I notice that with a thin stone, about 2.5 inches wide, I can cover it pretty well with the razor.
Is there a honing technique that reduces or eliminates dishing?
Is there a honing technique that reduces or eliminates dishing?
Can you use razor technique to keep the stone flat?
- Thread starter kohalajohn
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- #3
Yeah, rotating the stone would help. And deliberately covering all of the stone, going out over the corners.
Most of us use the x stroke, and while this covers the razor well, I think it focuses more wear in the middle, causing dishing. Lapping will fix it, but dishing is still annoying as sometimes you're not aware of it right away.
I did a full progression from bevel setting, and only later found my bevel setter was dished. I had to redo the whole thing from scratch.
Most of us use the x stroke, and while this covers the razor well, I think it focuses more wear in the middle, causing dishing. Lapping will fix it, but dishing is still annoying as sometimes you're not aware of it right away.
I did a full progression from bevel setting, and only later found my bevel setter was dished. I had to redo the whole thing from scratch.
If you use the same stone from bevel setting up to prefinishing/finishing, stone flatness matters a little less. The razor would be fitted to the stone instead of a perfectly flat "ideal" (which is only achieved until the razor hits the stone). It's no coincidence that the old stones we buy are often dished, they still worked!
If I bought another vintage coticule that was dished, I might leave it dished and just use it as a finisher.
But yeah, doing circles at the ends also helps keep the wear even.
If I bought another vintage coticule that was dished, I might leave it dished and just use it as a finisher.
But yeah, doing circles at the ends also helps keep the wear even.
If you don't rotate the stone, with razor use they will usually wear in a sort of twisted/helical shape due to the sort of rolling/x strokes that most use when honing a razor. If you rotate the stone you will get more of an even cupped dish. Either way, the stone will not remain flat. You can keep it flatter, for longer, by trying to concentrate a little more of your honing to parts of the stone that are usually high with normal wear (i.e. the ends). Regardless, if you don't do all your work on one stone, it's best to periodically flatten.
There is one trick to give yourself feedback while honing. With a freshly lapped stone coat the whole stone corner to corner, end to end with a penciled grit pattern, and then proceed to hone your razor. Right away you see a record of your strokes actual contact points of the razor using your normal honing stroke by the missing pencil grid.
If the corner grids are not removed with your stoke or the middle grid is removed first thing but not the ends then you can upgrade your stroke to hit every part of the stone as a routine.
Alex
If the corner grids are not removed with your stoke or the middle grid is removed first thing but not the ends then you can upgrade your stroke to hit every part of the stone as a routine.
Alex
- Thread starter
- #8
yeah, that's a good tip.
When doing pre bevel setting shaping and such on coarse stones. I always consider the ends of the honing surface as free stone, as it will be lapped away anyway as the stone is kept flat.
- Thread starter
- #11
buca, yeah, that's the conclusion I have now come to as well. You can't use a razor to maintain a stone.
Even if you're careful to rotate the stone etc, you still have to lap that stone flat. So since maintaining the stone will always be another job, best just to focus on honing the razor.
But still, I do want to know that my stone is always in good shape. I'd had some annoying experiences when a stone had become slightly dished and had been causing problems.
So what I'm doing now is giving my finish stone a few light circles with a coti slip before each saturday morning's shave. Saturday is when I give my razor a very light touch up. Before I hone the razor I circle the slip around the outside of the stone, which hopefully will keep it permanently flat. And if it eventually creates a tiny bit of convexity, that's even better.
It will be a long time before I see if this works. But whatever. I bought a good metal square to check the level of the stone. We'll see.
Even if you're careful to rotate the stone etc, you still have to lap that stone flat. So since maintaining the stone will always be another job, best just to focus on honing the razor.
But still, I do want to know that my stone is always in good shape. I'd had some annoying experiences when a stone had become slightly dished and had been causing problems.
So what I'm doing now is giving my finish stone a few light circles with a coti slip before each saturday morning's shave. Saturday is when I give my razor a very light touch up. Before I hone the razor I circle the slip around the outside of the stone, which hopefully will keep it permanently flat. And if it eventually creates a tiny bit of convexity, that's even better.
It will be a long time before I see if this works. But whatever. I bought a good metal square to check the level of the stone. We'll see.
At the other end of the scale. I saw the a bevel setter that was owned by someone who hones professionally where one side of the stone was worn significantly lower than the other, like .25". The surface was lapped flat, but I could see no reason that he would not turn the stone occasionally to wear the stone more evenly.
What I like to do is lap the stone. I then do strokes away from me with the handle pointing right then with the handle pointing left. I then do strokes towards me with the handle pointing left then with the handle pointing right and then back to the beginning. This way both sides of the blade are scraped along both the left and right parts of the stone face and in both directions. I rinse the swarf and inspect the edge between these rotations as I think it needs. This may not be necessary though and will always create a dip in the stone. It may not be quite as dish shaped though.
When I use my tomo’s I try to focus on the ends of my stones or areas not honed on. It helps somewhat to keep the wear more even, but they all inevitably need lapping at some point.
Rotating your stones around time to time also helps.
Rotating your stones around time to time also helps.
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