Thread: Honing Escapades - A beginner's experience

Hi folks,
The other day, I received my new Veho microscope and decided to take advantage of the opportunity and take my scope for a field test and try out my honing skills with various stones, monitoring the edge each time at the end of a progression.

This is a humble pictorial of what I have so far and wanted to share and get some feedback (good, bad, and the ugly). What I learned from this excercise was that I have a LONG way to go before I can even close to any of the edges that some of you pros get in 30 minutes or less.

Tools:

1. 6/8" Respecto #77
2. 3M electrical tape (thickness=0.007") - one layer on spine
3. Veho-VMS-004 microscope
4. Naniwa 1k
5. Natural Combo BBW/Coticule (quarry?/kind?)
6. Nakayama Kiita
7. Nakayama Asagi
8. CrOx pasted webbed fabric (hanging)
9. Premium IV Bridle strop (hanging)

1. Naniwa 1k (Setting the bevel).
The bevel on the blade was already set, but I wanted to start over for sake of consistency. I used 30 X-strokes with light pressure and proceeded with 50 laps with "no' pressure. It passed HHT (I don't like to do arm hair).



2. BBW/Coticule (dilucot method)
After the Naniwa 1k, I raised a light-moderate slurry on this stone and started the dilucot method; (a) 20 laps of "back and forth" each with 6 dilutions (very light pressure on spine), (b) rinsed stone and raised new slurry, (c) 15 laps of X-strokes each with 5 dilutions (no pressure), (d) 50 laps on water alone (no pressure)



3. Kiita (w/ tomonagura slurry)
After the Coticule, I raised a slight slurry with the tomonagura on the Kiita Honzan and performed; (a) 20 X-strokes (no pressure) each with 5 dilutions, (b) 50 laps on water alone.



4. Asagi
4a. w/ slurry stone
After the Kiita, I raised a slight slurry with the tomonagura on the Asagi Honzan and performed; (a) 20 X-strokes (no pressure) each with 5 dilutions, (b) 50 laps on water alone.

4b. w/ diamond slurry
After the Asagi slurry progression, I rinsed the Asagi (obviously) and raised a slight slurry with the DMT-325 and performed; (a) 20 X-strokes (no pressure) each with 5 dilutions, (b) 50 laps on water alone.



5. Leather strop
After the Asagi, took the blade through 50 laps on the leather side of my Premium IV.



6. CrOx pasted strop (webbed fabric)
I wanted to see if after the Asagi/leather strop, things got any smoother with CrOx, stayed the same or deteriorated. So, I did 15 light laps on the CrOx pasted strop and to my surprise, the bevel/edge was worse than with the Asagi or strop.



I am looking for feedback from members who have many more years of experience than me in this. Am I on the right track? how far am I from the goal of the all elusive "Perfect" edge? Any advice/feedback will be profoundly appreciated.


My next exercise/homework will be to try this with the Y/G Escher I got from JimmyHAD and report back any differences I see or observe (using the same blade). This will not be in the near future, but I am looking at sometime in December or when the edge on this blade needs a little nudge in the right direction