Thread: Honing fail

Yesterday I spent 2 1/2 hours trying to set the bevel on a Wosty Canuck, there were a few small chips near the heel which took at most 1 hour to hone out then it was all trying to get an edge. I failed.
Started with my naniwa 1k when I got nowhere with that I eventually switched to a Norton 1k (seems to cut faster to me)
Still no joy. At the end of the session (basically when I gave up in disgust) I still couldn't shave any arm hair at all!
This has happened to me before when I first started honing but not for quite some time.
Sorry no picks as I havent figured out how to make my scope do that yet, so Im not really expecting any advice just bitching and wondering if anyone else has experienced this kind of disappointment from time to time?

I think we’ve all had at least one stubborn blade.

Sounds like the bevel hasn’t been formed correctly. I have (there are folks who will cringe at this) used a DMT extra extra fine diamond plate to set the bevel after breadknifing the edge when a blade has really frustrated me. That, and a lot of time on a progression of stones afterward, seemed to work.

I have one razor for which hone the full progression => strop => test shave had to be repeated several times before I was happy with the edge. I don’t know if that was me or the blade.

I feel your pain, but hang in and keep honing.

Hope you are using tape. Cell phone pics are better than nothing.

Most USB scopes can take pics manually with a button on the scope or with the software, usually on the taskbar.

Something more than technique is going on.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Hope you are using tape. Cell phone pics are better than nothing.

Most USB scopes can take pics manually with a button on the scope or with the software, usually on the taskbar.

Something more than technique is going on.

Yes 2 layers of tape, had to replace top layer halfway through. Its actually making the software work at all im having trouble with. I really should spend some time figuring it out.

A couple of thoughts. Some battles are best fought in many small skirmishes. When it comes to bevel setting it’s all about getting the apex developed and sometimes you need to lightly kill the apex on your thumb nail a few times so it all comes together at the same time. I’ve had a few that got set aside for another day, some got set aside again and again. I have used diamond hone to get the heavy lifting out of the way and then jumped back to the Naniwa and removed the diamond hone deep gauges and then stepped up.

Do you have an even bevel from Heel to Toe? Are you making full contact?

If you have to remove a lot of material and will be spending time on the 1k, use a heavy slurry made with a 300 diamond plate and do circles, torqueing the blade, so you are putting more pressure on the edge and the spine is just barely touching the stone, don’t put pressure on the spine.
Circles will remove metal faster, refresh the slurry as needed. Once you get the bevels to meet, then hone with the spine on the stone.

Is this an eBay razor or did you do some edge reshaping?

I beat my head on a rock trying to hone one of the newer Hart razors, this was after there quality went way down and the heat treat was done incorrectly as it kept chipping away the edge, I doubt this is your case but if you get frustrated you need to walk away as you can very easily ruin a blade.

As stated use some tape and also a black sharpie and a cheapie 30x loupe then and this is what I do on a stubborn blade is put my tape on then do just a few regular strokes using some pressure ( no circles ) then I look at the edge to ensure I get fairly even contact all the way from heal to toe and if not then you need to look at the geometry of the blade like is it waprped is the spine have uneven wear etc.... and go from there

Originally Posted by AlanQ

...
Started with my naniwa 1k when I got nowhere with that I eventually switched to a Norton 1k (seems to cut faster to me)...

You're not wrong. The Norton is an ANSI 1000, or roughly 800 grit on the JIS scale Naniwa uses.

I feel your pain. I've been honing for 11 years now and have honed and shaved with close to 150 razors. A few months ago I had one I set aside 3 different times, tried everything in the book I knew about honing and had to finally give up sent it to Glen (gssixgun) for a proper honing.

I too have noticed that once in a while I'll run into a razor that the Chosera 1k will only take so far and it seems like it stops doing anything. Pull out the ol' Norton 1k and after a few strokes, Bingo!...... bevel set.

This thread might help

https://sharprazorpalace.com/honing/...bing-over.html