Thread: Can someone help a lost honer?

As promised, here are some pictures using a wood chisel to illustrate to newer guys what we mean when we say a bevel must be "set". Others have already done a great job at discussing the importance of a proper bevel; most recently, one of my favorites, David Polan's (HeavyDutySG135 I believe) multi-segment video tutorial on honing.

But, different things "click" with different people and this was fresh on my mind recently in honing chisels for someone so maybe this will help.

Bottom line, when we hone razors, we're removing and then polishing metal on the surfaces or faces of both bevels (a wood chisel, unless it's back beveled only has one bevel and a flat bottom ("face"). We want both bevels to be similar in appearance (it wouldn't be good to hone one side to 1000 grit and the other to 16000 grit) in relation to the scratch pattern of the grits used when honing and then polishing, but it doesn't matter a lick if one bevel's width when viewed is thinner or uneven from another because......................the faces of the bevels don't cut whiskers, the EDGE does. What is the edge? The two bevels MEETING in one line the entire length of the razor blade. Quite simply then, this is when a bevel is "SET". If the bevels don't meet, or if they only meet sporadically across the entire length, even thinking of polishing the edge at that point is useless. It's difficult even with magnification to view the edge of a razor head on to determine across its entire length whether the bevels are meeting exactly as they need to. It's easy to view the faces of the bevels even without magnification, but again, it's about the edge.

Ok, Ok, enough already, here's what I mean:

This first pic shows the one bevel of a wood chisel. You see 3 different stripes. The left most coarsest stripe is that way because it doesn't have to be any more polished; it doesn't do any cutting. The middle stripe is the 25 degree angle of the bevel polished to a mirror smoothness. It didn't need to be nearly that far up the bevel either since it doesn't do any cutting. Finally the white stripe at the tip is the micro-bevel (23 degrees). It's also larger than it needs to be but it's good for the photo. It's also mirror smooth. Looking at the FACE of this bevel then, it's looking pretty impressive.

The flat bottom (the "face") of the chisel. It's mirror smooth. I wish the picture was a bit better but you get the idea. Looking at the surface of this chisel face, how could we get better than mirror polished?

So we have two faces (chisel face and bevel face) that look just great. They look like this chisel is ready to part woodgrain like butter.
This next picture tells it all and brings it all together...........................

There it is!!!! Does the bevel and the face (bottom) of this chisel meet to form an edge? Not even close!! You can even see the striated grind marks from squaring up this badly nicked and abused chisel on my grinder prior to any honing! Would this chisel cut anything? No. Now, here's what brings this illustration around to our razor purposes. On this chisel, IF I would simply continue to work back and forth on higher grit stones (4000, 8000, 16000), essentially polishing the bevel and the face, it would probably take days to get an edge. This chisel edge needs serious metal removal that only a coarse grit stone will provide.

Us SRP members that have been around awhile and hone our own razors can't count the number of times we read: "I started honing my first or second razor and I've spent hours and I can't get this *&$##$%#$#^%^ thing sharp!!!!"

Gotta set the bevel. I think it was Glen (GSSixxgun) who said it so perfectly recently; it was something like "sharpness is established at the bevel setting stage and not the polishing stage". The honing forums are plentiful with info on how to test for bevel setting success.

I hope this helps.

Chris L

P.S. the bottom pic is just a different shot of the bevel of the chisel. I meant to delete it but can't figure out how during editing. Oh well, it does show mirror smoothness.