Thread: How to test a hone?

The HAD bit me a while back. So i have a few more. LOL! I have some that easily deliever great results. Jnat and Coti are my biggest struggle. My question is. What do you guy do to test a hone? No matter what stone it is. Natural of course. What routine do you use. I tend to do the same things, Circles and x strokes. How do you mix it up to truely
test it and to see what works best?

I lap mine once in a while with my DMT1200..works just fine as long as the coti/jnat is smooth

For a suspected finisher, I first take a razor up through about 8k-ish, then add a layer of tape and do a secondary bevel with the test hone. If it seems fast, I'll do a set of 10 laps, try the edge, another 10 laps, etc. If it's slow, then sets of 20 or 30. The idea is to produce an edge that is solely the product of the test hone.

If it's not a finisher, I just mess around with it a lot until I get an idea of what it can do. No real rhyme or reason to the process.

Originally Posted by northpaw

For a suspected finisher, I first take a razor up through about 8k-ish, then add a layer of tape and do a secondary bevel with the test hone. If it seems fast, I'll do a set of 10 laps, try the edge, another 10 laps, etc. If it's slow, then sets of 20 or 30. The idea is to produce an edge that is solely the product of the test hone.

If it's not a finisher, I just mess around with it a lot until I get an idea of what it can do. No real rhyme or reason to the process.

So your using a test only razor and the secondary bevel will only be from the test hone. Interesting idea. Once you see if its fast or slow do you usually use the same strokes when honing?

I usually take the test razor up to 8k, suspected finisher ir not. I start out with 20 x strokes and check under the loupe. If it is cleaning up the 8k scratches, I continue until I feel I've maxed out the hone. If it doesnt seem to clean up the scratches, but it doesn't leave deeper scratches, i'll sometimes try the stone with Smith's honing solution to see if that helps.

@nicknbleeding: Sorry, not sure what you're asking. If it's fast, I'd use fewer strokes when I used it as a finisher. A glass Shapton 30k is very fast, so I'd test an edge after 5 or 10 strokes. If it's slow, like a Chinese "12k", I might just mindlessly hone while I watch TV.

That's after I'm dealing with a known hone. If I've got a new coticule or something, I'd try it with the secondary bevel process I mentioned above in order to gain information about it.

Lap the stone real nice.
Get a razor to the best edge possible on your favorite high grit synthetic stone (for me 10-12k)
Do 10-20 strokes on the stone you are testing and see how that changes the edge.
As you experiment you will change the number of strokes, slurry , slurry diluted to water etc, till you find out what works best.

Can't tell you guys how much I have learned from this thread. It has been an education.
Never stop learning!!
Stingray

Interesting topic.
I would guess everyone has their on way to go about "testing"
Like some others, I have a couple of beater razors I play with to give me an idea of what I can do with the stone.
I will say, I can see where some would have trouble with jnats & cotis. They are both stones with a number of variables to factor in. Slurry, no slurry, how thick of slurry..etc. Synthetic stones are straight forward. They are a consistent grit and you just add some water, the same can't be said for naturals.
The way I start off is similar to others. I start with syn. up to 8k. Then circles or half-strokes on just water and check the edge every 20 or so strokes. I don't have a set # sets, I just go until I think I have a idea of what the stones is doing.
Then I'll do the same test, only difference is I use a 12k syn. stone to start.
After that I test it, if it pass the typical post-hone test, I do a test shave and see what happen.
If all goes well with the shave, I go back and play with slurry, slurry thickness, etc...

I wet my finger and rub the stone. It should feel smooth, like glass. I assume that it is a hone. That probably sounds funny but I've come across a few rocks that were so smooth I wasn't really sure.

I hone the razor using the same technique all the time, it's the evaluation of the edge that is important to me. I stay patient and try, above all else not to tear into the edge with a 4k or lower. If I do I refer to this as a "failure drill". At that point I evaluate the spine geometry and the bevel edge to see what's wrong.

In my opinion, if 6 strokes on an 8k don't produce instant results, there is a bevel geometry problem. That does not mean that I should hone the crap out of it with slurry or a lower grit. It is more productive to find and fix the problem.

I don't typically use or develop a slurry, but if I use a slurry, I progress from heavy slurry to no slurry. I work toward lighter slurry, then no slurry at all, in a slow progression.

I think that the principles of honing apply no matter what stone I'm using.