Thread: For the Sight Impaired..

This is possible a silly post, but those that know me will not be overly surprised at that...

I've spent the last four nights honing a troublesome razor. I know some of you may find that a walk in the park, a well known travail, a path well travelled but, for me, it's been a bother.

I've learned that I need to step aside from figures (i.e. 'Do 20 laps on 4, 15 on 8, 15 on 4, 10 on 8' etc) to actually looking at the problem, considering what I want to do, deciding on a solution, implementing it, testing it and adapting it to end in a desired result. To do this, I need to use my senses of sight and touch. Touch is fine, but sight is a bit iffy at almost 50. Of course I wear aids, contact lenses normally, but sometimes glasses, those graduated ones where you can see close and far (I need both) or contact lenses with my reading glasses. Many of you would have the same scenario; we can't see far OR near...

The last two nights, in shaving this razor, I've dumped my glasses altogether. I find when I really concentrate and get real close to the hone; watching the wave, I can see what's happening much better with no glasses at all. As the razor has a wide bevel, it also makes what's happening on the edge really obvious; you can see what is being polished...

For me (and it may be the same for you) going without sight aids at all has allowed me to actually literally focus on what's going on.

If you wear glasses, esp for long AND short-sightedness, I urge you to give no glasses a try..

Just thought I'd mention it... :-)

Hi Carl,

I sympathise with your experience with that wedge, they can be cows to hone! I'm an infrequent poster but I've been at the straight game for a year or so and I do wear glasses for close work, but I've found that a loupe is just about indispensable to see what's actually happening down at the edge. A 10X one as used by geologists is a good bit of gear.

regards from Mike W on the Sunshine Coast

I have to admit, I don't tend to "look" all that closely when I hone. I mean, I do, but it is 19/20ths feel and 1/20ths looking at a very very rough guesstimate. And even though I have a microscope I really avoid using it in all but either the most extreme cases or the most boring cases

In fact, it is sort of like shaving - I'm pretty sure I could shave, if I had to, without sight. Most of my shaving is done by feel and I use my eyes to simply make sure the razor is where I think it is - it usually is, happily!

So yeah, I think I get what you mean. It is almost like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars A New Hope: let go of the crutch of sight and embrace the force of feel.

James.

You only live once, so might as well see it clearly. Good honing is based a lot on feel, but sometimes you may find a nick or microchip in the edge under magnification. Our sight is just another tool that should be used equally with our other senses.

Seriously, the first part of your post about evaluating an edge is a brilliant conclusion. It is a critical point in effective honing. Fantastic post!

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Seriously, the first part of your post about evaluating an edge is a brilliant conclusion. It is a critical point in effective honing. Fantastic post!

Oh, thank you :-) I do agree also about feel, but I guess what I was really talking about here is that this particular razor had multiple bevels and is warped or has uneven spine wear. To get the bevel 9which is quite wide) even I really needed to look closely at what was being polished on the next level (i.e. 8 or 16k). I could very well see the multiple bevels disappearing, and the polished portion of the bevel evening out. There is still one spot where it's not entirely even (i.e. I can see a less polished area) however the polished area does extend all the way along the edge now, albeit in one spot for only about a mil out from the edge; not to the full width of the bevel. Touch would have not allowed me to see this polished edge increasing.

For my other razors, I often simply "do a pyramid" or "give it 20 laps on the Shapton". This works fine. But this one razor has really taught me evaluation of the problem. Of course I was also led along and advised by a couple of experts! :-)