What did you hone today?

[cotedupy]

Funnily enough I'm also doing some work on a knife I made myself from 1084. Unfortunately my skill levels are considerably below the above, so it's needed a fair bit of thinning.

The others I didn't make, and are for woodworking; a small sloyd knife, and perhaps the one tool I use most - a meuchi spike. Which is designed for nailing the head of your eel to a board, so that it doesn't thrash about too much as you skin and fillet it alive. I use it a little more prosaically for digging out knots and faults in wood.

Stones; Turkish, dunno but it's silly hard and fine, Medium-ish India, Shapton Pro 12k.


View attachment 1348264

This was the first time I'd used that particular India stone in earnest - my other couple are finer.

And f*** me is it good. Clogs less than comparable grit Crystolon, and seems faster, while finishing finer. A genuinely superb stone.

I took that knife through thinning, bevel and edge set, and sharpening in about 5 mins:

 

[Legion]

This was the first time I'd used that particular India stone in earnest - my other couple are finer.

And f*** me is it good. Clogs less than comparable grit Crystolon, and seems faster, while finishing finer. A genuinely superb stone.

I took that knife through thinning, bevel and edge set, and sharpening in about 5 mins:

I’ve been impressed with mine as well, for knives and tools. I’m not sure if mine is a medium or fine, it’s not marked, but it’s a vintage pike/Norton, made in the UK version. The colour looks similar to yours. I’m not sure if that indicates much.

 

[cotedupy]

I’ve been impressed with mine as well, for knives and tools. I’m not sure if mine is a medium or fine, it’s not marked, but it’s a vintage pike/Norton, made in the UK version. The colour looks similar to yours. I’m not sure if that indicates much.

I tried to investigate about the colours a while back, but they seem to have changed which was which from time to time, and mixed them up for different markets.

Here FWIW are my three:

Left is a Norton Fine. Good stone but I don't use much as it sits in a weird place for me; it doesn't abrade as quick as SiC and doesn't finish as well as similar level waterstones.

Middle might not be a Norton. It's a similar grit to the first, but not as good. Cloggy, and feels less dense than the other two.

Right is the one I used today. Coarser than the other two, though I could work it to finish similarly, and very seriously quick - I'll be using this stone a lot. Unstamped, but having looked at the ratings for India stones I suspect it's a Norton Medium @ 240 JIS

 

[thp001]

Seriously smart! What grinding setup do you use for making something like that...?

I use a 2x72 grinder (Ameribrade), heat treat using an Evenheat KH414. Lots of belts from 36 grit ceramics to 5 micron Trizact. I make the scales pretty low tech, hand sawn to shape with a coping saw, filed and scraped smooth then use various grades of steel wool, pumice and rottenstone powder for polishing which was how it was done in the 19th century. Been trying to get a cutlery business off the ground for a while, razors, knives, small batches of traditional designs with traditional materials. Worked in grinding my whole life so I had the skills and the passion was there so made sense. Might do a thread of making a razor start to finish when I have another batch on the go.

 

[alex1921]

Trying different finisher/tomo combos. The koppa on the right, softer but very fine.
Finished on slurry, you can see how much of it is dried on the base stone. Just FYI, the slurry when I am finishing is not concentrated. I add plenty of water towards the end. Silent HHT root in/out and very very close shave.
I think the koppa will be serving as a huge tomo because this is the second base stone that it excelled with.

 

[cotedupy]

I made a little wa handle for a Bengall resotration project razor last night. Going to use quite a few stones to hone it, but they seemed to work very nicely last time I did this, so thought I'd stick with it.

King 800, King 1200, Naniwa SS 3k, Willunga Slate, Shobudani Tomae, Mizu Asagi.

 

[cotedupy]

I made a little wa handle for a Bengall resotration project razor last night. Going to use quite a few stones to hone it, but they seemed to work very nicely last time I did this, so thought I'd stick with it.

King 800, King 1200, Naniwa SS 3k, Willunga Slate, Shobudani Tomae, Mizu Asagi.

View attachment 1348842


View attachment 1348843

This went alright, in fact mostly it went very well - I shaved with it quite happily. But it fell foul of something that often gets me, which is the final 5-10mm at the tip of a razor with curve in the profile. I just haven't quite got the technique / muscle memory down yet, and it's never quite as good as the rest of the edge.

Anyone got any good tips, thoughts, or links, to help improve...?

 

[Darth Scandalous]

This went alright, in fact mostly it went very well - I shaved with it quite happily. But it fell foul of something that often gets me, which is the final 5-10mm at the tip of a razor with curve in the profile. I just haven't quite got the technique / muscle memory down yet, and it's never quite as good as the rest of the edge.

Anyone got any good tips, thoughts, or links, to help improve...?

Heh. Yeah, that's kind of hit or miss for me too, as a newbie honer. My most successful was also my most recent, this Dahlgren. Overall it took a lot of work to get the bevel clean and consistent. I ended up spending a fair amount of time with my finger resting on the toe to add pressure. You can see how wide the spine wear is compared to the bevel out there from prior honing without sufficient torque to the edge. Lots of half strokes and circles, focusing just on the toe, and frequent inspection with the loupe. But once I got a clean bevel, it was smooth sailing from there on out. Since I'm currently wearing a goatee, I need the toe to be good and sharp in order to be able to shave right up to the edge of the beard. The aft third of this blade was also a challenge, also due uneven spine wear from previous honers' abuses. The second photo was prior to honing and cleanup, but you can see how much variation there is on the spine contact line.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

You must lift the heel to fully hone a toe, a curved toe will take more lift, easy on the pressure you are honing a very small amount of the bevel with each lap.

Colored ink will help you see quickly, (without magnification) how much lift you need, it does not take much.

 

[Empire straights]

I tried to investigate about the colours a while back, but they seem to have changed which was which from time to time, and mixed them up for different markets.

Here FWIW are my three:

View attachment 1348305

Left is a Norton Fine. Good stone but I don't use much as it sits in a weird place for me; it doesn't abrade as quick as SiC and doesn't finish as well as similar level waterstones.

Middle might not be a Norton. It's a similar grit to the first, but not as good. Cloggy, and feels less dense than the other two.

Right is the one I used today. Coarser than the other two, though I could work it to finish similarly, and very seriously quick - I'll be using this stone a lot. Unstamped, but having looked at the ratings for India stones I suspect it's a Norton Medium @ 240 JIS

I've got the center and rights twins and you're right they are great stones. They are awsome for resurfacing stones if you need to smooth things a little too. When I got mine they weren't what I was hunting for but I can't say they've disappointed me any though.

 

[Empire straights]

This went alright, in fact mostly it went very well - I shaved with it quite happily. But it fell foul of something that often gets me, which is the final 5-10mm at the tip of a razor with curve in the profile. I just haven't quite got the technique / muscle memory down yet, and it's never quite as good as the rest of the edge.

Anyone got any good tips, thoughts, or links, to help improve...?

Lean into it a little when to get to the toe and curve the stroke some. That's what I've started doing on razors that don't want to hone evenly to the end of the toe and I've had decent luck with it.

 

[cotedupy]

Thank you for the advice @Darth Scandalous , @H Brad Boonshaft , @Empire straights . It sounds like I was doing the right kind of thing, just need to focus on it a bit more, so will give another go later.

First though some kasumi on a couple of yanagi; King 1200, JNS Synthetic Red Aoto, Iyo Jnat. And my Shibata Tank on a Washita. The weight of this knife makes it brutally difficult to sharpen, but we'll see how we go...

 

[Tomo]

Ark touchup for the Filly.

 

[Empire straights]

Thank you for the advice @Darth Scandalous , @H Brad Boonshaft , @Empire straights . It sounds like I was doing the right kind of thing, just need to focus on it a bit more, so will give another go later.

First though some kasumi on a couple of yanagi; King 1200, JNS Synthetic Red Aoto, Iyo Jnat. And my Shibata Tank on a Washita. The weight of this knife makes it brutally difficult to sharpen, but we'll see how we go...

View attachment 1349910

That weight should help on washita. I've noticed that if I use ridiculous pressure with knives on them they sharpen very quickly with no chips or anything

 

[Matt O]

Pechika 55…this thing took a screaming edge, and gave a stunning shave!

 

[Yaron]

Pechika 55…this thing took a screaming edge, and gave a stunning shave!
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Awesome razor. I have the same and 2 another Pechika’s. Lovely japanese brand

 

[Matt O]

Awesome razor. I have the same and 2 another Pechika’s. Lovely japanese brand

Thanks and congrats on having one! I was just feeling my face, and admiring the end result! That JNAT might be my favorite finisher.

Vr

Matt

 

[Wid]

Pechika 55…this thing took a screaming edge, and gave a stunning shave!
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I've had one of these on my watch list for some time now.

 

[Wid]

Did a touch up on a Mituon 800. Went with an unknown slate to a Dans black. Edge looks great, shave test next.

 

[Empire straights]

Had to sharpen my snake knife. My soon was flipping paving stones looking for crickets to feed to his gecko and he got a surprise he didn't like. Needless to say, chopping into sand and gravel not best stuff for an edge. Used one of my new translucent washitas and a a Dan's black ark. I think Kim or her husband did some kind of voodoo magic on that black ark because it's an insanely amazing finishing stone. It's got teeth and kicks up swarf fast. i usually only do(guessing) about 40 strokes on it to finish a razor and I started using it straight from the box. They are surely worth the money they cost.