Honing Observations - What I think I have learned

[Bertilak]

I have been slowly learning to hone and made very poor progress, if any, until just recently. Here are the things I think have helped me recently...

• Although, like most things having to do with shaving, a very light touch is important, I think that using some pressure above your lightest possible touch can help with the early stages of honing.
• For a beginner, using your second hand to lightly keep the razor flat on the hone does help. Just touch a finger to the spine at its tip. Best reserved for the times you want to apply just that little extra pressure as above.
• Despite the above you need to finish your honing session on each stone (i.e. at each grit) with a one handed super light touch sequence. Just let the scales and/or tang rest in your fingers, bearing the weight just enough to keep the blade flat and level on the hone. (This part is not easy for me.)
• Once the blade has reached a certain point of smoothness, it will actually feel a little like it is sticking to the hone, much like a smooth wet object resists being lifted off a flat piece of glass. I think that is the point of diminishing returns.

These things are hard to put into words so I hope the above isn't too obscure!

I list the above as a way of soliciting comments. Am I getting it right? It seems to me I have been able to get a razor somewhat past the point of just barely shave ready. That is better than before, butI know I have a ways more to go as I have used razors that were honed better than I can do so far!

 

[thanks]

I have dabbled in honing a little myself, and have had horror stories to share much like a lot of other people I'm sure. I have shaky hands even though I'm young, so honing is hard for me even when I'm doing it right. I agree with everything you said, although I haven't tried the two fingers trick. I might have to try that out later. I've only honed one blade to shave readiness so far in my short honing career, but even then I messed up the bevel for a couple parts of the blade. It was a smiling Gold Dollar, so considering the source I'm pretty proud of even getting that far, hahah.

I have found similar experience with the stickiness of the blade that you mention when it's pretty much ready to move on to the next progression. Is this what's known as feedback?

 

[Chimensch]

Call me the honing heretic but here goes:

All the vintage razor hones that I have ever seen and used are small (5-6"), narrow (1-1½") and easy to hold in your hand but the hones that everyone uses and recommends today are 3" wide and too heavy to hold in your hand. Why is that? Because they were not made for honing razors, but knives and tools. The techniques that these big hones force you to use are not natural (even though there are a lot of people who successfully hone razors with them). I think this because, when I started shaving with a straight in 1980, I was given a Swaty to use and I took to it like a duck to water.

My favorite hones are vintage and small hones that you can hold in your hand, which makes all the pressure and control issues moot. I finally got fed up with my wide hones and took them to a stone cutter. I now have a Norton 4K/8K that 8" x 1½" and an Awaseto Honiyama that's 6" x 1½" and I'm really happy.

 

[Bertilak]

Call me the honing heretic but here goes:

All the vintage razor hones that I have ever seen and used are small (5-6"), narrow (1-1½") and easy to hold in your hand but the hones that everyone uses and recommends today are 3" wide and too heavy to hold in your hand. Why is that? Because they were not made for honing razors, but knives and tools. The techniques that these big hones force you to use are not natural (even though there are a lot of people who successfully hone razors with them). I think this because, when I started shaving with a straight in 1980, I was given a Swaty to use and I took to it like a duck to water.

My favorite hones are vintage and small hones that you can hold in your hand, which makes all the pressure and control issues moot. I finally got fed up with my wide hones and took them to a stone cutter. I now have a Norton 4K/8K that 8" x 1½" and an Awaseto Honiyama that's 6" x 1½" and I'm really happy.

That's an interesting point. I have a general preference for narrow strops (2") although I have a 2.75" strop I also like. I think the reason I like the narrow strops is that it seems easier to get even action across the length of the blade. Never thought of applying that logic to hones.

 

[SliceOfLife]

+1 to chimensche.


My 1" wide escher is a bit harder to use than my 1.5" thuringian... but the thuringian really isn't any harder to use than my 3" wide stones. In some cases it's easier to use.

BUT... the 1" wide stone gets much better results on any even slightly curved razor. I've even used it on a couple fairly significantly curved (or smiling) razors, and you can't tell they're curved when using it. The natural mechanism of using such a narrow hone keeps the razor flat, and gives a bullet straight polish to the bevel even on the curviest razors. I'm actually wishing I had some 1x6" DMT's so I could set perfect looking bevels (though it would be a very tedious task).

I still use 2.5" to 3" hones for my beveling and lower grit refinement, because it's what I have and because it's significantly faster to do those stages when you can keep the blade in contact for the whole stroke. But I'm definitely not going to buy >2" wide finishers any more. If I had a suitable saw, I'd probably cut my Jnat in half lengthwise giving me a 1" and a 2" pair. Then I'd probably sell the 2".


edit: stupid flipped greater than sign.

 

[pcb01]

Got a l-o-o-n-g 3/4 inch coticule today from Ardennes. I've been using the side of a combo stone for a while with great results, but now I have a dedicated skinny stone. 45 degree X strokes begone!

(However, some with more experience say they gradually move back to wider stones as their technique improves. Great -- maybe they'll sell their skinny stones to the rest of us!)

 

[GsSixgun]

It really is in the hands, not the hone...

There is no "Better hone" or "Better size" there is only what you are capable of using well

As the saying goes with a shooter, "Beware the man who has but one rifle , he might just know how to use it"

 

[richmondesi]

It really is in the hands, not the hone...

There is no "Better hone" or "Better size" there is only what you are capable of using well

As the saying goes with a shooter, "Beware the man who has but one rifle , he might just know how to use it"