Thread: Clean before honing?

Originally Posted by Vicious

I should be getting a set of Norton Water Stones in a week or so. I've already acquired a couple cheap razors from ebay on which to practice. These razors don't have any chips or nicks but do have a bit of rust.

So my question is: should I do some basic restoration to get rid of some/all of the rust before trying to hone? I don't plan to USE these razors in any way nor am I planning to restore/resell them. All I'm planning to do is to sacrifice them to the honing gods in an effort to gain knowledge of how to hone properly. That being said, I'm wondering if NOT getting the rust off will damage the stones; I certainly don't want to cause undue wear on my new stones.

If this question, or one similar, has already been discussed elsewhere in the forum I'd greatly appreciate a link. Otherwise, any and all insight is very welcome.

I'm just making a suggestion. IMHO I would and I do disinfect the razors before the hones or strops. I have barbicide for this. You never know where those razors have been.

If you hone and then remove rust you may damage the edge and have to re hone.