Thread: My Honing

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?

Alan, I have nothing to add because I've not bought a hone yet but I'll tell you this: I save a lot of your posts to Microsoft Word for future use. I will definitely refer to them when the time comes to buy a hone.

Thanks for the descriptive post.

-Rob

AFDavis11 Quoted: 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.


Great information and well written! I was wondering what pattern you are using when you refer to the folded towel part?

Glen

My comment is: your report shows great experience.

You name many things one only notices after having honed razors for a long time.
And you show that there is no mystery behind honing, just a logic sequence.

Interestingly I use the same technique of lathering the final hone.

I do my honing in even less steps (starting with a dull or spoilt edge):
1. Establish a "countinous egde" on the 1000 Japanese water stone.
2. "Create a bevel" on the 6000 Japanese water stone.
3. "Sharpening the razor" on either the 8000 Japanese water stone or skipping this and moving on to the Blue belgian stone with lather.
4. Stropping on the plain leather.

That's all, the razor is passing the hanging hair and arm tests.

What comes next is the "Maintainance of the razor". As you mentioned before, the razor is not perfect just after honing. It is not fine enough. So what I do is the following:

5. Shaving a couple of times
6. Getting back on the Belgian with only a few trips with lather on it
7. Stropping on the plain leather
go back to 5. increasing the number of shaves before going ahead to 6.

This keeps my razors in perfect condition.

Best regards
Martin

Thanx Martin, great to see you jump in as well. More info for me...

gglockner, I typically use both the angle approach, with heel leading and the x pattern, with the x pattern last. The towel can stabilize the hone, allow it to pivot, and absorb uneeded pressure with either of those patterns.

very informative i get the sense from this and your previous posts that the honemeister tag is well deserved on you.
what are the medium and fine stones you use?
i certainly understand where your coming from when you say that the .5 made a big difference in your early days. also how does that system and the pyramid honing system that everyone talks about compare for you?what do you think of the pyramid honing system?

I will certainly be adding this to a doc .. what a fantastic piece of info .. I understand the large majority of the guide , the bevel creation I think I'll need to do more reading up on i know from my own attempts at honing my bevel is not the same accross the whole blade even tho the razors shave great -- beginners luck probably ..

thanks again for this great info .

Garry

Nev, the pyramid is pure brilliance in my opinion. Its the most logical process for sharpening a razor with the least effort. If used it would fit INTO the last step of this process. I use it a little less now than I did early on, but for basic honing it is an important tool to understand its purpose. I use it in its simpilist form. To work an edge on a high grit hone, then, failing to see an immediate response, move back to the 4k and retry, repeat! and repeat! With experience I think I'm starting to accomplish the correct actions more without using the pyramid, but it is still a tool I'll keep in the toolkit.

I avoided the references to exact grit for two reasons. One, I wanted anyone to be able to use the concepts, and two, I use barber hones for some of the last step. I typically use 4k, 8-9K and 10-12K. Those are estimates though for the barber hones I use. Those are the Swaty and Carborundum. One problem with barber hones is they don't come with well defined grits, you have to feel them with your finger and "estimate". I just use them in ascending smoothness. I have found a few hones out there that I'm certain the general "grit" is inaccurate on, and I find that results are more important than "fact". The process would work with 4K and 8K very well. The key is understanding the overall big picture, which is what my post was trying to describe.

I appreciate everyones praise for the post but keep in mind that I learned all this stuff because I read the posts here from the true masters of honing, like Lynn and Randy and many others. I'm mearly passing on my current understanding, and/or what is actually working for me. Sortof a more detailed view of "you hone with light pressure", response. I'm sure the real honemiesters on here are just chuckling at how far I go to make the process easy for me to accomplish. :-)

Alan, I just read your post and the only comment is: "I wish you posted it before my first honing. It would haved saved me a lot of grief and stress."

The time estimate is good to know for beginners too. I wouldn't have honed for 8 hours had I known how long it should take.

I am no honemeister but I do love foolproofing any process. The towel under the hone is so brilliant that I should have thought of it .

Excellent tutorial.

before you posted I started practicing and used a mr clean magic eraser as the towel for two reasons it doesn't move and I have big hands so it raises the hone about an inch and a half and helps me to keep the razor even and flat.


keaton