My Frist Try at Honing

[JimR]

Well gents, I've got a Tosuke razor that came not quite shave ready. It was beveled but not quite sharp enough...So I finally got the nuggets to try my own hones.

I got out my Coticule/BBW combo stone and slurry stone, my primble barber hone and got to honing. I worked up a slurry on the coticule side, and started honing. I followed a rough 7/3 ratio and used some pressure. How much? some.

As I was honing, the slurry turned a dark grey, so I reckon I was taking some steel. I gradually added water, a couple drops at a time, until the slury was thinned. The edge by this time was feeling decidedly sticky to my thumb. I eventually went right on to water, and by this time I was using no pressure at all, just the weight of the blade. All in all, I think I must have made it to a good 80 passes. A few more on a dry coticule, and then on to the barber hone with water. I only did about 10 passes on the hone, and then went on to a CrO2 pasted strop for 10 passes and finally I stropped the ever loving heck out of it on linen then two different leather strops.

Results? A fairly good shave--though I got a couple of nasty nicks. I think I might need to smooth it out more. i know that I don't have a proper finisher--I'm getting a Shapton #12000 next month, so that should be better.

Now, the shaving went ok, but I know it could be sharper. I'm just not sure about how to make it better.

I wish I knew enough to ask the right questions...but anyway, I did make the edge better, so that's a bit of a triumph!!!

[Jantjeuh]

I think if you use the coticule + water you have a very good finishing stone right there. Before I reset the bevel entirely on the frowning razor I'm working with, I first sharpened it as it was using coticule and the coticule with water as finisher. That gave a very smooth edge

[Yannis]

Don't use a barber hone after the coticule.
I agree with Jantjeuh .
The coticule IS a proper finisher!

[bjorn]

I've never gotten what I would consider a good edge on my Tosuke when I've honed it on the coticule, I've found the Tosuke to respond better to either the Shapton GS 16k or paste (.5 micron followed by ChromOx). I've got a Nakayama finisher, but I haven't gotten around to hone the Tosuke on it yet.

IIRC there was a thread with honing instructions for the Tosuke and I believe it said you should preferably start out with a 12K hone.

[JimR]

I've never gotten what I would consider a good edge on my Tosuke when I've honed it on the coticule, I've found the Tosuke to respond better to either the Shapton GS 16k or paste (.5 micron followed by ChromOx). I've got a Nakayama finisher, but I haven't gotten around to hone the Tosuke on it yet.

IIRC there was a thread with honing instructions for the Tosuke and I believe it said you should preferably start out with a 12K hone.

Interesting. I'm just using what I have, so...What "color" is .5 micron?

Start with a 6000 and finish on a 12000, if you don't have a natural water stone, according to a couple of sources I've found. But these guys wouldn't use a foreign hone on a Japanese razor if their lives depended on it.

[bjorn]

I used this from classicshaving and the chromox was from japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com.

If your local sources says 6K and 12K I wouldn't doubt it a second.

I have the impression the Tosuke are hard, and it might be the reason I have had better luck with synthetic hones and paste than the coticule.

Edit:

On the other hand, the Japanese naturals I've seen pictured with the Nihon Kamisori stamps are all claimed to be much finer than 12K, and those stones where mined for honing the Japansese razors, so wouldn't this tell us that the Japanesee went to higher grits than 12K when they honed their razors?

[sparq]

You've just discovered why honing is hard. Getting hones is the easy part. Figuring out what is going on, when to stop and how to produce excellent outcomes in a repeatable way is what separates us newbies from respected honemeisters.