A Newb's Learning Curve

Well, I thought I would just write down some initial lessons I've learned since trying my hand at honing and restoration.

- when hand sanding, take care and not concentrate pressure on one spot of the blade. (the W & B I bought from an antique had some heavy pitting in one particular spot, so I think I concentrated the sanding in that spot. The result was a dip in the spine. This in turn has caused some difficulty in honing because that one dip in the spot does not allow the edge to get honed evenly.)

- I don't need to start so far back on the blade when honing. (I guess I thought I would not get the heel part of the edge if I started at the heel, so I was starting pretty much on the tang. This caused unnecessary hone marks on the tang. I can start at the heel, with the heel leading a little and it seems to get the heel just fine.)

- no pressure needed. (I'm using a dmt 1200 to set the bevel and this thing cuts fast. Despite the problems listed, the bevel is being set pretty fast. I initially thought it would take a long time, but nope. If it wasn't for the dip in the spine the bevel would have been set with a relatively small number of laps on the hone. I'm not counting the amount of laps, I just figured on the ol' lap and test method.)

So, a question...when I'm hand sanding should I hold the sanding paper on the edge side or stay on the spine side like I did before?

Should I have taped the spine? I'm just wondering if that would help the situation or if would just be the same situation just at a different angle.

Thanks for any and all responses/suggestions.

There's a good thread about hand sanding.
Use the searh feature

The part of the spine that touches the hone during the honing is the edge’s “index”… it ensures the angle of the edge is constant alone the length.
In a perfect world it is straight and on the same plain with the edge/bevel. If there is rust/pitting on that area it is best to leave it alone. After sanding and restoring the rest of the blade, honing will clean it up. Hopefully if there is still a gap left by the pitting it is small enough not to affect honing.

Without a photo of the blade I can only suggest you put tape in the section that you sanded to “fill the gap” then check that the filled section is in line with rest of the spine, then hone the blade.

Only the edge/bevel and spine should contact the hone while honing, however no one is perfect so while honing the tang will contact the hone and cause a chip in the hone so most blades have a triangular cut on both sides of the tang, called the “hone relief”.
That is also why you hone with the heal leading so the tang is “out of the way” and the very edge at the heel is still properly indexed with the spine… not only is it easier to hone this way but while honing you tend to “drag” the blade across the hone and not “naturally” apply pressure to the blade.

Hope the “long winded” explains some…