Thread: The World's Cheapest 30k Hone

I mainly used the diamond pastes after finishing on my Norton 4/8K. I've already learned that plenty of stropping on plain leather is infinitely better than honing or pasting over and over in pursuit of the perfect edge.

I will probably get a Escher or similar at some point, but right now I'm getting so much improvement from working on technique that I should wait for things to settle down before adding a new variable to the mix.

Originally Posted by Rajagra

I mainly used the diamond pastes after finishing on my Norton 4/8K. I've already learned that plenty of stropping on plain leather is infinitely better than honing or pasting over and over in pursuit of the perfect edge.

I will probably get a Escher or similar at some point, but right now I'm getting so much improvement from working on technique that I should wait for things to settle down before adding a new variable to the mix.

you have a beard. be serious

Originally Posted by kevint

you have a beard. be serious

I didn't want to scare the children with this as my avatar:

Originally Posted by Rajagra

I didn't want to scare the children with this as my avatar:

transformed. right on

But back to balsa what sold you on it Chris

Originally Posted by kevint

But back to balsa what sold you on it Chris

For me it's a final step I often incorporate into the honing process but even more so, I find it to be the easiest and quickest edge refresher.

Chris L

Originally Posted by Chris L

For me it's a final step I often incorporate into the honing process but even more so, I find it to be the easiest and quickest edge refresher.

Chris L

yeah, but at the same place they sell basswood. why not that over balsa?

Originally Posted by kevint

yeah, but at the same place they sell basswood. why not that over balsa?

I have basswood and I've also made some hard maple blocks that I use with 1 mic and .5 mic diamond sprays. The maple is so hard that after I lapped it using pencil grids, sandpaper and my granite surface plate I can actually use it like a hone (edge leading) and it doesn't bite into the wood or shave any off.

The balsa having a softer surface is different than those. It conforms to the edge and acts more like a strop in that regard.

Chris L

I made one with slurry from a soft shobu-sougoroh(sp?) polish stone. Eh? maybe there is just not enough actual abrasive there, though i put n several coats and dried it with a heat gun. Or maybe just not enough laps.

Ever use left over slurry as a strop paste

I've thought about using slurry as a strop paste, Kevin but to date I have not decided on which medium would be best to mix it with. The only slurry powder I have is yellow coticule powder. I have about a solid tablespoon of yellow coticule powder I saved from lapping a bunch of vintage coticules in succession and evaporating the water from the clean rinse bucket I used to rinse off the coticule slurry. Chrome ox is so fine it mixes well with oil to make a paint. Coticule powder given the fact that it's coarser I would think wouldn't form such a thin smooth paste? Do you have some ideas about what to mix it with? The only reason I'd want to even try it is simply for experimentation sake.

Chris L