Thread: Can someone help a lost honer?

Personally, the HHT never works for me, maybe because the hair in my house is too fine. On the other hand, I get good feedback from the TNT. When I draw the blade across my wet thumbnail and it digs in, I do ten more laps and then don't test anymore.

There may be nothing at all wrong with your honing. I don't like to shave with the edge straight off the 8K. I need something else to smooth the blade. Right now I'm using a barber hone and then a Cr2O3 pasted strop. Someday, I might get another stone like a coticule or a Chinese 12K.

So, my opinion is that you just need to go one more step with something to finish the edge off the 8K.

I never liked the edges straight off of the Norton, too coarse for my tastes. You could try some Chromium Oxide paste, or pick up a finishing stone to refine the edge a little more.

(If you're feeling adventurous, try stropping on some newspaper with and without some cigar/fireplace ash, or pick up a can of "Mothers" wheel polishing paste and use that as a paste on the newspaper. All of those items are slightly abrasive and have served a decent polishers in my experience.)

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

I never liked the edges straight off of the Norton, too coarse for my tastes. You could try some Chromium Oxide paste, or pick up a finishing stone to refine the edge a little more.

(If you're feeling adventurous, try stropping on some newspaper with and without some cigar/fireplace ash, or pick up a can of "Mothers" wheel polishing paste and use that as a paste on the newspaper. All of those items are slightly abrasive and have served a decent polishers in my experience.)

Hmmmmm is that like MAAS polisher? I might just have to give that a shot. I don't have another strop ATM so I would like to stay away from pastes for now.

Kevin

Yeah the HHT test hasn't worked all that well for me, i think that the hairs in my home are also too fine. I have used a hair from my dog which is more corse and stiff, which did work. This has even been true with razors i have sent to Honemisters.

Yeah, give the MAAS a try too.

You don't have to put the paste on a leather strop, you can put it on paper, newspaper, balsa wood, etc. and it works the same.

Cromium Oxide can be used on leather or even newspaper to refine the edge. Finer grit stones than the Norton 8K are also used to polish the edge. The yellow coticule happens to be my next step up off of the Norton. Then I follow it by some passes on a Thuringen. Finally, I use a Nakayama to put the final polish on the edge. OK, I may be a little obsessive about a sharp razor... but what the heck.

I've only been at this for a little over a year, so my opinion all though informed it's not expert. That being said, I've found that honing is a lot about the feel of the blade on the stone, and less about what you are seeing under magnification. I usually will do a TNT after I feel that blade sticking to the hone or trying to dig in to the hone. If you perform the TNT and it just glides without digging in a bit, your bevel isn't set - and that kind of sounds like what is going on here.

There are a number of posts that talk about smooth edges not shaving well and ragged edges (under a microscope) shaving beautifully. Has to do with the "teeth" of the edge actually doing the cutting.

Anyway, read some of the older posts on honing - there is a lot of great info. Take it easy on that Norton it is a fast cutting hone and you don't want to over do it. Lynn always says that less is more with honing.

Good luck, and keep at it. It will "click".