Thread: The World's Cheapest 30k Hone

This is an awesome thread. I have a Coticule and a barber hone...is there any need to go to pastes before I hit the leather? Even if there isn't, would it hurt to use pastes in there? because I REALLY want to make my own paddle strop, just the the halibut!

mighty nifty!

There really isn't a need for it, but many, many people enjoy the benefit of a little higher grit polish. Its an easy and inexpensive way to reallly improve your edge. Balsa deforms easily so you need to be careful with it. If you remain prudent it won't hurt your edge, although you might need to update it more often with this technique. When I use the word prudent I'm saying keep the number of strokes low after your final polishing stone.

As an aside I have always found that a stropping motion with a slight x pattern angle worked best with balsa and be especially careful about using any pressure as over time the balsa will actually deform from over pressure in your stroke.

One of the cool collatoral benefits to these stropping paste surfaces is that it completes a lot of your stropping for you. Beginners who don't really know how to strop (even though most think its an easy no brainer) benefit greatly from using high grit pastes on a stroppable medium first. If you find that your edges shave better after the balsa than they do after a plain leather stropping then you know your not stropping as effectively as you should be.

Originally Posted by JimR

This is an awesome thread. I have a Coticule and a barber hone...is there any need to go to pastes before I hit the leather? Even if there isn't, would it hurt to use pastes in there? because I REALLY want to make my own paddle strop, just the the halibut!

you are saying to use this in the edge first passes?

No Kevin, as Randy said, spine leads edge trails as in stropping. I only use the chrome ox pasted balsa seen in the pictures occasionally when I want to refresh an edge; then only 10-25 passes take care of it. My method is to do just 10 light passes, strop on leather (always) and shave. If it's not quite there I hit the edge with another 15.

Chris L

ok, but why call it a hone. just curious:O

Originally Posted by kevint

ok, but why call it a hone. just curious:O

Good point . I could have called it a paddle strop but decided to post it in the hones area.

Chris L

Originally Posted by Chris L

Good point . I could have called it a paddle strop but decided to post it in the hones area.

Chris L

I thought the idea was to sort of remind people that they don't need to spend ~$300 for a Nakayama or a Shapton 30K to get a killer edge.

I like this thread a lot, for two reasons: first, because I love chrome oxide, and I think it's gotten a bit of a bum rap lately, with all these overplayed themes about "weak edges," "pastes are cheating," and so on. And secondly, because this thread is a good reminder that it's all about ingenuity, not acquisition!

Do you find that you prefer the Balsa to a "leather" paddle strop? If so, why?

Originally Posted by Chris L

Ray, based on your pictures, IME you should be fine with that concentration. It's obviously working as evidenced by the oxidized steel from your razor/s. I've had worse luck by putting a thick opaque coat on balsa than I have just tinting it like you have there. So, I think you're right on the money.

Chris L

+1

I was going to say the exact same thing. Too much paste really does weird things....and not in agood way.