Thread: micro-serrations and stroke path

I have found that sometimes honing just takes time, especially with a very light touch. You could be doing everything right and never know it until your almost done. You have to have faith that the technique your using, the one your understanding here, is right. Otherwise it'll take so long you'll lose faith. I believe that it is important (but maybe not critical) to try and keep all the serrations on the blade even, or parallel to each other. I would caution you against trying any scything motion until your experienced. I can mail you a hunk of my chin as a visual aid to enforce my point if you would like.

I came to the conclusion that sliding the blade off the hone was the only way to hone, then I discovered that my hone was not trued and the slide outward was pulling the blade over the concave center of the blade and sharpening the blade on the raised edge. Once trued, and kept true, I have found honing all too easy, and began over honing repeatedly.

I have also found that a very light touch and very slow motion is helpful the first year. Say a count of ten from one lap, five on each side. Eventually you'll get some cohesion if things are getting close. I found that using no pressure is darn hard when using a hone, but at the end the patience is worth it.

I also found the microscope to be a godsend when learning how to hone the harder razors...and you can just go .....oh now I SEE what the problem is. Big help.

You understand me correctly

Originally Posted by jmsbcknr

Sorry Randy if I am abit dense but want to make sure I understand. I have a Norton 4X8K. Instead of letting the bottom edge come off the stone, I would angle the tip of the blade back 15 to 45 degrees then push the blade down the stone keeping the entire blade in contact with the stone for the hole time. Turn it over and repeat the process. That is the way I strop of course with the back leading on the leather. If this is correct it may actually work better for me. I have to use two hands on my razor to keep the tip on the hone throughout the entire stroke now and with this method I would not have to worry about the tip coming off the stone. Will let you know how it works. I have a Fil that is giving me fits right now and I am trying everything to get it so it does not yank each facial hair out one by one.

jmsbcknr

Speed of the lap, I started honing with a speed of about 2 seconds for each direction on the hone or about 5 seconds for a single roundtrip lap. Now its about 2-3 seconds per roundtrip lap.

The amount of pressure to use depends upon the condition of the bevel and the stone you are using.

Just my two cents here,

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I have found that sometimes honing just takes time, especially with a very light touch. You could be doing everything right and never know it until your almost done. You have to have faith that the technique your using, the one your understanding here, is right. Otherwise it'll take so long you'll lose faith. I believe that it is important (but maybe not critical) to try and keep all the serrations on the blade even, or parallel to each other. I would caution you against trying any scything motion until your experienced. I can mail you a hunk of my chin as a visual aid to enforce my point if you would like.

I came to the conclusion that sliding the blade off the hone was the only way to hone, then I discovered that my hone was not trued and the slide outward was pulling the blade over the concave center of the blade and sharpening the blade on the raised edge. Once trued, and kept true, I have found honing all too easy, and began over honing repeatedly.

I have also found that a very light touch and very slow motion is helpful the first year. Say a count of ten from one lap, five on each side. Eventually you'll get some cohesion if things are getting close. I found that using no pressure is darn hard when using a hone, but at the end the patience is worth it.

I also found the microscope to be a godsend when learning how to hone the harder razors...and you can just go .....oh now I SEE what the problem is. Big help.