....and then it hit me!

[Njguy1977]

I've been trying to get my honing technique down for months with using my coticules, arks, and pasted paddle strops. Could not for the life of me get a sharp refined edge, always came close tho. And then I went back into the boards video archive circa 2008 showing from start to finish how to properly hone on a stone, the 7 video series. And then it hit me! I have been doing it with WAY too much pressure, including honing, using my pasted paddle strops and even my strops. Man do I feel stupid! The one blade that gave me a whole heep of trouble, my Boker King Cutter, I just honed on my coti, then looked with my loupe to check the progression. Then moved onto my pasted paddle strops. Went from green to red to black, looked with my loupe again and the edge looked polished. Then went to my strop, did the same feather light touch and in the end of all of this.

Success!

I was able to get my King Cutter to basically wipe the hair off of my arm with little pressure and a spine with shallow angle and felt nothing as i did it!

So what I have learned is that a feather light touch is all thats needed to be effective in properly honing a blade. That includes, stones, film, a pasted strop, and strops. I can't wait for the weekend and try it out and refine some edges.

Larry

 

[global_dev]

nice! congrats

 

[HazMat Shaver]

Good job. Its Its always great when you find what helps get you closer to the perfect edge. The one thing that stands out for me when learning was it really helped me to get that feather touch by flipping the blade the correct way.

 

[Basil]

Awesome! It’s always great when you have that moment where it all clicks.

Less pressure is always best, especially with cotis.

 

[RayClem]

A lot of honing and stropping technique involves muscle memory. That only comes from spending a lot of time on the stones and the leather. It sounds like you are getting there. Congratulations.

 

[Njguy1977]

I'm hoping to perfect what I'm learning so that if someone needs help I can assist them. Also if someone needed a razor honed and if I'm close enough to them I could offer my services in the future and keep the hobby going.

Larry

 

[Steve56]

Congrats on the next step. There’s a similar post on another forum, and razors with scratches above the bevel are common on eBay. We all have to unlearn some things with razors, one of them is as you know, you can’t really push very hard. For finishing, the razor should just slide across the stone. Too much pressure can knock an edge down quickly.

With anything else that you sharpen, if you’re not getting good results, all our life experience tells us to push harder, but it’s the opposite with a straight razor.

If you’re learning, try to see how little pressure that you can hone with, the absolute minimum and see how that compares to ‘normal’ pressure.