Thread: Circular Strokes

Would a circular motion work best on the lower grits?

I think Lynn does circles on the 4K to remove chips.

Sometimes I'll do circles or back-and-forth honing on a trouble spot using my coticule.

For the most part, you want to remove any defects in the edge on a lower grit, usually 1K to 4K. Since circles are for removing defects, most of the time you'd use them on the lower grits.

Josh

I don't have a 4k grit, so on a 1000 grit I did about 300 circles on each side of the razor and managed to get the two chips out. The edge looks much straighter now than it did. However, I have a feeling I will be on the 8k for awhile to get the razor back to sharp again. 50 passes and I went to bed.

Funny thing though, since my only straight razor is dull, I lathered up as usual this morning but shaved with my old Gillette twin blade cartridge and now my face is smooth and I don't have razor burn.

I'd complain but my face feels great - Oh well, back to the hone Sunday

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

I don't have a 4k grit, so on a 1000 grit I did about 300 circles on each side of the razor and managed to get the two chips out. The edge looks much straighter now than it did. However, I have a feeling I will be on the 8k for awhile to get the razor back to sharp again. 50 passes and I went to bed.

Funny thing though, since my only straight razor is dull, I lathered up as usual this morning but shaved with my old Gillette twin blade cartridge and now my face is smooth and I don't have razor burn.

I'd complain but my face feels great - Oh well, back to the hone Sunday

Wow 300circles on a 1000 grit.

That's some amount of metal removed. You must've had two ugly and bad chips.

I describe them over here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=18882

They weren't huge, but that was what it took for me - I'm don't have any experience on the hone though so I may have overhoned the heel and toe while missing the chips in the middle. For what it's worth I was beginning to get irritated

Hey Lee, if it works and all that.

Good job

Can someone explain exactly what "circular" honing is? I cannot seem to find an adequate explanation by searching.