Thread: Honing with ceramic rod.

I know this might sound stupid, but I tried honing a straight razor with a ceramic rod and it works.

I was about to throw away several Pakistani razors that I got when I first got interested in straight razors. (It's the kind of mistake I made before I knew better.) These razors are junk, they are crooked, can't lie flat on the hone, and they wobble when you try to hone them. I could never get them sharp for the life of me.

Anyway, just before throwing them away, i thought that I would try one last time to get the razors sharp.

I took a ceramic rod that I use for kitchen knives, and started to run the razor across the ceramic rod, keeping the spine and edge of the razor against the ceramic rod at all times.

To my surprise, the razor got sharp, not scary sharp, but sharp enough to shave with. The scratch pattern is about the same as I would get with a 1200 grit stone, but it was enough to shave with. And it gave me a reason not to throw the Pakistani razors away.

I'm now thinking of getting finer grit ceramic rods to see if I can get better results. I have several old Wade & Butcher's that just won't like flat on the hone, and I think this could be the answer.

This might just be another stupid idea, but any comments and suggestions are welcome.

I'll post the results when I get the finer grit ceramic rods. Who knows, this might work, and the ceramic rods are way lighter and easier to store than the normal hones.

Wow. Probably the rods enabled you to get contact with all parts of the edge (since you said they were warped razors). I guess the question is if you had a flat razor, could you get a comparable shave with the rods vs. a flat hone-- sounds like a good experiment to run!

-Chief

I'm very interested to see how this turns out! Kudos for thinking outside the box!

A cylindrical hone is definitely the most narrow hone a person can use, period. Since the razor is contacting the cylinder at only two points (bevel and spine), in theory it's the best tool to use to ensure that the most defective of razors receives equal contact on the hone.

I know others have experimented with honing on cylinders as have I. Rather than honing on ceramic rods, I used some wood dowels over which I placed different grit 3M abrasive film both the PSA versions and also using a thin layer of rubber cement for the non-PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesive backed film). My results echoed yours. However, the problems I had were at the higher grits all the way up to .5 micron. Personally, I could not get edges honed on cylinders as nice to shave with as I could using flat hones/surfaces. Why? I'm not sure. Part of the challenge with cylinders and the fact that the entire blade is only contacting the cylinder at two points meaning there has to be a much greater load or force at the contact points. Would this cause deflection at the edge when honing hollow ground razors? I do recall that I did not experiment with heavy wedges using this method. I stopped the experiment and went on to other things. I'm not discounting this method since I found it has merit in the fact that you can ensure both bevels on both sides of the razor easily and automatically made contact the entire length of the edge no matter how defective, wavy, warped, twisted a razor might be.

Chris L

I have actually tried using the triangular rods in the Spyderco knife sharpening kit. Strangely enough, they worked quite well given their limitations. In a pinch you can use these to polish up an edge. I think the white ones are about the same as a barbers hone.

Ray

My question is, what the long-term effects of cylindrical hones on razors could be. I can imagine all sorts of problems arising (uneven removal of material from spine or bevel leading to wavy spines and edges etc.).

Interesting, you might be the first person to actually successfully shave with a Pakistani razor. I wonder if a smooth sharpening steel would work to finish the blade? Not the kind with ridges but one that is totally smooth.

Sufi,

Thank you for posting your observations. I've found that using a diamond sharpening rod works well, especially with warped blades. I'm actually more comfortable using rod-shaped sharpeners because I have much more experience using them. The thing to keep in mind with any shape of sharpening device is to use very, very light pressure as the blade gets sharper to avoid tearout of the fine edge. This is even more important with curved ones like slipstones and such because of the small point of contact. They sure can sharpen quickly though!

Jeff

Thank you for the replies.

I have always wondered what to bring on long trips. Your better razors hold the best edge but the worry is about damaging your good razors on the trip. You could bring your cheaper razors which you may have to hone more often, but the problem would be the weight of the hones.

If you can hone with ceramic rods, I guess you might need a fine and extra fine, and maybe an ultra fine (not advertising Spyderco by the way) rods to keep your razors happy. And since you can hone as often as you want, you could bring the less expensive razors on your trip and leave your best at home.

I'm still hunting on Ebay for a good priced Spyderco fine rods to experiment with.

I don't know if there would be long term damage to the razors if I hone with ceramic rods. But most of the razors I get are from Ebay and the cheaper ones arrive in bad shape anyway, so I don't think this would be a problem.

In future, if I can afford Fillies and Dovos, I don't think I'll be honing them with rods.

I would have thought that if there are any small chips or similar damage in the edge, that the rods would follow those and you would end up with a serrated razor