Thread: Honing Pyramid Help

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?

I might want to mention that the razor I am trying to hone is a Damascus Steel wedge! So that would require more strokes right?

Category:Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki


This the razor you have? If so, read the thread.
What's the deal with these Damascus blades?? - Straight Razor Place Forums

Brands of Straight Razors to avoid - Straight Razor Place Wiki

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.

+1 to Utopians post. Theres no formula for it, honing is definately more of an art than a science!

Watch the '09 Razorcon videos of Lynn honing and Glen performing the tests at different grit levels. This should explain the different stages that you need to go through and show you what to look for.

I'd also like to echo Utopian that bevel setting is the most critical part of honing a razor. Get that right and the rest of it falls into place pretty easily, get it wrong and you'll just get a very highly polished but dull bevel!

Good luck and keep us posted!

Originally Posted by Utopian

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

I agree with all that Utopian said regarding the bevel setting, the pyramids, and on moving the thread to the honing forum which I have done.

Joe, welcome to SRP. What if the brand of the Damascus wedge you are honing ? Is there a name stamped on the tang ? Regarding the stropping, I do 50 on linen or webbed fabric followed by 50 on leather. Some fellows do more and some do less. See the links in my sig line for helpful resources.

Thanks alot. The razor is a Goe. Wolstenholm & sons "celebrated IXL razor" Wedge shaped, etched on front side of blade "damascus"

Joe, those wedges are always tougher to hone than a full hollow. I learned on the full hollows before I tackled the wedges. Patience and persistence is required with all of them but more so with the wedges.

Originally Posted by lumberjoe

Thanks alot. The razor is a Goe. Wolstenholm & sons "celebrated IXL razor" Wedge shaped, etched on front side of blade "damascus"

That's good steel you got there. Good luck honing it.

Ron's post is right on target.

The biggest problem with wedges is that most have been unevenly honed and you have different or heavy wear on the spine which in turn can be in different places along the spine on both sides of the razor. This wear is generally reflected in the bevels of the razors as well. The absolute key is to remove the necessary amount of metal with either a 220K or a 1K to get the razor sitting as flat as it can on the hone barring any warping of the blade. This is generally a TON of work. Once you get there and set a good bevel at the 1K level, the pyramid will work for the 4K/8K or the circle method on the 4K/8K will work followed by whatever amount of strokes your finishing stone requires.

When I first started with just the Norton 4K/8K, you could accomplish bevel setting with the pyramid method, but you were starting with at least 25 to 50 strokes and many times had to repeat the pyramid. It was most time consuming and laborious. The current methodologies work much better in my opinion and are much more consistent once the bevel is set.

If you have to remove a lot of steel, you can consider more abrasive stones like the DMT's here. One thing to remember here is that if you use tape on these razors and especially if they have really unevenly honed spines, you will continue to end up with really uneven bevels. I do tape spines when I need to remove a lot of steel from an edge for chip and ding repair, but this is not what we are talking about here.

This is also something you should consider when purchasing a restored wedge razor. If it has not been re-ground, the previous improper honing, will come out with the first few strokes on the hone and although the razor looks great to start with, before it will be shave ready in most cases, you will end up seeing a lot of shiny hone wear.

This is actually good Wiki stuff.......

Have fun,

Lynn