Thread: Red Flags Everywhere!

Gentlemen That old thread has hashed and rehashed this topic... I see no reason to continue it even more here

Simply put, Try it and see..

Also to clear the record, I was NOT invited to sit and Hone,,, that is what I invited him to do, I was invited to sit through a Knife making Steel banging class which I have zero interest it...

Honing Straight razors,,,, I would & have done that with anyone that would like to...

Well I didn't mean to bring up an old topic that apparently was a heated topic. I simply was trying to learn before doing, so that I don't mess up my equipment. Isn't that what the purpose of this site is for. Especially since I don't have the money to cast away to experimentation and also don't have the time to travel to meets several states away. It is coming down to the time where I must learn to hone my own razor. I am a very cautious person when it comes down to learning something new and I like to gather as much info as possible before doing so. I have probably spent at least 15 hours watching instructional videos and reading articles on honing so that way I can't say I didn't know about a certain technique. I simply saw this video and was intrigued at first by his different "technique" and wanted to know if maybe it was a practical technique. It seemed off to me and thus I requested feedback.

I think perhaps you answered your own questions,

Red Flags Everywhere!

I personally don't think he is doing anything wrong just different. Once someone really knows exactly what they are doing to an edge they can use different approaches to get to the same place. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of using dished out hones, newspapers as part of a regular routine, backstrokes or killing and edge unless I'm in restoration mode just off a grinder. The controversy, if there is one, is mainly IMHO is that he is presenting this so nonchalantly as if everyone does it this way and to the casual observer you may not realize that he is very highly trained and skilled. It is somewhat masked and stealth in this video. I would not want to try to replicate what he did. I know I would fail miserably.

The methods we see from Lynn and Glen, etc. , are no better or worse perhaps but Lynn and Glenn's methods I think are easier to learn and replicate and will probably save metal loss over time. They also have what we all need "wiggle room". That is what is important here to me. That we learn a method that is consistent, somewhat forgivable, more easily taught and repeatable. Glen, if he wanted to, could probably hone a razor off the barrel of a shotgun and put the video on Youtube, lol.

I think instead of saying red flags I would say "Kids. Don't try this at home!"

Yeah I probably did answer my own question. I guess I was more looking too see if anyone used his method and could say if it worked or not. I'm guessing the answer to that question is a big NO. But I am not trying to bash the man in any way. I read in the wiki "Lynn's thoughts on honing" and he says himself that he hopes to see continually different methods of honing. Well this is one of them. But I know that there are people that say one way is better just because they use it therefore because they use it, it is the best way. I have never honed a razor and therefore don't have a method that I prefer. Like I said, I was really wanting to know if anyone had used this method and what they thought of it. I guess in all honesty I should have titled this as "This method seems weird has anyone used it and what were the results?"

I agree. Where things like this help us is to better understand what is going on at the very edge with all these various methods. Also, let's say I'm in a pinch when traveling, the more armed I am with knowledge I can see more ways to handle the situation.

Forgot your strop?: use my belt, my wallet, my palm, my jeans or some newspaper on a flat surface.

Hone a bit dished and not in a situation where I can lap it?: do a few careful backstrokes (OK, I would have to be really desperate to try this, lol)

Originally Posted by cosperryan

Yeah I probably did answer my own question. I guess I was more looking too see if anyone used his method and could say if it worked or not.

Most everybody who has honed few hundred razors at one point or another has used most of the components of this 'honing method'
- hones with uneven surface
- spine leading strokes
- high and uneven pressure throughout the strokes
- coarser hones than the norm
- continually raising a burr and breaking it off

Sure, it is possible to make all of these work somewhat, but never as well as if you put the same level of skills to the standard method of honing razors, which is the exact opposite of all these.

Just go through the original thread and see the feedback for yourself - it's not that nobody is open minded enough to try his 'method' as an alternative, but rather everybody with some level of experience has already tried those things and found out that they make honing unnecessarily hard.

Another forum with immensely less experience regarding straight razors took this as an opportunity to bash SRP for being 'close minded'. They all started with "this is so innovative, I'd have never thought of it, we better try it out". Many of them confirmed that razors can be honed that way, and yet the end result shortly after was that not a single person decided to stick to that way of honing razors.
So, even those close minded enough about honing to never try all by themselves a non-standard way, when they were given a recipe to put in practice ended up with not liking it very much.


But that shouldn't stop anybody with skepticism or masochistic tendencies from taking that path themselves and finding out how it works out for them.

First post and its about Mr. Carter. A highly respected individual in many circles. You have to give him credit for carving out a very lucrative business. Personally the guy just bothers me. His methods have been argued throughout the sharpening community for a long time. You cant really argue the results he gets but the presentation of those methods is lacking. Some swear by his techniques and others don't. Ya just got to take them with a grain of salt and decide for yourself. Western sharpening philosophy vs Eastern is how I see it.

uh oh, not this again lol this is one of the topics of debate, that new people will see his video and think it to be the holy grail. And I did the the vid of him challenging Glen as well as all of the comments...possibly the most infantile thing I've ever seen a grown man do. I wouldn't have gone either Glen.