Thread: Honing Pyramid Help

Originally Posted by lumberjoe

Dear friends,
Could anyone tell me where to find a honing pyramid from setting the bevel at 1000 grit- 4000 grit- 8000 grit- 12000 grit, and then how many strokes should be used on a cow hide/ latigo leather strop?

There is no magic formula. In general, the 1k grit is used to set the bevel and that takes whatever number of strokes it takes. It depends on the starting condition of the edge and the character of the steel. Setting the bevel means that you are converting the edge from a rounded "U" shape to a "V" shape along the entire length of the blade. Knowing/evaluating when the bevel is set is pretty much the most critical step in the honing process. Anyway, the pyramid work pretty much starts only after you have set the bevel.

The Wiki has a good description of the 4k/8k pyramid. After that pyramid, you can either just do strokes on the 12K, which is the most common strategy, or you can do a pyramid between the 8k and 12k. (Personally, I have never done an 8k/12k pyramid.) The number of strokes depends on which 12k honing you are talking about. If you are using the Naniwa 12k, in general you only need 10 to 15 strokes. If you are using the Chines hone, which too many erroneously call a 12k, then many more strokes (up to 100) will be needed.

By the way, this should probably be moved to the honing section.