Thread: First honing.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

As said a sharpie run down the edge will help you see where you are and are not honing all the way to the edge. If you lightly run the fiber tip on the edge you can also feel if you have any microchips.

Dear Euclid440, I would be grateful if you could repeat the concept in simpler words. Unfortunately my English is really poor and it seems that even google translator in this case goes into crisis. I regret not having followed Mom's advice to study more...

He's talking about using a felt tip permanent marker. Sharpie is a brand name like Magic Marker. In Italy maybe a Tratto pen. Mark the edge of the blade with it to make it black so that when you go over the stone It wears the black marker off of where the stone comes in contact with the bevel.

I also wish that I had learned Italian like I wanted to but alas I took French in school. It doesn't matter though because even though I used to be able to speak it now from lack of use I have lost all I had known. Oh well. I looked on a translator and it said penarello. Also he is saying to run the tip of the marker along the edge of the blade which will help you feel where there are chips if there are any.

The goal of honing is to create 2 planes, (bevels) that are flat from heel to toe, and in the correct bevel angle from edge to back of the bevel (in line with the spine) and that meet at a single edge, chip free.

When you hone if the bevels are not flat or in the correct plane angle the hone is not removing steel across the whole bevel, what we refer to (not honing to the edge).

If you mark the bevels with sharpie ink and run the bevel on the stone, any spot where ink is not removed, is where the steel is not touching the stone,(Because the bevels are not flat or in the correct plane.) If you use colored sharpie ink, I like red, it is easy to see quickly, and often without magnification. Usually it is at the very edge.

If the bevels do not meet, you do not have an edge. Inking the bevels will tell you if you are honing to the edge, it will not tell you if you have a microchip. Magnification or your face will tell you that.

This is what is meant by a sharpie marker.

https://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Perma...%2C192&sr=8-10