Thread: simple honing under the stereo scope

https://youtu.be/UTtVE0VsthE

here is a video I shot with the new stereo scope of a complete hone on one of my 1095 razors with a simple suhiro 1/6. it starts off as I was going to try an edge off the Belgium blue, and I changed my mind in the middle of the video and went with the suhiro.

so far with 5 shaves in. what I have found is that the first shave was a bit aggressive, but then by the 3rd, it had calmed down and was a plesent shave. this particular razor also has a pretty aggressive angle of like 13.5 degrees.

I hope to remember to put it back under the scope in another dozen shaves and do another video.

the biggest idea here is to get folks honing with just one or two stones, as most of my cusstomers have been buying my razors based on their experiences with my knives, and may or may not be razor folks. so I want to keep it simple and relatively inexpensive for them.

Afraid you lost me after mentioning burrs.

Bob

I used to shave off my Norton 8K and get a very nice shaveable edge. In my early times here it was common to see people say there is no point in going to higher grit hones until you can get a good shave from an 8K.

Originally Posted by RezDog

I used to shave off my Norton 8K and get a very nice shaveable edge. In my early times here it was common to see people say there is no point in going to higher grit hones until you can get a good shave from an 8K.

I shaved off of a 6K yesterday. I was using my new Suehiro "Dual Stone." As 6K is the highest I got, I just thought I'd give it a shot. Just to see. No problems! I mean I did use my regular strop progression afterwards consisting of a run on a 1 micron diamond pasted felt pad, and then a run on the CrOx before hitting the linen and leather.

I can't say I'm surprised - I put on a great bevel. It all begins there.

Crazy.

I prefer a finer stone finish though. But sure, like you said, you can shave off an 8K. No worries at all.

Just to remind everyone there was a thread a while back that contained an experiment of shaving with a razor at each level of grit used. Glen would know where it is at. I tried it as I finally addressed doing my own honing (after a year of straight razor shaving). It was a revelation and an eye-opener and the best hands-on learning experience I ever had. Worth looking up and doing if you are new to the honing part of shaving with straights.

You are not shaving off a 6k edge, it is a 30k, .50um Chrome Oxide edge. With paste you can go much quicker and higher, with Nano grits.

The goal of bevel setting is not to produce a shaving edge, it is to,1) flatten the bevels, 2) set them at the correct angle and, 3)get them to meet at the edge. You can refine a 1k edge by altering pressure and technique, trailing or leading. But No-one will be shaving off a 1k edge, except those that shave with EDC knives.

The difference between edge trailing and edge leading is, with trailing you produce a burr and break it off, creating a microscopic ragged edge by stropping, leading you cut off the burr with each stroke and produce a straighter, stronger edge. Ragged edges work well for knives, tools and axes, with razors you also must consider the skin the bevel and edge ride on, not just the sharpness of cutting edge.

For hundreds of years guys have shaved very well, off natural stones and barber hones probably in the 6-8k range. Blue slate stones run the gamut from slate pavers to fine finisher like Vosgienne and Salmen finishing stones.

Natural stones are natural, the composition or each stone and grit are unknown. Some can finish. A 12k Naniwia can do it all from bevel set, chip removal to finish. Check out this post, (12K Super Stone Chip Removal/Bevel Set). If you want a one stone solution, but why?

Also, a lot of deep vertical scratches on your pre-honed razor bevel, and most probably chipping your edge, your strop needs cleaning or replacement. Improper stropping and grit on leather strops do much more edge damage than shaving. A properly honed edge, properly stropped will last a very long time. Stropping is very under rated.

Originally Posted by BobH

Afraid you lost me after mentioning burrs.

Bob

A burr is a skill/term used in knife sharpening to ensure that each side of the blade has been sharpened to it's apex. I don't believe it really applies to razor honing, at least not for me.

Originally Posted by Robini

A burr is a skill/term used in knife sharpening to ensure that each side of the blade has been sharpened to it's apex. I don't believe it really applies to razor honing, at least not for me.

Thanks for the explanation but I meant lost with the use of the term burr as it does not apply to honing a razor. The bevel angle of 13.5 did not help either. That seems to miss the accepted norm of 17 degrees for a straight razor.

Bob

I have had several mention the burr method for honing and just never could figure it out so I started using small cherry tomatoes for bevel setting bevels as that’s what was taught to me by my mentor and then I started crossing over to comparing how it sliced thru a tomatoe to a TNT and now I pretty much just use a TNT for the bevel stage, after bevel set I just go by feel and how the water rides over the glade.

I am sure others have better edges than mine and some may be worst but it all comes down to the shave, all of this burr method, TNT,TPT, HHT is all subjective all that matters in the end is the shave.

bobh,

I like your signature.

I will say that the rest of that video has some amazing to me footage of an edge. while I have made thousands of knives, and only maybe 60 straight razors so far, I had to go to charlies razor makers meet in texas to see ron and his "scope of amazement" to be able to see edges like this, which convinced me to get this scope and setup to help folks learn to sharpen/hone. It has really helped me see things that I could never see and explained things to me that I sort of thought, but wasn't sure about.