Thread: Honing Question

I have a Dovo 6/8 round point and have honed it pretty well, it will shave but pulls a little. Problem is that when I place the razor on the stone for an X pattern stroke the shape of the tang width wise will not allow the heel of the spine to rest on the stone. This leaves me with either starting the razor with the heel on the edge of the stone instead of the middle, which I've done and leaves the first 1/4 inch or so unsharpened; or resting the tang on the stone which falls off mid-stroke and causes the heel to have a different bevel than the toe. Any idea what I may be doing wrong? Razor was ordered pre-sharpened from SRD and worked fine so I assume it must be something with technique.

I may be entirely confused here, but what is the tang doing on the stone?

When you are honing, regardless of whether its a straight stroke or an X stroke, the blade is on the stone....and the tang is off the stone. With an X pattern, the heel of the razor does not start in the middle of the stone. It begins on the edge, and the toe should be somewhere around the opposite edge.

Does this help, or am I confused? If you head over to the WIki, and check out the videos section....there are a number of videos showing honing...and there is a quick .avi of what an x stroke looks like.

I've done it with the heel on the edge, but the first bit of the heel does not get sharpened, resulting in the edge bieng slanted like a half frown where the heel is thin and the toe is wide.

You may need to modify your stroke, but putting your finger on the heel, or doing a rolling stroke. Careful with the pressure.

Start your stroke with the heel leading the tip by about 45 degrees; that should help make sure it's included in the honing stroke. I'm sure there's a video that shows that.

My first honing stroke runs from right to left. That stroke begins with the heel at the right lower corner of my hone, and ends with the tip at the left upper corner. The left to right return stroke begins with the heel at the left lower corner and ends with the tip at the right upper corner.

You might need to do a "rolling x," too, if your blade is warped in any way.

If you can post pictures it'll help us help you.

Don't stubborn this one out. I ruined a nice old wedge (or at least stripped it of any resale value) by trying again and again and again until the spine was nearly wiped away.

im fixing the edge with circular strokes on the 1000 and its working. problem two is that the middle of the spine seems to be thicker causing the blade to roll as you said.

Is the spine thicker or the blade warped? Put a straight edge along the spine and find out. Either way it may be resolved if you rock the blade during the stroke.

I got it! Thanks for the help everyone

You said you are set, but will comment anyway. I think you are making things too hard. On these forums we talk about X passes and such, and it is good advice. But, you need to understand the principle behind all the advice and then you can answer your own honing questions.

Principle #1: You need to hone all portions of your blade equally.
Principle #2: It doesn't matter how you move your blade as long as you vary the motion.

So, for example,you can use X passes or not. They are handy and easy to explain and understand. In some situations, such as with small hones, they might be difficult. With a hone that is too small, circular motions while moving the blade up and down works well. However, don't forget principle #1, or you might be slowly honing a frown into your blade.

Using smaller hones takes more care. But, remember the principles above, and you can figure it out yourself.

Lane,

Please have a peek at the superb video tutorials on honing by GSSixgun :

gssixgun - YouTube

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ