Thread: Difficulty Honing a TI

I now have 5 TIs, the last from AOS in Las Vegas just last month. The AOS people are as dumb as rocks. They sell a pretty product with a price tag. They knew nothing about straight razors, hones, bevel formation; didn’t even know the knot diameter of their best brush. If their website didn’t say it, they didn’t know it.

I digress. Glenn is exactly right. I used my Shapton Glass series to hone the AOS TI, up to 8k and finished on a Coticule. It is now a fine shaver, as are all my other TIs.

Keep after it. That C135 steel can produce incredible edges that last a long time.

Originally Posted by Bill31521

C135 is pretty hard steel. A diamond plate would make the job go much faster as it will cut that steel easily. You only have to do it once.

My preference on razors that need a lot of bevel work was the Shapton Pro 320.
With slurry it's only a little slower than diamond plates & gives a less scored bevel that can be cleaned up quicker on something like a Chocera 1k.

Mine has a bit of a twist and uneven bevel. I have worked around the twist. And don’t mind the uneven bevel.

I have tried king 1k, no name 3k, Norton washita, no name 8k, Coe gray polisher and dota creek. Recently convex soft and black translucent ark... improved edge from previous set up but still not enough for HHT 3 or higher.

My next try is film that’s all I have left.

Thanks for all the feedback

I have a couple of these c135 beasts and yea they will fool you if you don't take your time on lower grit stones to really form your edge well. If you go to an Ark too early that ark will do nothing but tickle it a little. Trans and Black Arkansas are slow to begin with and with these TI's anything short of a dead on set bevel and some mid range refinement you will be honing forever without much effect. I work them up on Naniwa synthetics but any of the progressions Glen mentioned should work similar. I personally like to finish them on any hard Jnat like Shobu or ozuko and I get a really durable yet refined edge that lasts seemingly forever. I really like this steel for its edge retention and my TI's are rather pretty So I am a fan.

Hey, long time no see. Great to see you back Razorfaust

I hone a lot of new TI’s, the hard steels are not that hard, but they can be chippy. If you can get a nice 1k edge you are half-way, there. If there is warp or twist, then more technique comes into play. Chances are the bevel was not fully set or it is chipping.

Here sharpie ink is your friend, also experiment with tape to find a nice bevel width, I like one layer of electrical and one of Kapton for strength. Ink will tell you quickly if you are honing the whole bevel to the edge. Hone on one half of the stone and that the heel comes off the stone halfway across the stone, to hone the middle and toe.

For hard steels I use a Norton or King 1k, but the stone you use does not matter that much, any 1k will work. If the edge is chippy, removing a bit of it and getting to more solid steel really speeds up the honing and delivers a solid edge.

Set the bevel as normal, then lightly joint the edge on the corner of the stone, feel for chips as you drag the edge on the stone slowly. If you feel large chips, do another lite stroke. Now look at the bevel and edge if you see any remains of a chip, mark the edge and belly of the blade with a sharpie so you can keep an eye on it and ensure it gets fully honed out, it may be a weak spot that can chip later in the progression.

Ink and hone to re-set the bevel again, it should only take about 20-30 laps. Once you fully set the bevel, lightly joint again and go to you next stone, 3-5K, do circles to remove the 1k stria and use a rolling X to set a new stria pattern.

Remove each stone’s stria with the next stone, take it to at least an 8k before going to a natural. With arks I find it best to finish one side of the finish Ark, Black or Translucent, with 600 wet and dry and burnish the other side. From the 8k go to the 600 side and finish on the burnished side with a couple drops of Smith’s or Ballistol on a wet stone. Stropping on linen between stones also helps remove flashing/burrs for a cleaner edge.

With hard steels, Jnats, Arks and Lapping film seems to give the best edges for me. If you get micro chipping, back up a stone, joint and reset the bevel. If you get a lot or large chips, joint and re-set on the 1k.

I honed a new Carbon Steel, Dovo yesterday that I had to reset the bevel 3 times before it would stop micro chipping. The hole thing only took a few minutes, when you know what to look for.

When I used to hone alot I used to use a 6 micron (4k equivalent ) DMT for some of these. Cuts faster than a chosera 1k believe it or not. I did a few Japanese westerns that I had a very hard time getting swarf on a 600 chosera. That was and is my tool of choice for the hard steels. It's also a heck of a knife finisher too.

Originally Posted by Bill31521

When I used to hone alot I used to use a 6 micron (4k equivalent ) DMT for some of these. Cuts faster than a chosera 1k believe it or not. I did a few Japanese westerns that I had a very hard time getting swarf on a 600 chosera. That was and is my tool of choice for the hard steels. It's also a heck of a knife finisher too.

There's no doubt about the speed of diamonds but if you use a 4k equivalent DMT I wouldn't use an 8k stone to follow as those 4k scratches will be about 1k deep. That is where I found the initial speed of diamonds had a speed bump. I know some of us use diamond plates for the heavy lifting on razors but my mileage varied
For those open to trying it, the Ha no Kuromaku Shapton 320 is chock full of SiC & whilst a bit slower than a diamond plate leaves a much gentler & very even scratch pattern. Use with a generous slurry.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

There's no doubt about the speed of diamonds but if you use a 4k equivalent DMT I wouldn't use an 8k stone to follow as those 4k scratches will be about 1k deep. That is where I found the initial speed of diamonds had a speed bump. I know some of us use diamond plates for the heavy lifting on razors but my mileage varied
For those open to trying it, the Ha no Kuromaku Shapton 320 is chock full of SiC & whilst a bit slower than a diamond plate leaves a much gentler & very even scratch pattern. Use with a generous slurry.

Good observation which goes along with the law of diminishing returns. Diamonds cut well, too well and as fast as they are will cause problems getting those scratches out not to mention every deep stria has the potential of becoming a chip. In the end you may be adding more work to the honing project by taking the apparent fast route. This of course is just how I feel about anything too aggressive being done to hone my razors. I get it that others wont feel the same about their own. I have reached a point where I don't hone all that often anymore because of number of sharp razors available and the fact that they last a real long time between honings means I never am in any kind of a rush when I do it. I have long since dropped the idea of honing for honing sake.