When you learn to polish larger objects you are often taught to vary the direction of abrasive from one grit to the next. This way, you know you've finished with the current grit level when you've ground/polished away ALL of the marks left by the previous grit level.
Thus, when I began honing razors, I watched carefully under a 10x loupe. I would do one grit (12 micron) with a heel forward stroke, then the next (9 micron) with the toe leading just a smidge. That way, I could stop every dozen or so laps, and observe the scratch pattern. With very light pressure, it took just shy of 100 laps.
That held up from 9 to 5 micron, and again from 5 to 3 micron. Going from 3 to 1 micron it took nearly 200 laps to erase all of the cloudiness from the 3 micron abrasive. After which point it became nearly impossible to tell the difference even under the loupe.
Moving from lapping film to pasted balsa, it gets much more difficult still, since the 0.5 micron abrasive is embedded in the surface of the wood, and is effectively smaller, though by how much is not clear.
That's why in previous iterations of honing I upped to 200 laps going from 3 to 1 micron, and 200 going from 1 micron to 0.3 micron film. Then I upped to 300 laps on each of 3 levels of CBN pasted balsa (0.5, 0.25, and 0.1 micron respectively).
Re-honing a razor tonight, I was re-reading some threads on honing and balsa stropping, and it seems most folks stick to about 50-60 ish laps on each grit, and aren't concerned with making sure they've polished out all signs of the previous grit level.
So tonight I followed the advice of people who have much more experience with razors specifically, and did 60 laps before moving on to the next grit, with no real concern with whether or not I fully polished out any roughness from previous grit levels.
To the naked eye, of course the bevel looks glassy smooth, almost molten in how smooth it is. However, under the loupe, I can see a network of multiple tiny scratch patterns all along the bevel. The razor is treetopping hair just about as well as it did with hundreds of laps, so I guess the proof will be in the shaving.
What about it? Does anyone else here watch the scratch pattern under magnification to tell them when to move on? Am I way overdoing it? If I am way overdoing it, how does the coarser abrasive scratch pattern not make for a less sharp edge?
Thus, when I began honing razors, I watched carefully under a 10x loupe. I would do one grit (12 micron) with a heel forward stroke, then the next (9 micron) with the toe leading just a smidge. That way, I could stop every dozen or so laps, and observe the scratch pattern. With very light pressure, it took just shy of 100 laps.
That held up from 9 to 5 micron, and again from 5 to 3 micron. Going from 3 to 1 micron it took nearly 200 laps to erase all of the cloudiness from the 3 micron abrasive. After which point it became nearly impossible to tell the difference even under the loupe.
Moving from lapping film to pasted balsa, it gets much more difficult still, since the 0.5 micron abrasive is embedded in the surface of the wood, and is effectively smaller, though by how much is not clear.
That's why in previous iterations of honing I upped to 200 laps going from 3 to 1 micron, and 200 going from 1 micron to 0.3 micron film. Then I upped to 300 laps on each of 3 levels of CBN pasted balsa (0.5, 0.25, and 0.1 micron respectively).
Re-honing a razor tonight, I was re-reading some threads on honing and balsa stropping, and it seems most folks stick to about 50-60 ish laps on each grit, and aren't concerned with making sure they've polished out all signs of the previous grit level.
So tonight I followed the advice of people who have much more experience with razors specifically, and did 60 laps before moving on to the next grit, with no real concern with whether or not I fully polished out any roughness from previous grit levels.
To the naked eye, of course the bevel looks glassy smooth, almost molten in how smooth it is. However, under the loupe, I can see a network of multiple tiny scratch patterns all along the bevel. The razor is treetopping hair just about as well as it did with hundreds of laps, so I guess the proof will be in the shaving.
What about it? Does anyone else here watch the scratch pattern under magnification to tell them when to move on? Am I way overdoing it? If I am way overdoing it, how does the coarser abrasive scratch pattern not make for a less sharp edge?
