Thread: Honing speed

Do you get better edge results when honing slowly or fast? Or does it not matter?

bill

You need to hone at a speed that allows correct contact between blade & hone whilst keeping pressure light.
The speed is limited by your skill. You may do a hundred good laps, then one careless one will undo all the previous ones.
My advice is to go at a speed that suits you to a certain extent, but bear in mind a razor is delicate & will require light, precise strokes to achieve the ultimate edge.
Watch a few of the honemiesters videos, but don't try to keep up with them!

When you first start don't worry about speed, it can only lead to misguided strokes that can mess up an edge fast.

The most important thing is to make sure you keep your strokes steady and flat on the hone while watching the water in front of the razor. This will show you where the razor is being treated by the hone or not.

Speed....I never think about that.

I can't imagine any advantage to honing quickly. When I hone the motivation to create each stroke perfectly slows me down quite a bit.

If your considering that the motion of the blade creates stability, I wouldn't try going down that path. I think it's better to go slowly, very slowly.

I think you have to really focus of the elbow swing and a careful turn.

I'm a "fast" honer, for the most part, but not because there's an inherent advantage to it. It's just that I've been honing for so many decades that it's as natural as breathing to me. The advice you've been given already is as good as gold. Worry about honing RIGHT and you'll naturally get faster as your muscle memory develops. When I'm down to the final strokes I end up going relatively slow and with a very feathery touch so I leave that grit with minimal impact for the next higher grit to deal with.

My speed is about 1 second per stroke, not lap.

I'm slow as well, for me speed kills, be it razors or kitchen knives. In fact for razors I go about half the speed I do with kitchen knives.

The advice above is good. The closer your technique is to perfect and changing hones at the appropriate time will have more of an effect on your edge than speed does. I have shaved off of razors honed by numerous people that hone at different speeds and use slightly different techniques. When they get it right they all shave fine.

When cutting metal with any technique there is always an optimum cutting speed based on the steels hardness, it's metallurgical properties and the cutting tools properties. With grinding and honing it is a factor of the grit hardness and binders used. The properties if our synthetic hones can be obtained from the manufacturer but natural hones would probably need to be analyzed for their properties, which will vary more than synthetics. The steel used in the razors would be the greatest variable as to composition and hardness as they vary greatly. In the end the value gained would be minimal for the effort as the proper technique has a greater effect on edge quality.

For me personally my speed on courser hones is slower than on finer hones due to the volume of metal removed on each pass and damage that can be caused w/ an errant stroke. Depending on the day I average 100 laps in less than 1.5 minutes on my finishers be it an Escher, Coti or CK12 depending on my interpretation of the steel on previous hones. I do not recommend this speed for others as the possibility of injury and/or damage to the razor is high.

The guy who taught me was kind of snappy. Kind of fast, but not exactly. He honed with no hesitation and very smooth. Faster than I do but nothing like a stropping speed. Reminded me of a Zen calligrapher doing a brush stroke. I would describe my speed as comfortable. I would find it difficult to control the blade contact and light pressure if I went too fast. I ain't in no hurry when I'm honing anyhow.

Joed's post above is really interesting bringing up the actual mechanics of what the stone is doing to the blade's edge from the point of view of someone who has had years of experience in cutting metal and working to minuet tolerances. Joe's previous posts about suiting the razor to the hone according to the hardness of each component have given me even more food for thought.

Originally Posted by Joed

Depending on the day I average 100 laps in less than 1.5 minutes on my finishers

That's very fast. Mine would look like a saw blade if I attempted that!