Thread: What have you honed recently?

Originally Posted by red96ta

Here's the one's I've done this week...

Frederick Reynolds 6/8 wedge
Shumate Pacific 5/8
Boker 'every blade warranted' 5/8
Clauss in real ivory

What stones did you use? Any Coti use? I'd be curious what you recommend for the Frederick Reynolds Wedge? I have a 7/8 that Lynn honed for me last. I know Lynn's recommendation (i.e., Naniwa 1K, Norton 4K/8K, Escher and .5 diamond spray on felt. No tape and the circle method).

Thanks for all the feedback guys! It's great to read about all of your honing ventures.

Dylan, We used the same Kodak Easy Share camera Jr uses for the pics.

Robert, your count is right on! Thanks. I know your question on the Reynolds wasn't directed to me but I can tell you that a Norton 1k hone took quite some time to get a bevel on most of my Reynolds. Dylan was here for a few and shares the same observation. Lynn honed one up while he was here for our November meet and used the Naniwa progression you described. Lynn had it honed up in no time. No doubt a lot of it has to do with his experience but if the Naniwas are an option for you that is how I would suggest attacking it. A Chosera 1k w/slurry will kick it up a notch.

Carrie mentioned that someone on chat stated that all these razors should keep me busy for a while. Sorry but Jr and I got all of them cleaned up and honed between Thursday morning and Sunday morning.

I'm pleased that so many of you have found my honing vid entertaining but I need to warn all of you that it is extremely dangerous at that speed. The chance that the toe of the blade will come off the hone is high. At that speed you will be forcing the toe into the side of the hone and possibly sliding your fingers up the tang and across the edge of the blade. That will give you quite a cut and may even remove the appendage!

I realize it is a bit fast to see everything I am doing with my strokes so I'll describe my technique a bit for those of you interested. First note that my wrist hardly moves or turns. I adjust my blade on the hone by moving my elbow up or down. I only use my fingers to flip the blade between strokes. Flipping the blade correctly the spine should never leave the hone. You may be able to hear the few times I did in this video. It's hard for me to give my full concentration to the task while shooting a vid, and this takes a lot of concentration. When I flip the blade I should be coming down on the hone on the heel off the bevel. I tilt the toe up, slide the heal onto the hone and come down on the hone off the bevel with the toe still tilted up. I don't try to keep the blade flat on the hone, rather I do a rolling x stroke. So in one movement I tilt the toe up, roll the blade over on the spine, which is still on the hone, and move the heal into position for the next x stroke. This technique can be used at any speed, even very slowly, which is best to start with. After the coti I do another 100 laps on either the C12k or Escher. The results are a super smooth and wicked sharp edge. I very rarely use pastes or sprays. Oh, and next to no pressure when honing on the finishers which is why I do so many laps. I also lay the hones on the counter on a slight angle to me to match my strokes and arm swing.

Originally Posted by Joed

Robert, your count is right on! Thanks. I know your question on the Reynolds wasn't directed to me but I can tell you that a Norton 1k hone took quite some time to get a bevel on most of my Reynolds. Dylan was here for a few and shares the same observation. Lynn honed one up while he was here for our November meet and used the Naniwa progression you described. Lynn had it honed up in no time. No doubt a lot of it has to do with his experience but if the Naniwas are an option for you that is how I would suggest attacking it. A Chosera 1k w/slurry will kick it up a notch.

Thanks Joe. When time comes, I will do just that. My Naniwas (full guns) will come forth

The last razor I honed was a Bengall 6/8th round point. It has engraving saying, made for... I finished on the 8k naniwa. Then put it on the bench to pick up a finishing stone, I bumped the razor. It fell onto the tile floor and now there is a huge chip missing from the toe. Now I have to go from honing to a toe cut, so this is on the list of projects that I have to get to eventually.

Joe, you are one finely tuned honing machine.

Originally Posted by BladeRunner001

What stones did you use? Any Coti use? I'd be curious what you recommend for the Frederick Reynolds Wedge? I have a 7/8 that Lynn honed for me last. I know Lynn's recommendation (i.e., Naniwa 1K, Norton 4K/8K, Escher and .5 diamond spray on felt. No tape and the circle method).

I used Naniwa exclusively. 1k, 3k, 8k, followed with a pasted strop and then a good stropping. That always does the trick for me.

Last hone was dubl duck special wedge. It needed a touch-up due to poor stropping. I have a hard time keeping the spine down on this small near wedge or 1/4 hollow and think I may have rolled the edge a bit. lesson learned.

Peter .

LAST honed was also my FIRST honed: a 7/8 Friodur with worked spine. This has been an ongoing project for some time now, with stops and starts along the way. But things progressed until I now have a great and comfortable shave.

I used a coticle and the Dilucot method with one layer of tape to set the bevel. I went through various tests with BBW/slurry and coti/water, etc. followed by Cr2O3 on balsa - all giving decent results, but not enough. I eventually got a sort of generic 330mate Nakayama (kiita/asagi blend) and went through a sequence of honing with Mejira and Koma slurries of varying degrees of dilution. I finally finished with slurry direct from the Nakayama, honing until it was getting very concentrated. Great result.

One of the things that I found really interesting was the response of different honing strokes. I used half-strokes as per Bart's Dilucot method followed by regular or 45° x-strokes. On the Nakayama, I initially used mostly x-strokes and experimented with back-and-forth 45° strokes on either side of the razor. All gave some kind of tear-out on the edge, even with zero pressure on the razor. Finally, I wound up going with circles followed by a few x-strokes to finish. Almost every time, the x-strokes caused some tear-out, and so I stuck with just the circles which worked perfectly. So, I guess this condition is just unique to this particular razor and hone.

Anyway - a lot of experimenting along the way. I checked each treatment with a small (but high quality) 10x hand lens, which was enough to give me a lot of feedback at each step. I had a blast and learned a ton along the way.

Woodash, Stainless can be a different animal to hone. From a machinist's perspective it is a very 'gummy' material. It is difficult to machine, difficult to grind and a real PITA to tap. The smaller the tap the greater the chance of breaking it, where tool steels were like a walk in the park in comparison. FOr most of my stainless steel blade honing I go from the 4k Norton bevel setting directly to an Escher. The shave quality is just as good as my carbon steel razors if not slightly better. The only ss razor that really has given me a major challenge was a ss Puma made around the 80's. It currently shaves very good but I know it can be better. Also, clean hones are your friend when honing stainless steel. Rubbing stainless on stainless will cause the metal to gouge.

^ Thanks for the tip, Joed. I recently picked up a EBay special (non SS) that I am looking forward to honing - especially to get a sense of the difference.