Thread: How higer magnification made me a better honer.

Paul, it is all about smaller stria to get a straighter edge. With naturals the grit is unknow, so the only way is trial and error, looking at the bevels to see if you are going in the right direction.

The low grits are always a tradeoff between speed removing material and leaving deep scratches, which sometimes take more time to remove and can cause other issues, as with low grit diamonds.

Yes, chrome Oxide or any other slurry from a natural stone will or can improve an edge, but again an experiment. You are then using a Jnat type system that works for Jnats, with various Nagura slurry. A Jnat nagura progression is well established with know slurry stones, but with Tomo stones somewhat more of an experiment, unless the honer is experienced with the base and nagura stones.

There are old Ark posts where guy have experimented with natural and Nano grit slurry’s with good results that may make good reading.

High grit Ark stones are unique because of the blend of grits and abrasives that give the unique hazy finish. I have had mixed results with many pastes and slurry on Arks and prefer to use paste separately for much better control and repeatability. What does make a difference with Arks is pressure, stone face finish, number of laps and lubrication. Thicker lubes, like oil do much the same as pressure and face finish by decreasing the contact with the stone grit.

You don’t need a big stone to finish a razor, so you can experiment with stone “polish” rather inexpensively and with little effort.

Get the bevels as flat and edge as straight as your finish stone will allow then paste a strop or piece of cardboard and strop on it to further refine the bevel and edge. This is a more repeatable edge. Nano grit finishes are hard to beat, but then does the finish stone matter that much?

Experimentation is fun, though. Enjoy.