Thread: Dilemma: Learning to Hone on Ebay Special

I have both the DMT 1200 and the Naniwa 1000. Both do a good job. The Naniwa takes a little longer but seems smoother, and the DMT seems to get the job done like NOW. It seems the key to setting the bevel is not to move off that stone, or diamond, until the full length of the blade is popping hair at its base. Don't move on until it does. Once you get that the rest is easy and your pyramid will work just fine.

Ray

As Randy told me early on you can set a bevel on a 4k but it will take longer. OTOH, cleaning up the scratches left from a 1k won't be an issue. What I do is look at the edge under magnification and determine what I am up against to begin with. If the edge is reasonably clean I will go with circles and back and forth strokes on the 4k.

If it needs a substantial amount of work I will go to a DMT 1200 continuous plate or my Shapton 1k. Same procedure, circles and back and forth strokes with light pressure ( for setting the bevel). Once I feel I've got what I need from the circles I go to an x stroke ASAP. The angle of which will depend on the results of the marker test which is the first thing I do to see if I need to roll that x or approach with a 45 degree angle.

I would recommend the Naniwa 1k because Utopian likes it so well and I trust his judgment. I haven't got one myself. The DMT 1200 is a fast cutter but you have to watch it because you can go past where you want to go in a NY minute ... and that is a pair of seconds.