Thread: My 1K/4K challenge

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Looks more like edge flashing, flashing is a piece of a thin burr or foil edge. It could be from too much pressure or too may laps on one side.

As you hone one side of the bevel the other rolls up ever so slightly, if you flip the razor and hone the other side you cut off the burr or at least straighten it out.

Thin hollow ground razors flex with pressure and you hone the back of the bevel and not the edge. Then if you use less pressure and now are honing the edge and it can get very thin and make a thin foil edge or flashing.

Just Joint the edge and cut it off completely and make a straight edge. Then hone to the straight edge,

If you want to max out the 1k edge, joint the edge and reset it, (10-20) laps. Joint it again, one lite stroke and reset with very lite pressure. You will see the edge get straighter and with fewer chips.

You can get a very straight, chip free edge on a 1k by jointing and resetting the edge a few times. Joint on the corner of the edge of the stone, you will feel any chips if you do a lite slow stroke. If you feel a chip, you will have to hone past the depth of the largest chip, so the steel has to come off one way or another. Cut it off and start with a straight edge.

If you strop the edge on Flax, Linen or a pasted strop then remove the 1k stria with the 4k, you will get a very straight and smooth 4k edge.

So I started gradually reducing torque and checked the edge every 50 or so laps and threw a few circles i

How many laps did you do, it is possible to do too many laps and make the edge so thin you create a foil edge. At 1k you just want to get the bevels flat and meeting.

Your post came in while I was responding to Gasman.

I wasn't really counting total laps just each 50. If I had to guess, including the really light laps, 400? I always alternated sides so not too much time on one side or the other. When I did do circles it was only 5 laps at a time and I was careful to keep my travel speed similar.

I did consider jointing the edge, but I really haven't seen any indication of chipping or foiling. The bevel looks really even on both sides. As near as I can tell the edge is dead straight (except for the slight smile).

I'll post up some good bevel pics tomorrow. I probably won't test shave with this until the weekend, even if all looks good.

You should shave as soon as you feel like the edge is ready. It’s part of the challenge. If it is in fact ready you will have a decent shave. The edge will feel coarse, it will unlikely be a wow shave, but it shouldn’t tug. My first time doing it I think it was three times honing before I got a decent shave, and I was starting to doubt it possible. Also it was before I had a loupe and was trying to assess my edge by feel. I think you are good to go.

JJ-Doing that 1k challenge was a revelation for me and others too. I'm not sure what you use for a bevel setter, but once I learned to max out an edge on my Chosera 1k, and actually get pretty good shaves from it, the true importance of a fully set bevel to the rest of the progression was a honing epiphany for me. If you can't get a decent shave off of your 1k stone, I would almost consider that a "Do not pass Go" situation like in Monopoly. Once you can do that consistently, the rest of honing is relatively easy (well, except for some tricky naturals, but that's another subject). Let us know how it goes.

I get what you mean Rezdog. It's ultimately up to me when I shave with it. I'm just shamelessly using you guys to try and reduce my guess work.

ScoutHikerDad I think it will be for me as well. The way the bade is acting with the subjective non- shaving tests has me impressed.

So I took a couple of bevel pics mostly because I said I would. Looking at higher mag made me think Euclid may be right about a possible wire edge. At 20X it looks pretty good to my eye. When I went up to 60X the edge looks a bit toothy. Some of the bevel striae match up with some of the "chips", but not all. I know at some level of magnification all edges will look ragged. I just don't know if this is what a "normal" 1k edge would look like at 60X or if this is a bit of a wire edge.

20X


60X


I'm considering shaving with it as is, then joint and bring the edge back for another shave. It's possible I might learn something

Shave with the thing already!
It’s all about learning

Will do, I'll do the stropping to Thursday night football thing and take it for a run this weekend.

Oh, ScoutHikerDad, I'm using a King 1K stone for bevel set. If it's really bad or I need to fix chips I'll go down to a synthetic ruby stone I've had for decades. Never new the exact grit but I'm guessing 600-800 comparing to the king.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Shave with the thing already!
It’s all about learning

Hear hear! I second the motion! Just give the blade a shave. In my humble opinion---That will tell you more than pictures.

I get it cuda

Toolmarks, microscopes, and sharp things can make me nerd out a bit.

Next post will be the shave...I promise.

My GAWD!
Has anyone directed you to the JANorton thread?

Shaved this way for years, Jelly. Only had one hone fine enough, I put a lot of leather to it to smooth it out.

I'll say this...if it makes your eyes water, its not set.