Thread: first try today

so my norton hones came in the mail today and i tried to hone up an old razor i had, it wasnt the worst hone job...i guess lol. it did shave the hairs but not as smoothly as the razor feel when i send them out, obviously. i did lap the hone, i took it to a 4k and 8k. i used the honing pyramid in the wiki. guess i need to practice lol. any tips from the pros?

-dan-

Practice practice practice Don't worry...like everything else it comes in time

FWIW --

I find that a CrOxide pasted strop improves the edge after an 8K stone. It's easy and cheap to make one.

An alternate is to strop _a lot_ on plain leather (100 - 200 laps) to smooth the edge a little.

Charles

PS -- I suspect that I'm too heavy-handed on the 8K. Theory tells me that the lighter the pressure, the smaller the grooves in the steel, and the tinier the teeth on the cutting edge. I have a way to go . . .

sinnfein,

When I started honing with the Norton 4/8 k, I found I got better results using progressive honing rather than the pyramid method !

I also found CrOx to be invaluable for those first honings

Good luck !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

could you please explain progressive honing? not sure i know what that means.

i know it wasnt gonna be a perfect edge but you know there is always that thought in the back of your head "maybe this will be on of the things that just comes naturally to me and i do it perfect right from day one" but no, not this time

-dan-

sinnfein,

Progressive honing (as far as I understand it to be !!) is honing sequentially through a series of hones, and using one hone exclusively before going to the next finer hone, without going back to a coarser one (as in pyramid honing)

e.g.

1) set bevel on 1k
2) hone on 3k exclusively
3) hone on 8k exclusively

etc, etc. to finishing hone.

Not a very coherent explanation I am afraid

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Thanks I'll try that, about how many passes per stone? Most of my razors are pretty close to shave ready just touch ups mostly

-dan-

There are a couple things that you can try to watch for. Take a look at the water when you begin on the hone. It should be pushed in front of the blade, like a squeegee. As the edge begins to dial in, some of the water will ride up onto the blade, instead of being pushed in front of it. That's my sign that a few light strokes will finish the grit, and I'll move onto the next.

The other thing is that you may want to start from your higher grit....do 10 or 20 laps on the 8K and then test shave. Did that take care of it, or do you need to maybe go down to a lower grit to sharpen first?

There are others out there who have much more experience than me, but these have been some of my observations while honing.

I hope this helps a little bit.

sinnfein,

For touch ups I usually do ca 10 - 30 laps on a Naniwa 12k, then strop & test shave.

Please have a peek at the excellent video tutorials from GSSixgun,

YouTube - gssixgun

and specifically for the the Norton 4/8 k:

YouTube - gssixgun Honing on a Norton 4-8