Thread: Honing on paper????!!!!!!

Hi everyone,

I am wondering about the grades of papers and stones and whether they can be interchanged, for honing purposes? Is a 800 or 1200 paper the same as a 800 or 1200 stone and is it possible to hone on paper? Your thoughts, opinions and experience are appreciated

Pete

Are you referring to sandpaper? I've heard that using sandpaper can really ruin an edge since the grit comes off the paper and gets lodged into the edge causing a lot of damage...
One of the quotes I see on there from Lynn is that sandpaper has caused some pretty messed up razors he's been sent to fix.

With how cheap you can get a ~1k grit stone, it is not even worth using sandpaper to me. But YMMV

Can it be done? yes
is it useful ?NO
you will loose more money and time.
Nick is right you have to be really good to use sandpaper and hone the blade.
Flat perfect surface, your strokes and loosing grit from the sandpaper slowly will give to you hard time.

Originally Posted by Pdav

Hi everyone,

I am wondering about the grades of papers and stones and whether they can be interchanged, for honing purposes? Is a 800 or 1200 paper the same as a 800 or 1200 stone and is it possible to hone on paper? Your thoughts, opinions and experience are appreciated

Pete

Originally Posted by Pdav

Hi everyone,

I am wondering about the grades of papers and stones and whether they can be interchanged, for honing purposes? Is a 800 or 1200 paper the same as a 800 or 1200 stone and is it possible to hone on paper? Your thoughts, opinions and experience are appreciated

Pete

800 and 1200 grit paper is brutal coarse stuff when
used to sharpen a razor. If you glue if flat to very flat
wood it can sharpen but not hone a razor.
It could quickly remove way too much steel
and damage the razor.

15 micron abrasive film is about 1200 Grit US,
or 1000 grit in Japanese Whetstone grit classification.
This is where we begin with a razor and we
often progress another three or four progressions
finer. So 1200 grit paper will not be close
to what is needed for shaving.

Grade is also a quality issue. "sand paper" is
not intended for honing razors. It is intended
for wood and does not do well with water.

Some woodworking folk use the "scary sharp" system
to hone things like wood planes and chisels. They use
pressure sensitive adhesive backed abrasive films A
sequence of 15 micron, 5 micron and 0.3 micron films
on glass will sufficiently sharpen a razor when
used with care.

We often recommend that folk that ask send their
razor out to a professional at least once perhaps twice
if only to learn what sharp is.

If you paid more than $5 for the razor -- hunt for a
better solution than "sand paper".

plenty of people use wet and dry paper to hone out chips but then they move to stones.

Originally Posted by Jeltz

plenty of people use wet and dry paper to hone out chips but then they move to stones.

I started out using wet-or-dry silicon carbide sandpaper -- auto-body stuff -- taped to acrylic plastic bases. You _can_ set bevels, and I never had a problem with grit getting stuck to the razor. I worked 400 / 1000 / 2000 sandpaper, followed by 5 micron microabrasive film, followed by CrOxide on a pasted strop. What I was missing was the 2-micron range -- 8000-grit paper, or 2-micron abrasive paper, is hard to find.

The edges were usable, but not great. As somebody predicted (in a long exchange), I eventually bought Norton 220/1K and 4K/8K stones, and said:

. . . How could I ever live without them?

I think the danger with sandpaper isn't with the sandpaper -- it's with the user. It's tempting to start with:

. . . "This ought to be easy!"

and proceed to wreck edges. Honing with sandpaper is about as difficult as honing with stones, maybe more so. But it _is_ possible.

Charles

Originally Posted by Pdav

Hi everyone,

I am wondering about the grades of papers and stones and whether they can be interchanged, for honing purposes? Is a 800 or 1200 paper the same as a 800 or 1200 stone and is it possible to hone on paper? Your thoughts, opinions and experience are appreciated

Pete

Japanese waterstones are not graded the same way as papers so not interchangeable re grit size. There are USA, European & Japanese gradings. I have no experience sharpening with papers but this gentleman, randydance062449 may be worth a PM.

There's a Wiki article you should look at:

Using micro abrasive film - Straight Razor Place Wiki

And if you search for "sandpaper" in the Honing forum, you'll get lots of information (including my thoughts).

Just remember this:

. . . Honing a razor with sandpaper and microabrasive film is about as
. . . difficult as honing it with stones.

It's cheaper (if you're only honing a few of razors), but it's not easier. Several of us have started that way.

Charles