Thread: frustration

Stainless can be a bit trickier, it is harder and therefore a little more brittle, watch the pressure or you will tear the edge up. Do you have a microscope?

I don't have any thing for magnification yet

Try to find a 10X (available at photo shops) or 20X loupe to check your bevels and edge with.

Another things is to read up on sharpness testing in the Wikis. Without a way to check for sharpness at the various stages of honing, you're just rubbing steel on stone with no idea of where you are or where to go next.

Also, remember that stropping is the final stage and sometimes creates and reveals a sharp edge that your honing created but wasn't quite finished yet.

It may be useful to put that one aside and just maintain a known good edge for a while. The muscle memory acquired is useful when you come to the harder honing tasks. Even if you don't like the suggestion and choose to ignore it, I've found that frustration is never useful while honing and a little calming down while the offending blade is left for a while can help. Good luck and I hope this helps. You can get there.

Take a ride from Ft. Campbell over to Cape Girardea some afternoon and I'll help you get rid of the frustration.

Have fun,

Lynn

I to am starting to learn how to hone and have problems like your are talking about with my razor ackting like it was getting duller when i moved to higher grits. Just yesterday I was working on a razor that was doing that and looked at my bevel after I thought I had it set under a 15x radio shack loop and could see that after a few passes on a norton 8k I was not getting shiny at the very tip of the edge so I would go back and work on the bevel again. At last I must have finaly got the bevel set properly because after the 4k then the when I was on the 8k it starred to really undercut the water and uder the loop I could see that it was getting touched all the way to the cutting edge and I realized what everybody means about getting a good bevel before moving to higher grits and it really was popping hair like what I think they mean. My problem has been not getting the bevel set right and moving up in grit thinking that I was allright. Still a long way to go but learning with each trip to hone. I also would take a break after frustration level was up and return after a cool down period with new determination ao keep at and good luck. Im a new guy to so hope this helps a little.
Glenn

alan that sounds like a good idea but id be afraid to dull another razor lol, ill probably give that a try though, if i screw it up to bad i can always send it out to get fixed right. ill also try and head out tonight to get a loop. with the loop am i just pretty much looking to make sure the shiny edge is mostly even or what? thanks all these tips are helpful. im determined to get good at this. while i watching gssixguns video it looks like (i know this isnt how it REALLY is) just slide the razor on the stone a few time and BAM it sharp lol, i know there is more to it then that but wouldnt that be nice

-dan-

You are just a hop, skip and a small jump across the big muddy from Lynn, do yourself a favor and take him up on the offer! Just think of everything you can learn with a hands on tutor. In thirty minutes he can teach you more than you can teach yourself in a year. That would give you the rest of the weekend to enjoy some good company and a few beers. How can you lose?