Well, here we go. This will be the second post in my three post series. If your new and not familiar with my first silly post called "My Stropping" I discuss in detail how I do things in blog style and you guys are always welcome to comment. So here goes, how I hone an Ebay razor, cradle to grave...errrrr I mean, bid to shave I guess.
Ok, first ofcourse I true up a Norton hone and lap it alittle if its already true. If its not clean I wanna know before I run my blade over it. I use wet/dry sandpaper on the kitchen counter. I stop when there is no more dark/varied color spot and the hone won't lift off the counter easily. Its sucked to the counter.
Next, I do a stage I call, "Continuous Edge". I hone on the 4,000 side a few strokes to remove oxidation and ensure the edge is clean and nick free. I use a radioshack microscope to check it out as I go. I use a litte pressure and run the razor the circular honing pattern. I continue until I get results. If I have found a large nick I'll move down in grit to something more appropriate, even using wet/dry sandpaper at whatever grit to have the proper effect. I usually use 1000 grit but I've gone lower in some extreme cases. Usually the key is just patience.
Once I have a "Continuous edge" I move onto "Bevel Creation". I like to refer to this stage as "honing a knife". Its the stage of honing I wasn't able to understand or replicate when I first started honing about 2 years ago and thought honing was so difficult. Turned out to be really easier than I thought though. I use some pressure here too and begin on a Norton 4k usually and work along the entire edge using the appropriate amount of pressure for the level of sharpness. I can't give you an amount, simply that it must have pressure, it must be light pressure, and it must be equal on each side. I usually place my finger on the blade to keep it flat at this point. I will either put my fingers in a pinch (thumb and forefinger together) and place them on the center of the blade or I will place my fingers in a V (like victory) and place them on the point and heel. I make an effort to use a V for a few more strokes than the pinch to maintain the curve of the razor over the life of the blade. Now I put the Norton on the edge of a table or counter, one that is about hip high and I place my blade between the Norton, flat on the hone and the center of my chest, leaning over slightly. This ensures I have maximum control over the entire process. Once the blade is positioned on the stone and I'm standing over it I can control the positioning more carefully because everything sits in balance between the hone and myself. At no time do I ever attempt to hone with the hone out away from the center line of my body.
I place the Norton on a folded towel for this part. The towel folded up as I stand over the entire affair will allow the hone and the blade, held flat against the hone to pivot and gimbal in response to any pressure mistakes I may make. Keeping the pressure light, the hone will move with me if I make any mistakes and the blade will always be maintained in a perfectly flat position on the hone.
As the bevel becomes more perfect and sharp I will transition to an X pattern ensuring the blade contact pressure becomes even less (at this point about the weight of the blade alone will work). I use the X pattern for a variety of reasons. I ensure that each stroke is the same angle, lenght, and with equal (and light) pressure. But there must be enough to hold the razor flat to the hone and actually do something to the razor. The fewer strokes the better.
Once the bevel is set and is very sharp I'll start the final stage. What I call "Sharpening a razor". Now that I have a razor that shaves OK, or like a knife would if sharpened really well I create my razor blade. Sometimes at this point I'll have sharpened the razor so much that I need to back hone a few strokes on a high grit hone just to ensure I'm at my known starting point. Then I set the striation pattern on the blade. Using a VERY controlled pass I place the striation with a medium grit hone onto the blade.
Then holding a hone with a very high grit in my off hand I use both hands and hold the hone in my offhand at a little angle towards me and lay the razor lightly on the hone. The hone and razor are in front of my face at this point. I angle the razor toward me so that the weight of the blade falls back into the blade and not onto the hone. I compensate for the weight of the scales and hold the balance point and place enough upward pressure to control the blade. Using a X pattern and light strokes I hone the razor down to its highest sharpness I can achieve. I make a concerted effort not to remove the striations. I then apply lather to the high grit hone and continue for a few strokes. I can sense any imperfections in the sucking response I get from the razor at this point too.
Then I'm done. I test by running the blade over my arm hair at the farthest point in the arm hair and I demand the blade cut the hair at the very tip of the hair. Then I strop and test shave. Usually after a few shaves the blade settles down to where I really like it which is smoother than it started. I actually find the blades a little too sharp sometimes. If it fails a shave test, which is rare, I lather a high grit hone and pass the blade a few strokes over it. I will use .5 paste applied to balsa wood strop to keep it running for a while and use the barber hone when the mood strikes me. Sometimes I'll use the .5 at the end of honing but not too often. As the blade doesn't really respond and get any sharper with .5 at this point. When I first started honing .5 would get it dramatically sharper.
The whole process takes about 10-15 minutes, so that helps too. When I started it would take me forever with "ultra light" touches and I'd be honing from the beginning with a light touch and it would take a few nights.
OK....comments?
