%that it made a difference. Why, i have no clue.

I bet if i had gone back to the stone for a few laps it might ha e done the same in some way, but then i wouldnt ha e had the enjoyment of doing 200 laps on leather. I do enjoy stropping.

Mike T, i have had this bad spot on an edge not want to take shape before too. For me its always just before the tip. About 3/4 inches from the tip and around 1/2 inch long of an area. Although this has nothi g to do with the thread, i too have ran across this. So do t feel lonely. I normally give it a little push in that spot and keep it up. Soon it clears up and becomes sharp.

Here is a possibility: When you hone, you remove metal from the blade and disrupt the internal stresses of the blade. Over a period of a few hours (I'm not doing the math) those stresses rebalanced by bending the edge. Stropping a little bit will straighten out the bend, but it will still bend back a little. Repeated normal stropping (say 50 laps) will slowly change the internal stresses to a point where "straight" is the balanced position. Or you can do a bunch of laps (200) to balance the forces.

For me, I listen and feel for a change in the blade during stropping after honing and it usually takes around 150 travels on the strop before I feel that final edge is set. Essentially I'm listening for the pitch to stop changing and be a steady sound. I'm feeling for the vibrational feedback to become steady as well. Just like in honing, there is a feel and sound when the edge is set.

Just had a similar experience with a blade I touched up on a 12K Naniwa. Did the usual stropping, 40 linen, 100 leather and 20 on a Crox sprayed felt strop, before shaving. I was not satisfied with the edge but gave it another stropping reducing the Crox to 10 laps before shaving with it again just now. Had a very pleasant shave. I habitually use a bit of Crox at the end of stropping before shaving to help maintain the edge so that may have been the difference. It is not the first time that the second shave after stropping was better than the first. Personally, I think it is a good idea to strop and shave a second time before going back to the hones if still not satisfied with the edge. You could have just had an off day on the first shave if nothing else.

Bob

For those that haven't read this:
WONDER PHOTOS REVEAL UNSUSPECTED FACTS ABOUT Razor Blades and Shaving (Oct, 1931) | Modern Mechanix


Took me a bit of googling but there is the Verhoeven experiments on knife sharpening too that's worth reading too
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/vi...en-bushcraftuk

Further to criswilson10’s observation:

I have a blade I honed 4000=>8000=>Vermio finisher that just wasn’t feeling as sharp as I thought it should be. I had stropped it 30 on linen, 50 on Russian leather and 60 on bridle.

After I read what was posted in this thread, I decided to go back to the bridle until it felt right. Right around 110 passes I felt a change in the way the blade was drawing on the strop. All of a sudden it seemed to glide rather pull on the leather and it started to easily pop hairs on my arm.

After another 50 passes it moved even more smoothly on the strop. If I hadn’t experienced this myself, I would have thought this was something only a highly attuned honemeister could detect.

Jerry
I noted in another post that honing requires a combination of science, art and a little bit of magic. It sounds like your magic wand was a little tarnished for a while. I am glad your wand is now shining brightly and your honing mojo is back.