Thread: Wearing out my welcome, but...

Gents, I know I've been asking a huge number of questions lately, and I truly appreciate your patience and help. But I need advice/help yet again.

I have a very smiley Shumate (wife has the camera, so no pics) that I haven't tried to hone yet. It's a family heirloom that I plan on restoring. Original condition, no rust, just scratched up a bit.

I have yet to hone a smiler. The only narrow stone I have is a 12k Chinese that's about 1.5 inches. All the rest are 3" or so. I can't imagine being able to do a rolling X stroke on such wide stones. I've read all the info in the Wiki, and as much as I can find here, but I know I'm missing something... I just can't quite wrap my brain around how to hone a smiler on wide stones. Info on what kind of strokes would be greatly appreciated.

On another note, I did successfully hone a Boker Red Injun from butterknife to shave ready on my Shaptons today. The Shaptons really do take a different technique and have a totally different feel to them than the DMT's. The Boker is a 101 round point. The RP version really seems to be rare. I've already told my wife that i'll give it to a relative as a graduation present.

Smilers don't really need a narrow hone at all. Just concentrate on the part of the razor that is touching the hone, nearest the hone's edge (from edge of hone to maybe an inch in). Start at the heel and roll as you make an x-stroke down the length of the hone. Paint the edges with a marker and the marker wear will show you how even your honing stroke is. Mainly just try to give "equal hone time" to all of the edge.

You might want to practice on a less valuable smilie until you get the hang of it. It's really not that hard.

Once you have it down you can do the rolling x on a wider hone. If you ever honed pocket knives with clip blades you will recall how you turn the blade as you come around from the heel to the point ? Basically the same except that you are keeping the spine on the hone where it is across from that part of the edge that is also touching the hone.

Make sure you have a small bevel or rounded edge on your stone. I will keep your hone much less apt to chip on a daily basis. It also gives you a smooth gentle edge to tilt your blade on for things like honing smiles – in effect you’ve got almost a pin point width hone. Makes it easy to maintain exact contact on one short specific spot on the blade and a matching spot on the spine as you draw the blade from heel to nose. I try not to slide all the way off the stone, but if you do occasionally, the rolled edge will take an unnoticeable toll. Of course, I am assuming you are going about all this with the proverbial extremely light hand.

Is it the Shumate’s Tungsteel razors… the ones with the wild smile? IMHO they are annoying to hone.
You see… The smile is so exaggerated, the blade “bent forward”, the tang is almost behind the spine (unlike most “normal” razors were the tang is in line with the spine) it becomes slightly unbalanced during the strokes, and feels “weird” when honing.

Just like its exaggerated smile, so too you will need an exaggerated rolling “X”, and is quite possible on a wide hone like the Norton.
You will get it sharp, but you may not soon want to do it again. The first time I got one shave ready it was a lesson in humility.

Oh!!!... but it get worse… try stropping the little critter… lolololol.

But the advice already given will get you there... and a few Shumate’s collectors may chime in later with more help.

Originally Posted by smythe

Is it the Shumate’s Tungsteel razors… the ones with the wild smile? IMHO they are annoying to hone.
You see… The smile is so exaggerated, the blade “bent forward”, the tang is almost behind the spine (unlike most “normal” razors were the tang is in line with the spine) it becomes slightly unbalanced during the strokes, and feels “weird” when honing.

Just like its exaggerated smile, so too you will need an exaggerated rolling “X”, and is quite possible on a wide hone like the Norton.
You will get it sharp, but you may not soon want to do it again. The first time I got one shave ready it was a lesson in humility.

Oh!!!... but it get worse… try stropping the little critter… lolololol.

But the advice already given will get you there... and a few Shumate’s collectors may chime in later with more help.

Yup, that'd be the one.

Thanks, gents, I'll get after this one today.

Lots of people absorb your questions and the resulting answers. I'm sure someone is lurking here simply trying to garner as much honing knowledge as possible. They appreciate every question you can think of.

I knew you would get the hang of the Shaptons pretty quick. They take a little time to get used to. The rolling X takes a while to get the hang of also. I set my smiling blades aside for a while because of frustration but eventually came back to them with great success. Because only a small portion of your blade hits the hone at any one time it takes a lot longer to get your blade where you want it.

bj

FloorPizza, a slightly off-topic question: how does your 8k Shapton compare to your 12k Chinese? I am getting better polished bevels from the Shapton than from the Chinese stone.

i'm sure you have probably watched it before but i found Heavydutys youtube video pretty good for explaining the rolling X pattern, i think he does it at the end of them all though. check it out again if you have time. it helped me with my W&B.