Thread: Less than impressed with balsa wood hone

So I made a balsa wood hone. Sanded it flat but I cannot get them smooth for the life of me. When I chalk up with CrO I can clearly see ridges in the hone. Try to sand them out but with CrO on the hone it doesn't work very well at all. While I'm pretty new but I am pretty sure the hone needs to be flat.

Unfortunately, Hand American is "redoing" their bench hones so they aren't for sale now. Anyone know when Hand American will be offering their hones for sale again? I sent the guy an email more than a week ago and haven't heard back.
Vendors not returning emails seems to be a reoccurring issue for me (even the ones I haven't ticked off ).

I have tryed balsa leather but i have to say i found linen or cotton strop real efective and easy to apply to.

What grit are you using to sand the balsa? I had no problems sanding it with 1500 grit. I also used CrOx powder, applied with mineral oil. A CrOx stick might make things a bit lumpy and uneven if thickly applied.

I bought aircraft balsa at the hobby store and didn't need to sand it. Applied diamond paste and it is working fine. If you emailed Keith at Hand American he is sometimes slow on getting back to you IME. He will eventually though if he has something to tell you. If the flatbed hones are going to be delayed maybe he sees no point in being the bearer of bad news .

When you loaded your strop, did you wipe as much of the crox away as possible. The effectiveness of the crox is actually minimized if it is too heavily applied. You should just fill the pores of the balsa with crox.
Once you have the strop loaded, mark the edge of your blade with a magic marker and strop it lightly on the crox. Most people seem to want to press to hard when using these balso strops. Your pressure should be as light as you use when stropping on your leather strop.
After you have stroped the blade 2 or 3 passes, take a look at the marker. You should see it beginning to, or possibly be leaving the edge of the razor. If that is the case, don't worry about any small ridges in the balsa. Balsa if very soft and the light ridges you are describing shouldn't inhibit its effectiveness.
I am in the process of making some 3"x8" and 2-1/2*x8" hard balsa strops loaded with crox. They should be available this week if you are interested.

Good luck,

Ray

Ray gave excellent advice. I've never had to bother sanding balsa. It's soft enough and flat enough when purchased in the hobby stores that it conforms to most edges as is. I also agree with Ray that when mixing chrome ox with a light oil the goal is NOT to heavily paint the surface. A semi-transparent tint is preferred. Even then, you'll be wiping off the spines and edges of your razors after the chrome ox/oil tinted balsa for quite a long time. Weeks even.

Chris L

+1 to the above.

You don't need a lot of CrOx, and the balsa doesn't need to be perfectly flat. It's a very soft wood, and will "hug" the blade a little. Not to mention, if you have the width of the balsa smaller, or do X strokes when stropping it won't matter if it's perfectly flat.

As stated above, balsa is soft, and might have natural streaks or low/high ridges. If you use an X pattern like when honing, it will be fine.