Thread: So I was Honing tonight !!!

Congrats on the good job! Don't worry about your bevel looking a little bit too narrow--a narrow bevel is very desirable! It says you're not overdoing anything. On old wedges it may widen with lots of hone wear, but that's another vale of tears altogether.

I share your impatience to shave after a honing session. Especially if you've just finished, say, 3 razors. You can use more than one in a shave, but that might be another thing to do after your better half has gone to bed.

You've got a great hone collection and a great learning resource. Have an enormous amount of fun.

OK... Got a few pics. Some zoomed in and some through my loop.

Heel where Glen wanted a close up of


Toe on the same side. right side.






Thanks for looking and input

I would do more on a finishing stone, and the light reflective variances worry me a little, but I can't tell if there is a problem.

Originally Posted by Earthdawn

OK... Got a few pics. Some zoomed in and some through my loop.

Heel where Glen wanted a close up
.....snip...

Good pix.

We can look all we want but if your shave test
tells you good things then all is as it should be.

I suspect that as long as you stay with
your 8k and 12k the entire edge smoothness
will simply improve over time. Once you have a
correct bevel set the need to "reset it" all
but vanishes because modern hones like
these do such a fine job.

BTW: One way to add smoothness is to use smooth
even hone and strop strokes. Consistent slow and smooth are
important.

The edge at the heel does look a little ragged but some steels have a coarse grain & /or some new honers can have a heavy hand
As AFDavis11 suggests see what you can do on your finisher but I normally don't like to see any toothiness after the 2-5k level

'No wisdom or skill to impart. 'Just a sophmore myself, but BIG 'GRATS are in order. Nicely done!

Sooooo.... The general thought is maybe start back on the 8k and then the 12k and see how it is from there?

That's what I'd do. I've got a Norton 8k then the Naniwa 12k. I think the N12k is actually faster than my Norton. If the N8k is proportionately faster, you shouldn't need much more honing at all. 10 passes on each hone, maybe. Really light touch. Monitor the scratch pattern at 10x or 20x if you've got a hand lense, so you can see whether you're honing out the lower-grit scratches, then estimate how many passes to use before you stop to inspect again.

The best use of the hand lense, for me at least, is that it convinces me that the really light touch really is effective.

That's a nice even bevel you've got going. Good work!

Cary, You have brand new hones go mess with them brother

Try a straight progression 8k -12k shave a few days
Then try a light pyramid 8k - 12k shave a few days

Play around mess with a bit of light slurry on the 8k

As Lynn loves to say "Have Fun"!!!!