Thread: Honemeisters Secrets

Ok, here goes. A general question for the honemeisters. Regardless of stones and tests like hht and thumb, is there a sound or feeling the blade makes on the hone when you are making your final passes, when you can feel that the razor is ready, when it is done. Now, the challenge. Can you describe that feeling? Is it stone specific or have you felt this across many stones? The thing I have learned in life is a true master of a craft, regardless of that craft, has a commonality in that they know when the masterwork is done. This is the place we aspire to reach. To know when something is perfectly finished. So what senses are peaked for you and what should us seeking to obtain the mastery of the art of honing feel, hear, see, smell, taste, that informs us as you are informed?

It is a feeling that you have to develop with practice, I personally do not know how to describe it the blade starts to feel in a certain way and then I know I can move on. I still use a scope to double check if indeed the blade is ready to move, for example microchips can't be detected by feeling.

Originally Posted by grandadsrazor

The thing I have learned in life is a true master of a craft, regardless of that craft, has a commonality in that they know when the masterwork is done. This is the place we aspire to reach. To know when something is perfectly finished. So what senses are peaked for you and what should us seeking to obtain the mastery of the art of honing feel, hear, see, smell, taste, that informs us as you are informed?

How does it shave!

Tim

One word, stiction.

I'm very new to Honing but I knew that my bevel was set when I felt the suction between the blade and the stone. I believe but could be wrong that that is what stiction is. Like I said I'm very new to honing- as in 1 successful hone!. Please correct me if I'm wrong because I'd like to know what it is as well!

Originally Posted by anthogia

I'm very new to Honing but I knew that my bevel was set when I felt the suction between the blade and the stone. I believe but could be wrong that that is what stiction is. Like I said I'm very new to honing- as in 1 successful hone!. Please correct me if I'm wrong because I'd like to know what it is as well!

Basically, when you get that feeling that the blade is sticking to the hone, it's time to move on to the next hone. When you are on your highest grit hone and get the stiction, try a test shave. Usually a good indicator. YMMV, thlugh.

The feedback and change in feedback I get varies from hone to hone. It can also vary depending on the grind of the blade and the size of the bevels. In my opinion, you have asked about the most difficult way to tell if a blade is ready, because it varies so much and because the differences in feedback from a blade that is close as compared to one that is done are, at least to me, minuscule.

I personally don't use the feedback to tell me when a blade is done on a given hone. I have particular patterns/sets/routines that work for a very large percentage of razors on each hone. Off the 1k, I use a thumbpad test to check that the bevel is set. After that, I'm at the point where my next test is the shave test. Depending on how that goes, I'll either know the blade is ready or where I need to go back to.

When I get the blade back in the mail from a TRUE HoneMeister,at that point I am done

Originally Posted by Theseus

One word, stiction.

And somehow that says a lot even to the inexperienced

Originally Posted by Theseus

One word, stiction.

Stiction is the static friction that needs to be overcome to enable relative motion of stationary objects in contact, The term is a combination of the term "static friction", perhaps also influenced by the verb "stick".