First honing, failure, success and a scorched blade?

I've been using a straight exclusively for about seven months with two razors honed by respected members of the community and have started into the sharpening end of things. I picked up a few low priced project blades off of the bay. Some I have been practicing restoring with hand sanding. One blade, a 5/8 hollow marked "Lemke made in Solingen", had some minor pitting near the spine, but more or less a clean enough blade and nice enough looking edge to jump off into the world of sharpening without too much work (stifle your laughter). I have a dmt 325 and a norton 4/8k (as well as a used Nani 12k which is 'resting' for now until I can get reliably skill with the 4/8k).

After hours of watching video, assiduously reading the infamous JaNorton thread, and flattening the stones..."at this time" I did lots of circles on the 4k. When I could not get much progress (one step forward, one step back according to my arm hair) on the 4k, I got out the loupe. I saw what appeared to be a pretty decent chip in the bevel near the heel which looked to me like a standard pit. Towards the toe on one side only, however, was what looked like several fairly small chips on the bevel near what in hindsight looked like light scorch marks or bands on the metal. These chips really seemed to be on one side only and the blade had some discoloration near them, but did not look like rust or pitting. All chips were barely visible with the naked eye. I tried honing them out with the 4k, but made very little progress other than working on some muscle memory for practice.

With trepidation I went to the DMT to get past the chipping. The DMT performed just fine and it seemed to get past most of the bad parts and I was able to move on to the 4k and put on an edge which would cut hair on my arm easily and then on to the 8k for polishing. The bevel is uneven, but no surprise as it is just following the spine which is uneven even with tape. The first shave (after pastes on balsa and stropping) was sharp and seemed fairly smooth. The bay rum astringent told me that it was harsh despite feeling fairly good while shaving. It still felt like victory.

The loupe is showing those small chips near the discolored area of the blade are back (again, on one side of the bevel only) or perhaps never really went away like I thought.

This is a practice blade, so I'm not bemoaning it if it is a loss, but is this the kind of behavior I can expect from bad metal or is this just bad beginner honing? Any advice on how to approach this differently next time or from here on out? I've already gotten out what I paid for it as a learning tool...

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Bravo Dullard!

even mixed success is worth savoring. I'll gladly be corrected by my betters, but I've only had chipping in either bad metal or very hard blades. Wackers, the occassional Shumate have given this behavior.

Bravo again for sticking w/ the 8k until you get good shaves w/ that (w/out pasted stropping).

You may wish to look up some of Glen's posts about correcting spine/bevel wear w/ the 45 deg heal-leading x-stroke. 'Seems to even things out a bit.

Keep going. You'll have the thrills of victory and the agonies of de feet :) How else are we gonna learn? 'Hope to hear more on your efforts.

Great stuff,keep learning on the beaters,sometimes they become your best shavers:)

Might think about slowing your speed on those circles. At least try to keep the blade to a dull glowing red color. ;)

Just kiddin'.

Hang in there, it'll come together for ya.

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Originally Posted by Wullie

keep the blade to a dull glowing red color.

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Ha! I appreciate the encouraging words. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell, particularly with a beater, what is my fault and what is the blade's fault. I'm going to guess mine until proof of competence. I'll try another shave tomorrow and see how it goes before I try to mess with it again.

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Originally Posted by Dullard

Ha! I appreciate the encouraging words. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell, particularly with a beater, what is my fault and what is the blade's fault. I'm going to guess mine until proof of competence. I'll try another shave tomorrow and see how it goes before I try to mess with it again.

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Ya got that right, BUT, when you whip its rear end, you'll know.

Experiences like the one you are going through is the reason I won't knowingly buy a buffed blade of of ebay. I don't know if your blade was buffed or not. It could have had issues from the day it was made or somebody could have done something to it in the past. Either way, you're going at it right and learning.

Oh, when you see steam coming off the stone it's pretty good sign you ought to slow down. ;)

I find that when I start dulling blades during the hone is because I've become impatient and started appying pressure on the edge. Once I take a break, back off and let the blade float on the stone by its own weight, then the edge starts improving again. Honing is like playing a musical instrument, you can't force it.

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Originally Posted by jbtusa

I find that when I start dulling blades during the hone is because I've become impatient and started appying pressure on the edge. Once I take a break, back off and let the blade float on the stone by its own weight, then the edge starts improving again. Honing is like playing a musical instrument, you can't force it.

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+1..thats how I started and realized what I was doing wrong many months ago..now I take it like a "fish in water"

No question I could have been heavy handed the first go around. But, does anyone look at that picture and think it looks like a scorched blade? To me it looks like someone tried to freebase off the end, or leaned into the buffer for support during while drinking. (Not me, I use a table or a slow moving child for stability while drinking). The small chips right next to the discoloration were the hard part to resolve, and I suspect, what is causing a harsh shave still. The second shave this morning was almost identical to the first, so I'll conclude it is generally sharp but is not particularly smooth.

What do you think, back to the dmt or some time on the 4k?

I don't know alot about razor honing,but I do know steel.That blue discoloration is a ruined temper and brittle steel,and I don't see how that can be honed without it chipping again.