Thread: My first honing attempt: almost perfect. help

As I initially inspected the blade i noticed a scale of rust no bigger than the thickness of a few hairs, right on the very edge of the blade. I thought "it will all come out in the wash" and ran it over an 8k stone a few times to see what would happen. Well the rust scale flaked off leaving behind a ever so slight knick in the blade. So I went down to a 1k stone to get the knick out. Then went back to the 8k. I can now see a mirror like finish along the whole edge of the blade and it shaves as smooth silk except on the end of the blade where i took the knick out. It's not dangerous or jagged, just not polished like the rest of the edge. Can I keep honing on an 8k stone, applying the slightest pressure on that part of the blade until it sharpens up or do i need to worry about over honing?

Do not worry about overhoning.

You've gotta remove the steel to get that part of the edge correct. Whether you spend more time (potentially A LOT of time) on the 8k or drop down and work your way back up is up to you, but what you need to do is the same no matter what hone or hones you choose to do it on.

Personally, I would go back to the 1k (or whatever hone I think is appropriate if I was able to actually see what you are talking about), get the bevel set correctly, and work my way up.

+1 in going back to 1k, you should be able to shave arm hair off this stone.

Then the following stones are pretty straight forward, but you have to put the work in on the 1k first. If you don't you end up with a shiny looking edge that won't shave nuthin!

Just kept on tricking with the hones and it all worked out. Wow! The difference a newly sharpened razor makes!