How to get the best out of your hone.

[English]

I don't find it natural to hone with one hand only and guide the blade with my spare hand. I can do it, but I prefer to guide the blade.

No I don't apply extra pressure, but I suppose the presence of my fingers on the blade means the stroke is not as light as a stroke without fingers present.

So for my final polishing on any hone, I make the hone surface very slippery by applying liquid soap and water. The result is the hone surface becomes very slick and in addition it sucks the blade onto the hone allowing for the gentlest and lightest honing imaginable.

I honestly believe that this process allows the hone to finish the edge to the maximum level of sharpness that the hone can impart to the edge.

If you are a little heavy handed or at least you think you may be, I would strongly recommend that you try this method.

[chee16]

so you do this on each grit or just the final grit? i have the norton 220/1k, 4/8k and a 12k chinese. so chould i just try it out on the chinese for now?

[English]

Chee,

I'd try it on the final polishing hone. in your case the 12k Chinese hone.

That said, if you try it as a final step on your 8K Norton, I think you will be suprised at quite how sharp the Norton will make the razor edge.

[Neil Miller]

A lot of the old barber textbooks (such as Milady's) mention using lather - it does improve the suction, I find.

Regards,
Neil

[gssixgun]

OK there has got to be a Blue Moon out tonight or they are serving ice cream in Hades because I am totally agreeing with the "English" on a second thread in one day

Another great thread !!!!















Ya know I am only joshing you a little that we always disagree

[KristofferBodvin]

I don't find it natural to hone with one hand only and guide the blade with my spare hand. I can do it, but I prefer to guide the blade.

No I don't apply extra pressure, but I suppose the presence of my fingers on the blade means the stroke is not as light as a stroke without fingers present.

So for my final polishing on any hone, I make the hone surface very slippery by applying liquid soap and water. The result is the hone surface becomes very slick and in addition it sucks the blade onto the hone allowing for the gentlest and lightest honing imaginable.

I honestly believe that this process allows the hone to finish the edge to the maximum level of sharpness that the hone can impart to the edge.

If you are a little heavy handed or at least you think you may be, I would strongly recommend that you try this method.

Wait a minute, are you saying that you could apply soapwater on all natural or synth.finishing hones wihout damaging them.I seem to remember reading that shapton don't recomend using any soap.
But if that is not the case, than I'm deffinitly trying it out!
Thanks Kristoffer.

[English]

Kristoffer,

I tend to use natural hones and I have a 10K Chosera. I don't have Shaptons, so I can not advise you. If they say don't use soap on the hone, they must have a good reason and I would wait to see if anybody else chips in.

[flyboy]

I will give this a try, I'll try anything that can give me a sharper edge.
Does it need more strokes with soap or is it cutting at the same speed?

[d. m. ellington]

I find that when using the method as described by English, you might get a little more pressure, but i feel you will bet more "even" pressure.

All the old Barbers I knew used soap or lather on the final phase of honing.

Works for me.

[majurey]

Well I'll be...!

I gave the old "lather on the coticule" trick a go tonight, maybe expecting an incremental improvement. The difference was quite marked. A lot more suction on the blade, which meant I could easily hone one-handed with virtually no weight on the blade. The lather kept the hone wet for longer than plain water and I didn't need to reapply water or lather (this was for a touch-up, so only about 20 laps). But what really surprised me was the steel that came off -- the lather was starting to take on a grey shade, which I haven't observed with water-only.

The shave off the blade was incredible. Very smooth, as you would expect from a coti, but sharper than I normally get from a coti. I'd compare the sharpness to coming off a 1 mic paste.

Thanks for the tip, I'm going to try it for finishing and refreshing all blades in future.