Thread: Fear of over- honing

Hello folks,

I have a question.

A while ago I bought a TR Cadman & Sons Bengall. It was cheap at £5 and it was tatty and rusty. I gave it a bit of a clean up with sandpaper and it came up quite good. Then I wanted to hone it. I only had one old stone that I have from way back so I bought one of them Chinese 12k off the bay. So, I then started honing. My old stone is a combination, I have no idea what the grits are so I started on the roughest side to set a bevel. Not sure if I did this right or wrong but I guess right. Anyway, I then flipped it over and honed and honed till it cut arm hair off then went onto the Chinese 12k. I started on this with a heavy slurry and gradually reduced it till I was honing with just water. The razor was sharp and shaved well, better than the Joseph Rogers that I had been using.

So after shaving with this Bengall for a while I thought "can I get this sharper?". Prior to the last half dozen or so shaves I have been giving the razor a hone with just water. I started with 100 strokes in each direction and then I have been reducing this on subsequent shaves. I am now doing maybe 40 strokes in each direction, prior to each shave. I then strop before and after. The thing is, this blade is just getting sharper and sharper every time and my worry is that I will over do it at some point. Is there a way for me to know that I am going to over-hone? I am so happy with this blade that I don't want to spoil it and risk not getting it back. I intend to make this my first candidate for a serious restore, as opposed to the half dozen "clean ups" I've got going on!

One more point. Given that the edge is extremely sharp, how do I dull it before I restore it. I don't fancy having this in my hands and trying to polish it on a bench polisher!!!!!!!!!

Thanks

Pete​

If the blade keeps getting sharper it means it wasn't sharp enough previously. The fault usually lies at bevel set but can be elsewhere too.

It should reach a point where no discernible difference is noted. If you keep honing beyond that, then the edge may fail. Bengalls can be some hard steel so they may take more work than some other makes.

Dulling the edge pre buff work is a strange concept to me as my focus would be more like how do I save the edge from damage ?
I suppose a couple of light downward strokes on your C12k may do it but you still need to be careful around machinery nonetheless.

+1 to onimaru's last point. Even if you dull the edge, and make it far too blunt to cut hair, it is still easily sharp enough to cut flesh just because it's a very narrow steel edge. I doubt it's possible to make it blunt enough to be safe.

I have recent personal experience of this when I hand-sanded a blade.

If you are honing correctly, you can't "over-hone".

If you want to protect yourself while working on the blade, cover the edge with electrical tape.

Originally Posted by ace

If you want to protect yourself while working on the blade, cover the edge with electrical tape.

Not a bad idea especially when pinning razors but again I'm thinking of protecting the edge
Taping the edge is not much good if you need to sand or buff the whole blade tho.

A few sheets of #1500 sandpaper, a few ounces of blood... done this...works OK...not recommended.

IMHO "overhoning" has become a boogey-man as the result of inexperienced honers wanting to have something to blame for a lack of good results.
At least - that was the case with me...

In looking at a lot of blades under microscopes, overhoning - in the sense of doing too many strokes - is not something that happens very often at all.
Too much pressure, making bad strokes, having an incomplete bevel, and steel is bad to begin with are to blame FAR more often than overhoning (especially the first two).

(That said; overstropping on paste, especially with a hanging strop, can cause real problems.)

Thanks fella's. I no longer fear over-honing! I'll get on with it

Pete