Thread: An Observation and A Question

As I have my experienced honing has increased (and concomitantly my number of hones!) over the past months, I have made an interesting (to me anyway) observation. When initially working a blade on a hone, be it to set the bevel or as a final polish, the edge pushes the water ahead of it down the hone. After a while, the edge appears to cut under the meniscus and the water slides up the blade as it moves down the hone. Once this occurs, I have found that the razor needs about 20 more laps on the hone and is ready for the next hone. More laps don't seem to improve the edge, and markedly fewer seem to yield an edge that feels sharp but shaves dull. Slurry or no slurry, Dalmore Blue or NOS Thuringian, Extra Hollow or a Henckels Scale 1 Wedge, Englsh or German steel, this seems to be a pretty consistant rule of thumb.

I am sure that many here have noticed this behavoir but does anyone have a good explaination?

This has been discussed before, although perhaps quite some time ago (perhaps on the old yahoo site?)
What you are seeing is correct in my experience also, and it is related to the sensation of the razor wanting to "bite" into the hone when it is ready to be moved to a finer grit or perhaps the strop.
All that is happening as you are recreating the bevel by grinding each side of the edge to meet flat on the hone. Until the razor is sharp or the bevel set, the rounded profile allows water both over and under the edge;
as honing progresses, the profile becomes more of a "ramp" and the edge slides under the water, as it mates flush with the hone.
It would be much simpler if I could just show you a picture, but I'm sure you'd already come to much the same conclusions yourself...



John P.

I watch the water as an indicator that my blade is making contact properly. I rely more on the "feel" of the edges as honing progresses. As JohnP said it starts to feel like the edge wants to "skin" the hone then it is almost done. The number of laps has varied a lot from razor to razor so I do not count laps and say "done!". I check every 10-25 laps when on the finishing hones.

Just my two cents,