Thread: Can someone help a lost honer?

Morning all

I sat down last night with my new norton 4/8k hone to sharpen a razor that my uncle had gotten from an antique store close to where we live. I started on the 4k side with absolutly no pressure until the bevel looked smooth under 60x magnification. Then I moved on to the 8k side and proceded in the same fasion until the bevel looked smooth at 100x magnification. After that I got a hair brush and pulled out a hair only to find that it wouldn't pass the hht After that, I proceded to hone 15 more laps and then I tested again...... still didn't pass. So, I figured to give it the good ol' shaveing test to find that after I ran it 30 laps on my TM apprentice strop it would pass atleast pass the hht I got an ok shave out of the blade, but still not perfect. Does anyone have any pointers?

Thanks,
Kevin

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".

Originally Posted by McShaverson

After that I got a hair brush and pulled out a hair only to find that it wouldn't pass the hht After that, I proceded to hone 15 more laps and then I tested again...... still didn't pass.

The only way I can get my razors to pass the hht is to either use my wife's hair, since her's is much thicker, or use mine, but rest the hair on the blade then pull back slowly across the blade.

My Dovo and Filly feels a slight pull and snips the hair. My newest TI (presharpened from Classic Shaving) is mindblowingly sharp, and passes with my hair and a very slight drag across the blade, but no feeling of pull.

If my beard wasn't so wiry, I would definently prefer a stropped chrome oxide edge. My beard is hard on that kind of edge though, so I much prefer to finish on a 9k-11k barber hone followed occasionally by 80-150 laps on newspaper.

Oddly, the newspaper edge holds up longer, for me, than the oxide edge will. Most of the time I just use the edge from the barber hone...go figure...