Honing epiphany

I'd like to share a honing epiphany I've had recently. For a long time honing for me has been a hit and miss thing. There are some razors that I thought I had honed well and then there are others that I just couldn't get right.

Anyway, recently I started using a natural stone hone as a lapping plate. This stone is about the size of a brick and is super hard. So I lapped this brick over the course of three days and then I cut some grooves into the surface. So now I can lap my hones as often as I should instead of once every few months.

So the epiphany is that I needed to clean my hones far more often. The black swarf was effectively reducing the grit size of each hone. Now that I am honing on clean hones the difference is like night and day. The edges I thought were good are actually pathetic and the edges I can get now are not only sharp, but also smooth.

So, it may be obvious to others, but my piece of advice is clean your hones as often as you can.

congrats :)

what kind of hones are you lapping with your grooved lapping brick?

So far I've honed a king stone, Naniwa 3k/8k, a sharpton 12k and a tiny bbw that I use for pocket knives.

how did you cut the grooves?

I used a diamond file to cut the grooves.

Honing for me is motsly instinctive, i have worked in boning halls for nearly 20 years so know my way around a stainless knife, but once you find that sweet spot it's a great feeling putting a blade that you've sharpened youself on your face.

Keeping your stones clean is very important, by letting them build with removed metal you create a effect called burnishing. Look it up, it will give you some insight to why your edges were not as good with a loaded stone.

Gentlemen,

Where might one acquire a lapping stone or stones ??? that can be used to erase the swarmf from 1K, 4K and 8K Norton stones?

I tend to make black even when I touch up

Good to know about keeping hones clean.