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Pretty sure it's this. If you google 'super punjab razor stone' there are a couple of old threads on other forums, but not a massive amount of info out there it seems.
Different kinds of 'sharp'
- Thread starter cotedupy
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Pretty sure it's this. If you google 'super punjab razor stone' there are a couple of old threads on other forums, but not a massive amount of info out there it seems.
Edge geometry is what matters. A super steel with less desirable geometry can be out cut by a simple steel with a better geometry for the task at hand. Razor steels are simple, old fashioned steels, not the new super steels. Yet, they can shave better than any knife. However, the edges are more delicate than a super steel edge would be. The geometry at which it is sharpened makes a huge difference, giving it shaving power.
I got a bit of a lesson in "kitchen knife sharp" and "razor sharp" when I took a dizzle in some of the facebook knife sharpening groups to see what I could learn. While most of the people in them seemed to be seeking out locations to charge people $14 to take a belt sander to a pocket knife, a few did elaborate why many good knife sharpeners don't go to high grit when sharpening most (but not all) kitchen knives.
The reason being things don't all cut the same; some are better slice-cut (such as the tomato or meat) and some are better push-cut. Things like cleavers, straight razors, chisels, cut by by their fine edge in a straight chopping action, so a highly polished, high grit, stropped edge with the smallest possible teeth is best. Slicing is more like a sawing action, so for some applications, professional chefs and their sharpeners won't go over 400 grit, others 600 or 800, because they need the teeth left by the grit to tear the tough fibers. Another reason being that if the edge is too fine and repeatedly hits the chopping block, it will get worn down, so higher angles with lower grit are most effective in the long run. Metal quality is another factor, with the higher carbon steels being able to hold a lower angle, as softer steels will quickly blunt, and the softer steels needing to be rehoned more frequently.
As I started seriously sharpening on straight razors before moving onto everything else I could find (rotary lawn mowers, chisels, scissors, hair clippers, pencil sharpeners, paper cutters, a small guillotine, loppers, pruners, fingernail clippers, the thing that cuts receipt paper, anything I could find with a blade in it - I got "mental health problems") it took a while for that moment where I realized that there was not one single scale of dull-sharp with bricks on one side and razors on the other, that the ability to cut something depends on so much more that just the blade itself, and I stopped trying to turn everything into a razor. It was fun though and I don't regret it.
The reason being things don't all cut the same; some are better slice-cut (such as the tomato or meat) and some are better push-cut. Things like cleavers, straight razors, chisels, cut by by their fine edge in a straight chopping action, so a highly polished, high grit, stropped edge with the smallest possible teeth is best. Slicing is more like a sawing action, so for some applications, professional chefs and their sharpeners won't go over 400 grit, others 600 or 800, because they need the teeth left by the grit to tear the tough fibers. Another reason being that if the edge is too fine and repeatedly hits the chopping block, it will get worn down, so higher angles with lower grit are most effective in the long run. Metal quality is another factor, with the higher carbon steels being able to hold a lower angle, as softer steels will quickly blunt, and the softer steels needing to be rehoned more frequently.
As I started seriously sharpening on straight razors before moving onto everything else I could find (rotary lawn mowers, chisels, scissors, hair clippers, pencil sharpeners, paper cutters, a small guillotine, loppers, pruners, fingernail clippers, the thing that cuts receipt paper, anything I could find with a blade in it - I got "mental health problems") it took a while for that moment where I realized that there was not one single scale of dull-sharp with bricks on one side and razors on the other, that the ability to cut something depends on so much more that just the blade itself, and I stopped trying to turn everything into a razor. It was fun though and I don't regret it.
I did a similar thing with my axe after reading how great they cut with a 17 degree angle. Once.
~doug~
So he spends well over an hour just on the edge than another 6-7 hours polishing. So about 8 hours on one axe then you cut into a tree and start all over. I think not.Not at all - I find it all very interesting!
Q. for you: Here's another old antipodean axe sharpening vid. About the 15 min mark her mentions what he's using, it's slightly difficult to hear but after a bit of sleuthing it seems to be the 'Punjab Stone', another two sided old American BH. Ever had one?
You ought to be buying them up, cornering the market, building some hype, and then flogging for a small fortune...
Oh and last Punjab hone I saw sell went for about $380
When you hone an axe like that you spend eight hours on it, enter the competition, hopefully win thousands of dollars prize money, then start again. I doubt the $380-$1k barber hone gets used up on the work axes.
So I have exactly one experience with axe sharpening (a hatchet really). I found my grandfather’s old Estwing hatchet while moving my mother’s stuff to her new place. Cleaned off the rust and decided to sharpen it. Watched a bunch of videos and a very nice article by the the USDA Forestry Division which explained that there are a number of tradeoffs made in establishing the geometry of an axe. A key point being that wood is hard and therefore a convex edge (at least right at the edge itself) is a good thing. Failed miserably to freehand it with a Frictionite 00 (which I’ve heard is also in high demand by competition lumberjacks). In the end I pulled out my EdgePro, which I haven’t used much for kitchen knives lately. I set the angle at 10 degrees (per side), scrubbed the edge (well really behind the edge) and then gradually raised the angle until it was up at 22 degrees (I did some math to correct for the fact that the hatchet blade itself was tapered). This turned out to be much easier then the trick of using a towel that one iteratively folds in order to build up the angle. Haven’t found anything to test the hatchet on yet, but I’m almost afraid to be in the same room with it, let along get my fingers near the business end!
So this may or may not be the appropriate place, but just before sitting down to read B&B just now, I was sharpening my paring knife with my newly acquired Scotch Dual hone (Dalmore Blue/TOS). I had firmly in my mind a recent quote from the razor honing forum that is related to the the comments of the OP, to paraphrase “knife guys always seem to want to sharpen a razor like its a knife (not fine enough grit) and razor guys always seem to want to sharpen a knife like its a razor (using too fine a grit).“ So I raised a bit of slurry on the DB, got an edge that seemed pretty vicious, dropped down to water for a few strokes and then thought “what will I accomplish by using the TOS side?” So I simply steeled the edge a few times to make sure that there were no burrs left, dried it and put it away. It took a concerted effort to ONLY use one stone! 
rbscebu
Girls call me Makaluod
@David thank you for the link to a wonderful video.
Watching the video brought back to me my memories of working in my teens as a roustabout in shearing sheds on the northwest plains of New South Wales. There was one shed in particular, on a property named Whitlow outside of Bingara (actually in the New England area) that was built by hand in the post and slab style many decades earlier.
I remember working at Whitlow in particular because of the food. Our sheering team had its own cook but whenever we worked at Whitlow, our cook was given the time off. The station boss's wife (from memory her name was Izzy) was the best cook we ever experienced.
I’m a fan of using two stones, but I think the trick might be to not remove ALL the scratches from the first here me with the second, like you would with a razor. I guess it depends on what the two stones are, though.So this may or may not be the appropriate place, but just before sitting down to read B&B just now, I was sharpening my paring knife with my newly acquired Scotch Dual hone (Dalmore Blue/TOS). I had firmly in my mind a recent quote from the razor honing forum that is related to the the comments of the OP, to paraphrase “knife guys always seem to want to sharpen a razor like its a knife (not fine enough grit) and razor guys always seem to want to sharpen a knife like its a razor (using too fine a grit).“ So I raised a bit of slurry on the DB, got an edge that seemed pretty vicious, dropped down to water for a few strokes and then thought “what will I accomplish by using the TOS side?” So I simply steeled the edge a few times to make sure that there were no burrs left, dried it and put it away. It took a concerted effort to ONLY use one stone!
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I'd point out the obvious. A razor is not designed to cut. It's designed to shave.
It's a critical difference. A razor glides along the skin, and cuts anything in it's path.
I sharpen my kitchen knives to the point I can shave the hairs off my arm. I still wouldn't try shaving with a chefs knife.
It's a critical difference. A razor glides along the skin, and cuts anything in it's path.
I sharpen my kitchen knives to the point I can shave the hairs off my arm. I still wouldn't try shaving with a chefs knife.
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