Thread: This May Be Sacrilege

I was honing a razor and found the heel was consistently lagging in progress while the center and toe portions of the blade were very quickly sharp. I reviewed the awesome nine part honing series and watched as David Polan (Heavydutysq135) checked his progress and noted the same thing, the heel was slower to shape up than the toe. At one point he even commented that the heel spends less time on the stone than the rest of the blade. Well, of course it does. If you use an X-pattern on a stone the proximal portion of the razor must spend less time on the stone. You are almost immediatly dragging the proximal third of the blade off the hone surface. At the same time, the distal two thirds of the edge are immediately brought onto and then never break contact with the surface of the hone. It seems clear (to me) that if you modify the stroke across the stone from an X to a parallelogram, your edge will progress at a more uniform rate:

I did this and my razor shaped up in six laps on the 1k Shapton. I can feel the flames lapping at my feet already. In fact, I feel a bit nauseous writing this. Be that as it may, I am proposing that one can easily whet the entire edge of a razor simultaneously. The X pattern is not only unnecessary but actually deleterious to the whetting process.

I stand by, ready to be eviscerated.

SSSSTTTTT. Quiet.
You figured us out.
This SRP thing is just one big scam.
We don't want the world to know how easy Straight razor shaving actually is. The more people think it is an art, only to be mastered by a happy few Uebermales, the better.

Now that you've disclosed us, we'll have to hunt you down and kill you and all your relatives. Or, make you a member of the conspiracy.
The choice is up to you.
Please erase your previous post immediately, and await further instructions.

thats how i set a bevel with a diamond hone seems to give you a better bevel

Nothing wrong with that if it works for you.

I pretty much limit my razor acquisitions to smiling blades so this doesn't really apply to me. All of my blades need a "rolling X" which is exempt from the problem you're noting.

To me, honing is a "whatever gets you there" process. As long as the spine and edge are on the stone and you aren't just screwing around for the hell of it, I say; great, keep it up.

Many razors don't lay on the hone completely flat. They are ever so slightly warped, or have a smiling curve at their edge. Without the X-stroke, it can be impossible to make good contact between the hone and the edge along its entire length. What you propose will only work with a perfectly straight and unwarped razor.
All others require some from of X-stroke. But it's great to start of diagonally and progress to a straight motion while performing the X. That way, the heel receives a bit more attention. For the same reason, I prefer small (but long) hones myself. The above is less of an issue with those.

Kind regards,

Bart.

No it works just fine doing it that way, "IF" you have a flat even bevel..... The X pattern, rolling pattern, rocking pattern and swoop are for different problems with blades and stones......
The X pattern was "Probably" developed many years ago when 8"x 3" stones were not easily accessible and most people used small barber style hones...
We are blessed in the 21st century by having fine grit, large sized, perfectly flat, man-made hones, so why wouldn't we use them to the fullest of their abilities.....
That is my story and I'm sticking to it.....

"...the heel spends less time on the stone..." I thought the same thing so I started alternating a regular X pattern with a reverse X on each set of strokes. Works great so far.

I've honed all my razors that, like others have mentioned, lay flat on the hone on both sides of the blade and I've done so for quite some time. I don't believe there is one right way to hone. It really is about what works best for you. Absolutely the X pattern is a time tested standard that works for most and with good reason. I don't hone using the pyramid either but clearly that's a method that works as well. Experimentation is the spice of razor life!

Chris L

You can also lead with the toe of the razor if the toe is honing up slower.
You have found one variation that can be used to fix a slow honing blade, this is also very good on wedges.
You must now figure out the other 52 methods of honing, and learn to walk across rice paper while honing (without leaving foot prints) before you can be branded with the dragon and tiger, and be called honemeister.

No sacralidge there, just another good method of honing.

Yeah, that rice paper bit is the hardest part too. Took me forrrrrrr evvvvvver to figure that one out.