Thread: #$%^&$@# Honing!

Originally Posted by BFMC AJ

When I look at the edge in the light it appears nice and even with no indication of a line (can't remember what that line is called). A double bevel but you have to take great care in creating one... or you made one by mistake and lifted the spine....

I've avoided using anything below a 3000 grit because I thought that was a no-no for a blade unless it was already damaged in some way.
Not necessarily, if the bevel is very rounded then a 1k stone can cut that metal away very quickly

So should I drop down to a 1000 for 10 or 20 passes and then do a pyramid with 3000 and 8000 grit? There is no set number of laps, I just did a W&B hollow that required about 120 laps on a 1k to get the bevel right and a Craftsman and a Wacker that required 20 each so that depends on the razor.... Keep in mind that those pyramids that you see were actually developed for use with the Norton stones....

Also, I've seen some people talk about putting some tape on the spine to prevent wear when honing. But that seems like it would mess up the angle. Am I right? No the angle change from one layer of electrical tape is insignificant.... in fact there are some of us that swear by it too...
(a whole other can of worms there)

One more question...ok, three. I've seen people talking about using a barber hone to "freshen" the edge with 3 to 5 passes. How often is normal for that? Every two or three weeks? Is that instead of using the linen?
No there is no qualification of "NORMAL" each person and razor is different... The use of linen only cleans the edge before stropping but this is another topic of heated discussion here... the simple fact is that it is way easier to maintain an edge then to create one...

Thanks for the help everyone. I don't expect this to be easy or to produce results anywhere near what SRD got on my other razor...but passing the HHT would be nice. Oh yeah, I decided to send in this razor too so it could be sharpened correctly since I am using both of them for daily use. I'll practice on a couple of others to get honing right.

As you can see there is a lot of different information on how to hone razors.... Again I'll take you back to my original post and the 3 stages of honing... Bevel, Sharpen, then Polish..... you have to figure out how to accomplish all three of these stages using the equipment that you have on hand... What might work for me with my honing stroke and the stones I am using can be of no use to you.... even the number of laps that I posted above have no real relevance because that was on my stone with a certain razor and the stroke that I use....

Go to the video section of the forum and check out the tutorial vids by Lynn and Heavydutysquare. If you haven't used a magic marker to check if your bevel is coming in contact with the hone as you do your stroke check that out. I tape all spines with one layer of electrical tape YMMV. I also use a 30X microscope to check an edge before, during and after honing. I consider that essential. Best of luck with it.

Originally Posted by BFMC AJ

Oh good God....what is a double bevel? Do I want to know? My head already hurts!

Don't worry about a double bevel at this point. You should focus on the basics IMHO.

I can't think of a good way to do this, but are there any pics of what the bevel looks like when it's good? I'm trying to practice on my FIL's auction find and i'm not sure how it's coming along.

Great advice so far. Getting an idea of where you are in the process is one of the hardest parts of honing a straight. For me, when the razor starts catching or cutting leg hairs (along the whole length of the blade), I know I'm pretty close. There's a certain amount of trial and error you have to go through. Best of luck.



Jordan

Originally Posted by chem_fun

I can't think of a good way to do this, but are there any pics of what the bevel looks like when it's good? I'm trying to practice on my FIL's auction find and i'm not sure how it's coming along.

There should be several threads here at SRP with photos of the edges of razors through microscopes. I've found that checking the bevel through a microscope gave me great feedback on how my honing was going. I use a 60X-100X handheld microscope from RadioShack (it was discontinued though). Randydance uses a similar hand scope, and still others use regular microscopes or models that connect to their PCs. The handhelds can be purchased for under $20.00 -- definitely a good investment IMO.