Thread: In need of honing help

Your numbers are quite familiar to me; I believe we both learned them from the same person (Lynn). In all honesty, the numbers depend on the honer and the hones and, quite possibly, the razor. I am still playing with the numbers to find what is optimal for me.

One thing I can say is that I tend to do a few more X's when honing smiling blades, because during the stroke, each part of the blade spends less time in contact with the hone than it would if the edge was straight. But again, how many more strokes depends.

I strongly believe that, while fixed numbers can give you a very good starting point and save you a lot of experimentation, honing routines must still be based on personal experimentation.

Is it even possible to do the tight circles on a smiling edge. It would seem to me that you would ruin the smile and rolling x's are the only way to hone a large smiling razor, but I'm not that experienced.

David

Originally Posted by Alembic

Is it even possible to do the tight circles on a smiling edge. It would seem to me that you would ruin the smile and rolling x's are the only way to hone a large smiling razor, but I'm not that experienced.

David

You tell me:

(I have more photos or more razors if you want. Many many more.)

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Your numbers are quite familiar to me; I believe we both learned them from the same person (Lynn). In all honesty, the numbers depend on the honer and the hones and, quite possibly, the razor. I am still playing with the numbers to find what is optimal for me.

One thing I can say is that I tend to do a few more X's when honing smiling blades, because during the stroke, each part of the blade spends less time in contact with the hone than it would if the edge was straight. But again, how many more strokes depends.

I strongly believe that, while fixed numbers can give you a very good starting point and save you a lot of experimentation, honing routines must still be based on personal experimentation.

Yep, learned from Lynn... The big guy was so receptive to my questions and visits... Helped me immeasurably. I figured it would differ based on the razor, hones and person... And that it was another personal preference thing... Oh well, experimentation hurts nothing... hopefully

Cheers!
Jeremy

Originally Posted by ShavedZombie

Oh well, experimentation hurts nothing... hopefully

It's the only way to learn anything new. Whaddya think "the big guy" does?

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

You tell me:

(I have more photos or more razors if you want. Many many more.)

I take it from your response that tight circles are possible on a smiling blade.

I spent time with Lynn, but we only did razors with straight edges. As you do your circles, do you shift the blade on the hone so the whole edge end up spending some time in the circle? That is what makes the most sense to me.

David

I like 45 degree angles on smiling razors and wedges. That angle works very well for me with both circles and X strokes. You can rotate the pressure from heel to toe if needed on severely flattened spines or wedges and warped razors which is not a rolling type X, but actually very similar without lifting the razor. It is a natural progression of the pressure of the edge along the stone making sure it always is touching the stone (Have to show ya.......). I have been trashed for saying this in the past, and as you can tell, it really hurt my feelings........The more razors you hone, the more you learn. I still believe that you don't start understanding what you don't know until you have your first hundred razors under your belt. You start to understand what you don't know at a thousand and it simply gets to be more fun from there. You have to be patient and receptive to what is going on with both razor and hone. When you run into all the possible variations at a hundred razors or a thousand or at ten thousand, you will still be learning and there is no magic other that what you can make work for you.

Have fun,

Lynn

Originally Posted by Lynn

I like 45 degree angles on smiling razors and wedges. That angle works very well for me with both circles and X strokes. You can rotate the pressure from heel to toe if needed on severely flattened spines or wedges and warped razors which is not a rolling type X, but actually very similar without lifting the razor. It is a natural progression of the pressure of the edge along the stone making sure it always is touching the stone (Have to show ya.......). I have been trashed for saying this in the past, and as you can tell, it really hurt my feelings........The more razors you hone, the more you learn. I still believe that you don't start understanding what you don't know until you have your first hundred razors under your belt. You start to understand what you don't know at a thousand and it simply gets to be more fun from there. You have to be patient and receptive to what is going on with both razor and hone. When you run into all the possible variations at a hundred razors or a thousand or at ten thousand, you will still be learning and there is no magic other that what you can make work for you.

Have fun,

Lynn

Thanks Lynn. I have not had a chance to do a smiling razor yet, but I have a 7/8 Wade and Butcher wedge that has a large smile in it, and right now I am getting very good and repeatable results using all of the techniques you showed me. I just wasn't sure how to approach the Wade and Butcher and I prefer not to ruin good steel.

David