Thread: How higer magnification made me a better honer.

This past week I learned a tremendous amount about how my Arkansas stones perform by using an old microscope. Jerry, Gasman, had started a great thread showing pics of his bevels and it prodded me to pull out my fathers old microscope (made around 1900). It was awkward to use but the feedback was invaluable. According to the chart that came with the scope, I was using 87 magnification. The images were not pretty. Even my best shavers looked awful. The main issue for my edges were I was not removing all the old, deep stria and the chipping was hard to look at. I was not spending the proper time on removing the deep stria before moving up to the next stone. The cheap, lighted 30x loupe I've been using did not show me what I needed to know.
So I spent the better part of a weekend honing and checking with the scope at every step; time consuming but fun and ultimately rewarding! Here is what I learned:
-My Soft Ark is pretty much useless in my progression of hones: All the work I need to do from bevel set up to my hard ark can be done with the 'Washita' I have (I bought this at Woodcraft and don't even know if it is a Washita, what I do know is this is a versatile stone).
-The course side of the Crystolon prep stone I use should never be used except for the heaviest of chip repair; the slurry generated is too course and leaves deep stria that is hard to remove. The fine side generates a very effective slurry that does a superior job. On the Washita I often repeated this step numerous times to achieve the desired results. I actually do not know what this slurry is comprised of; minute particles of washita, crystolon, both more than likely. Its almost a black slurry. As I work the bevel I gradually thin it with additional oil and cleaning. When done and ready to move up it leaves a very uniform appearance to the bevel and completely eliminates any deep stria.
-I was being far too cautious on using circles when honing. Now I'm going to town; walking those circles up and down the stones. And then again. And again. Rocking the blade from heal to toe while doing circles assured complete coverage of the bevel.
-I was not spending near enough time on the hard Ark. Again, prep with fine crystolon, circles, all manner of strokes. Finish lightly of course.
-The translucent leaves no mark that I can ascertain with 87 mag.. Purely a polisher as it is supposed to be.

When finished I do not have a stria free bevel. However, the stria are extremely uniform and tight. The edge look laser straight. However, with 87 mag. the edge still looks saw-toothed (hard to see at this maginification but still there).

Now I'm sure that a slurry is needed to create a stria free edge and I want this. Now to figure out how to accomplish this with my arks. More to work on. One thing I was thinking of doing, and talk me down if this is a bad idea, was to use the CROX crayon to make a slurry with oil on either the hard or translucent stone. Anyone ever tried this?
Are my shaves magnitudes better? No. But my upper lip and chin say they are better.
Thought I'd share my experiences with using Arkansas stones.
Paul the Honeleaster