Thread: The Scary Sharp System

You have to backhone on the scary sharp system, right?

I have the 20/20 jig, and it is cool and has worked really well so far in restoring, but as far as using it to sharpen I haven't tackled that yet. I do know that the latigo surfaced leather/magnet/pad thing is really hard - a very smooth surface with almost no draw whatever - don;t know what that is going to be like to strop - but it will probably take paste like a pro.

K

The leather sheets are for stropping not honing. That is, use a back honing motion like you would on a hanging strop not a forward motion like on a stone. However, with the Chromium Oxide paper you can use a backward or forward stroke and wetting the surface is recommended.

The Scary Sharp system is excellent and extreamly flexable. First you start with the base unit (Magnetic Corain Bench Hone), then you can get the magnetic backed glass plate and/or magnetic backed leather pads. Personally I use the magnetic backed glass plate then use the adhesive paste (not PSA) to stick different grit wet/dry paper onto it. The paste that Hand American porovides (I think it is called grip tight) is great, does not come off when adding water to the paper, lasts a long long time, and makes changing from one grit paper to another easy as pie. I also have a Norton 4/8K. I tend to use the Scary Sharp system for heavy restoration, and setting a new bevel (600-1000 grit) as needed. Then I go to my Norton 4/8K. Then I use several different magnetic backed leather pads that I have pre-pasted. One pad has Boron Carbide (black diamond), then move to Chromium Oxide, then my third one has .25 diamond paste for super power laser sharpness. I have also used just the glass plate on the bench hone working up through the grit scale up to the Chromium Oxide paper. Both methods work great and provides me with some variance for different razors. I prefer to use the pasted leather pads like Tony's pasted strop to keep razors away from the hone for as long as I can.

P.S. When using paper on the glass plate you use the standard X-pattern honing motion (edge leading) don't forget a cheap spray bottle to wet your paper down

When using the leather pads you switch to the stropping motion (spine leading)

P.P.S After a honing session be sure to wash off your paper to get all the metal fragments off before you put away the paper for another day. If you do not wash it off the next time you get out your paper it will be streaked with rust.

So you can push the blades down and forward on the sand paper? Interesting.

Well I have the stuff, and I will be honing like mad man this weekend, I will need to try it.

K

interesting.... but, with all this extra crap im going to have to buy it almost seems like it might be a more expensive option... which is not good but, at the same time, it seems like it still might be cheaper than buying a norton + a coticule + a 4 sided paddle with multiple pastes.... which is basically what this system seems to boast... every available honing option on one platform...