Thread: First crack at honing

So after a long wait a set of nortons arrived today. Naturally when I got home from work I had to bust them out. Now time for some quick questions...

Would I be in the right to assume that a new lapping stone is flat?
If it is then what are the odds of all 4 sides (of the 2 hones) being high in the middles?

Pushing these minor questions aside I took blade to hone; one strip electric tape, 220 to set a bevel.

The razor has some issues, a slight frown and what I'm thinking is a difference in shoulder thickness (noticed when attempting X strokes the one side lifts at the heel when the shoulder is on the hone, not so on the other side). other than that I pig headedly pushed onward working 220 then 1000 to 4000 back and forth then 4000 to 8000 again moving back and forth in pyramid type sets finishing with the wool CrO pasted and webbing then leather.

Hairs pop of the arm (hanging hair has eluded me even on a sharp (honed by Lynn) razor.

Tomorrow the face
(Am I gonna regret this... we'll see. I can always grow a beard and work on honing)

Sounds good so far. In God we trust, everything else requires lapping.

You state in your post that your stones were high in the middle, but don't mention whether you lapped them to make them flat. If you didn't lap them, THAT could be the cause of your slight frown.

Also, when you refer to differences in "shoulder thickness", do you mean to refer to spine thickness?

What kind of razor are you honing, and what was the edge like when you started? You may not have needed
to go as low as 220. I tend to avoid 220, but I learned the hard way.

Originally Posted by ace

You state in your post that your stones were high in the middle, but don't mention whether you lapped them to make them flat. If you didn't lap them, THAT could be the cause of your slight frown.

Also, when you refer to differences in "shoulder thickness", do you mean to refer to spine thickness?

What kind of razor are you honing, and what was the edge like when you started? You may not have needed
to go as low as 220. I tend to avoid 220, but I learned the hard way.

Thanks for the input Ace,

I did draw a pencil grid on the hones then lapped them flat, as for the razor it is an A.P. Wendell (made in Germany) marked Warranted on the tang.
The edge was not in bad shape but I did want to try to knock the frown out and get it straight; hence the 220.

As for the shoulder, when looking down the blade one shoulder is thicker than the other (<1mm) and when honing that spot seems to lift the heel of the blade off the hone. I compensated by not letting it cross the hone once I noticed the lift in the first couple passes.

By shoulder you do mean spine, right? If that is the case, then I've had some success with that kind of thing by building up one part of the spine with tape
and leaving the rest of the spine bare. If you are already using tape (which I would certainly recommend on 220 grit), then you can add another layer to the thinner part of the spine.

Since a picture is worth 1000 words...



This shows the slight difference in the shoulder, they also are not symmetrical in their location on the blade. The thickness of the spine seems to me to be constant down the entire length.


I'll be going back to the hones after work to try to get a straight edge on this one.

Dunc

That blade looks very honeable to me. Take your time and evaluate your progress every twenty or thirty strokes. Your first goal is a perfect bevel set. Good luck..........

Originally Posted by mrsell63

Dunc

That blade looks very honeable to me. Take your time and evaluate your progress every twenty or thirty strokes. Your first goal is a perfect bevel set. Good luck..........

Exactly i am having hard time to see the bevel. it is pics or in fact he hasn't set bevel yet? i am not sure.
gl

I went back to the beginning tonight and drew a grid on the hones and went lapping... and lapping... and lapping 1.5hrs later I'm done. I hope I never need another set of hones, the time in initial flattening is more than I anticipated. The razor will wait until Monday.

There is a bevel... just not a great one.

Well it passed a shave test today... there is a slight wave in the edge that I will eventually get out but for a first try the shave was pretty good.

Going back to the hones and re-lapping and re-drawing grids helped, same with running the progression in the wiki (thanks!).

next up are a couple no names and a touch up on the blackie.