Thread: First honing.

Originally Posted by Pithor

Lovely looking stone, Dobel, and I love your enthusiasm.
Keep in mind that using water only on most coticules does not do all that much to increase keenness, it's mainly to slightly refine and smooth out an edge. It also works as a touch-up for razors that start to feel less comfortable.

What is increasing the pressure from the tap supposed to do? I've heard about finishing under running water (not my favourite, as I found no difference compared to not using running water and it kept running down my elbow) but that is new.

Regards,

Pieter

Thank you very much Pieter! My first purpose was just a touch-up as you said because I believe it will be better for me as a beginner to make things step by step.
Regarding the water, if I'm not mistaken, using a greater flow of water should be a bit like using a higher grit number stone and allows you to finish better. I see you smoke the pipe, make yourself heard also in the appropriate section! Cheers!

There is a lot more to it than you would expect. It sounds like you are being methodical and taking things cautiously. You have a good attitude so stay with it and read up on some ideas.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

There is a lot more to it than you would expect. It sounds like you are being methodical and taking things cautiously. You have a good attitude so stay with it and read up on some ideas.

Thank you PaulFlus! I certainly will. Learning from all of you is useful and fun!

For your first try with a coti, well done. Nice looking rock there, too. Definitely lap it. It should be pretty close to flat, but the flatter the better. All you need is a sheet of sandpaper and a 12 x 12 polished marble floor tile or granite countertop sink cutout, or a very thick piece of glass, or a 12 x 12 piece of 3/4" thick acrylic from TAP Plastics. There are also calibrated granite lapping plates made especially for things like that, not too expensive but kind of overkill unless you like to be super meticulous for its own sake.

Obviously you did not need slurry for the razor you honed, but you should find another razor that is a bit more tired, raise a slurry, and gradually dilute it as the edge comes in. Tape not needed, depending on the razor. Running water is the finish. You can up your game by adding shave lather or dish soap to the honing water for the last dozen or two laps, after ensuring that all slurry is rinsed off. Works best with stones that don't auto-slurry much. This picks up the sharpness quite a bit. Light pressure is the key, and you may find that finishing with very short, like 3" long, x strokes also gives you a sharper edge. LIGHT PRESSURE is a key factor in final edge quality. Especially when you have added a buffering agent like shave lather to the equation. Such buffers will make the stone act like a much finer medium and require additional strokes. This is all introducing more variables into the honing equation and we all know that is bad, right? Except no, when you really nail it, you will be happy with the edge. I think it will all come together for you quickly though, from your initial success.

Ive read Glen saying many times to learn honing from the top down. Meaning to learn to touch-up first. Then step down a little more with time and experiance. Most of us dont listen. Lol. Good for you to want to learn to touch-up first. But to learn with a Coti seems way out of line. But thats JMO. Good for you and good luck. Keep learning and practising.

You need all the magnification you can get, to see what is going on. As you learn what to look for and understand the honing process, and what you are seeing, you can get away with less magnification. But until then, you are honing blind.

A Carson 60-120X MicroBrite, lighted handheld scope at $10-15 will help you tremendously. Then it is a matter of understanding what you are seeing.

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.

Touching up is all you ever need to do unless you damage the edge and get a chip. Also as said, the importance of stropping cannot be overlooked.

Here is an old post with good micrographs that show a new honer going from start to finish and the razor bevels at each stage of the process. (Second Try at 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.

<Face palm> Why didn't I ever think of that? Good tip. The felt tip definitely alerts you to chips or artifacts. I just never put it together, always thinking about other things, processing other data.

I have the Belomo 10x triplex and it is pretty nice, remarkably well made for the price. A couple cheapies too that I don't use much. A 4x magnifying glass that is surprisingly useful. Out in the shop a microscope that goes up to 2kX which is fun to play around with but isn't all that practical for honing more than one or two razors unless I feel like spending a couple of days with them. Several cheapie USB microscopes and one that clamps on to a phone. But the magnifying glass and the Belomo get the most use from me.

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...