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i believe ive never gotten a straight razor sharper

Sounds like a lot of wasted blade steal or you never got your bevel set before now.
You need to work on step one. Bevel set. The only time you need to do many laps on a razor is if you finish with an Arkie or Thuri or some stone like that. And those are extremely light strokes as you are just polishing, not cutting.
 
Or... pick your own battles, and set the bevel however you please, on whatever stone you want.

I could do it in 5 seconds on crystolon and then laugh at everybody else for taking so long on a 1k chosera.

(Good job OP!)
 
Not at all actually...

I was just pointing out that there's nothing wrong at all with you setting a bevel with more laps on a finer stone. In fact if anything: you'll get a better result, with less steel removal, than starting on a coarser stone. Just takes longer!
this may be a dumb question but could i set a bevel on my finishing stone to do a one stone hone?
 
Yeah, that will work, but it takes a lot of time and effort.

Trying to set a bevel on a 3K stone is possible, but it is a lot easier on a 1-1.2K stone.

I do not like making a jump of more than 2x in grit size. Jumping from 2K to 8K is a 4x jump. That does not sound all that great until you consider that abrasives are 3D particles. Thus, the volume of a 2K particle is 64 times greater than an 8K particle (4x4x4=64). That is why it took so many laps on the 8K to eliminate the scratches from the 2K. If you have other razors to hone, you might want to consider adding a 4K-5K hone hone.

You did not mention what your finisher is but many are in the 10-12K range. Thus, that would be a jump of only 1.25-1.5x, which is small enough that it took you a lot fewer laps to remove the stria left by the 8K stone.

Also, you might want to explore other techniques such as axe stokes, circles, etc. that can help you achieve your result much more quickly than just going diagonal strokes.

If you only have a couple of straight razors, then spending a lot of money on lower grit stones to set bevels might not be justified. Once the bevel is properly set and the scratches from the lower grit stones have been removed, you should be able to maintain your razors with only an 8K stone and your finishing stone. You also might want to consider adding some pasted strops after your finishing hone. Many have found that they can maintain their razors indefinitely using pasted strops alone. The only time you would ever need to go back to reset the bevel is if the edge is chipped.
 
There is a YouTube video in which the author blunted the edge of the razor and then took it all the way through the bevel set to final finishing using a Suehiro Gokumyo 20K (0.5 micron) synthetic hone. It took a couple of hours of work, but it got the job done eventually. I have a SG 20K. I consider it to be a superb finisher; but I would never consider trying to set a bevel using one even if it is possible. I do not have that much patience.
 
this may be a dumb question but could i set a bevel on my finishing stone to do a one stone hone?


I think I asked exactly the same hypothetical q. when I was starting out. RayClem has given better answer and explanation that I could, but in short: yes you could. Whether you use finer or coarser stones is no more or less valid.

FWIW - I do tend to follow received wisdom and use synths in the region of 1k to set bevels. A couple of times early on I moved to a 3k without realising it wasn't fully set, and basically then just got nowhere and had to go back. So if you have a 1k stone, I would recommend persevering with using that to start - it's considerably faster than a 3k.

All of this of course assumes you actually want to save time. Many people, myself included, actually quite enjoy sharpening or honing stuff. In which case 500 laps on a 3k might be the preferable option.

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[That was what I meant basically when I said 'let people pick their own battles'.]
 
Arks and synthetics for bevel work at my house. I don’t hone for entertainment, so spending extra time doing 500 laps will never be my thing. My two cents, the more you play around with an edge the more likely you are going to roll or micro chip the edge because SR edges are like working tin foil. Happy honing!
 
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