Thanks for the honing forum...

[bharner]

So I've been reading around the wiki and threads for the past few months and haven't done much. Until now. I had bought a Chinese 12k off a member who bought the giant ones from ebay and cut them down. It's 1"x3"x16" and has a blue grey color with a few blackish colored tiger stripes down it. My main thing was something other than a barber hone for keeping my few razors going strong. I also picked up 325 grit DMC. I've had it for about 4 months and haven't used it yet. Every time a razor started to pull I either brought it back with CrOx or another razor appeared on my door step. Well, my favorite razor started pulling again yesterday and I didn't want to go the CrOx route on it again. So out came the C12k. And the DMT. It's flat and smooth but everything I've read about those hones says they're a bit slow.
Here's what I did:
Soaked the top of the 12k for about 5 minutes and had a spray bottle handy for later.
Ran the dmt up and down the phig a few times to make some slurry.
I ran my little Genco for 18 or so X strokes with the slurry and every couple strokes spritzed some water on top. The last few strokes were just clear water.
Then I stropped it 50x on the webbing and 50x on the leather of my SRD Premium II.
Lathered up and shaved. Full shave. Sucker was smoother than when I got it.
I've only had 3 razors honed by other folks but this was almost as smooth as one that came back to me from a coticule.

So thanks for all the helpful stuff you fine fellows have written over the years on here as well as posted in the Wiki.

And for part two: I had a coupon for Woodcraft a while back and bought a King 1k figuring that if it ended up not being great for razors then it would make a good polisher for my kitchen knives.
I picked up a little razor from the local honey hole for 3 bucks. So ugly only a wanna be honer like me could appreciate it. It had a little frown down near the heel of the blade so I taped off the rest of the blade but the frown and ran that longer chunk up and down the 1k until it was close to gone (It looked gone but then after I got to looking at it, well you know how it goes).
Then I ran my DMT over the king a few times to get some slurry (after soaking the king for 45 minutes or so). Then I made sure the top was good and wet but I didn't knock the slurry off.
I put some tape on the spine just because this is my first time and I figured I should use some protection.
Well, I'm not sure how long it took. I did circles on both sides (with pressure) up and down the hone 4 or 5 times and tested it. No shavey the arm hair. Then I did X strokes and some straight up and downs for a while. Maybe 15 minutes. I used pressure but gradually used less and less. Then I put it to my arm hair. It tugged a smidge but the middle of the blade cut hair. Toe & Heel, not so much. Did another 30 X strokes and tried again. Holy poop! I done it. I got me a bevel set. Shaved hair middle, toe, heel and between. Now I'm going to have to order the 4k and 6k King hones to get it finished up! Or a Coti, but my wife saw the price tag on those and threatened to break it over my head.

Before:

IMG_0046 by harner.bill, on Flickr

After:

I done set a bevel! by harner.bill, on Flickr

Still a little humpty there but I'm feeling good about it right now...

[gugi]

Or, while you're waiting see if the phig with thicker slurry can get something done if you have time to spare. Yes, it's a huge gap, and slow hones, but who knows, I think if I don't have anything else I may be able to pull it off.
Practicing all kinds of stuff isn't going to hurt you at this point, on the contrary.

[bharner]

So if I was to try this (and I probably will) would it be better to start with some flurry made by rubbing the 1k on the PHIG? Or should I just go crazy with the dmt on the PHIG?

[gugi]

Phig slurry on the phig. You already should've gotten beyond the level of king 1k slurry. In fact you probably want to do some very light passes on the 1k with just water, as light as you can (ideally you want to bridge the gap using coticule or one of the softer naguras slurry, but you don't have those).
Also you should first get as much mileage as possible from the 1k, so that you can narrow the gap as much as possible. I haven't used the king, but on most hones finishing with just damp stone as it dries out, and as light strokes as you can possibly do, is the finest you can squeeze out of that hone. The reason is that they usually cut better when they're wet than when they're dry, so a dry hone doesn't remove much metal and therefore it's effectively less abrasive i.e. higher 'grit'.
The same goes with the strokes - the lighter the pressure the finer the effective 'grit' is by the same token, it removes less metal. There is, of course a limit how far you can go with any given hone using these techniques. That's also why some guys who are highly experienced with say the norton 4k/8k can produce a far better edge than a less experienced person using any hone in existence.

So, from coarse to fine you have slurry -> progressively lighter slurry -> water -> just slightly damp -> dry
This works in most cases, but not in all, on some hones there are other factors that can make a dry hones destroy a good edge.
And also more pressure->less pressure.

[bharner]

Makes sense. Everything is dried out and out away. Plus I have football to watch tonight so I'll break it all out this week and give it a shot.

[Havachat45]

Glen (GSSIXGUN) has a really good video on You Tube where he hones on a PHIG after setting the bevel on a 1k.
You will find it helpful - I did.
Geoff

[bharner]

Glen (GSSIXGUN) has a really good video on You Tube where he hones on a PHIG after setting the bevel on a 1k.
You will find it helpful - I did.
Geoff

I know what I'm queueing up on my lunch break today. And for once it's not weasel stomping day by weird al.