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My first hone

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I'm reading about honing quite a lot while looking for some marble or glass. I want to lap the stones with sandpaper but I can't find some flat surface. Diamond lapping plates are expensive and quite hard to get around here.
It would be helpful if you included your location in your profile. What I use is cast acrylic sheet, usually 3/4" for lapping stones. My source is www.tapplastics.com . Costs more than tile, but it is flatter, lighter, thicker, and unbreakable for all practical purposes.

Not all glass is flat. Float glass is not. Plate glass may be, and usually is, flat enough. Polished tile varies, ceramic tile is never flat enough. The sink cutout from a granite countertop is usually nice and flat, and can sometimes be had for free.

If you shop around online, you might find a granite machinist's surface plate, complete with calibration report, for under $50. A used one is good, too. You will find many uses for a surface plate. Or maybe not.
 
It would be helpful if you included your location in your profile. What I use is cast acrylic sheet, usually 3/4" for lapping stones. My source is www.tapplastics.com . Costs more than tile, but it is flatter, lighter, thicker, and unbreakable for all practical purposes.

Not all glass is flat. Float glass is not. Plate glass may be, and usually is, flat enough. Polished tile varies, ceramic tile is never flat enough. The sink cutout from a granite countertop is usually nice and flat, and can sometimes be had for free.

If you shop around online, you might find a granite machinist's surface plate, complete with calibration report, for under $50. A used one is good, too. You will find many uses for a surface plate. Or maybe not.
Location updated - Slovakia, Nice idea.

I've Been browsing the internet to find some of these mentioned items second hand. I'd like to find a bargain. Later on, I will purchase a Diamond lapping plate for convinience. But firstly I'd like to try it with minimal investment.
 
I'm reading about honing quite a lot while looking for some marble or glass. I want to lap the stones with sandpaper but I can't find some flat surface. Diamond lapping plates are expensive and quite hard to get around here.
My girlfriend had a glass chopping board when I started honing. It was flat and I’d imagine easy to find online or in a kitchen store. Might be an option for you.
 
You can buy a 3.5X12 inch glass tile from any big box hardware store for about $5 and spray glue a piece of 220 wet and dry to it, then use just like a diamond plate.

Glass tile may not be “dead flat,” but you can easily lap glass flat on a piece of 220 paper. Glass cuts easily and quickly.

But a good 300/1000 grit diamond plate can be purchased for $20-30 online or Chef Knives to Go. If you do not abuse it. It will last a lifetime of synthetic stone lapping.

Even abused, I have plates that have lost some Diamonds and are still cutting fine and used daily. I have plates from all the big guns and eBay cheapo’s, they all work.

You will need to lap a stone initially, bevel and round the edges, then lap to clean and refresh a stone face before each use and often during use, especially before the final finish laps.
 
I proclaim the 1k Stone to be flat! With chamfered edges.

I used a Mirror finish "marble" tile with 320 sandpaper. I worked it until the pencil Grid dissapeared evenly under 5 seconds. I used the 120 grit flattening stones for the edges and I gave the stones about 2mm x 45° chamfer - of course this was eyeballed and done under 15 seconds on each side.

The stones sticked to the sandpaper like crazy.

And now, to get the bevel... I will keep you posted throughout the weekend.
 
Today I attempted to raise a burr, successfuly on both sides. It was subtle, but definitely there. After I raised the burr on both sides I removed it using alternating strokes. After about 30 light laps, the razor started sticking to the stone and I was starting to be excited. I tried shaving Arm hair. Some hair got picked up but it was by no means shaving easily. I inspected the edge and noticed something that gave me a little heart attack. See for yourself below. I never dreamed of finding a crack in the edge like that one.
 

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rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
That crack is not just in the bevel, it is going up into the blade. I have never experienced a crack like that in all (over a dozen) the Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 SRs that I have honed.

For the time being, just ignore the crack and continue learning to hone the edge to shave-ready. A couple of cracks like that should not noticeably affect the shave quality.
 
Just my .02 cents. I don't know the magnification of the loupe through which you've taken those great photos, but I have an Aust with what appears to the naked eye to be a crack. Under a 10X loupe it looks even more like a crack. It's not until I use the 30X / 60X loupe that @Doc226 linked, that I see it's not a crack at all, but a "spot" (more like a run) of oxidation that looks like a very fine splatter of solder (of course it's not) I don't know how else to describe it. After a year or more I will have honed past it, I imagine. My imperfection doesn't go a thickness of a bevel past the bevel, so it's not as long as yours.

Any chance it's not a crack, but just oxidation?
 
After last time I have put it all away but I came back to it again today. I tried putting two layers of tape on the spine and I did a sharpie test, below are results after 1 and 5 laps. Then I decided that I don't want to go all the way with tape, even if it did help with keeping the stabilizer off the Stone.

I raised the burr on both sides and then removed it following the instructions. I only managed to remove a few hairs from my arm with dofficulty, not even close to shaving.

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Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Any chance it's not a crack, but just oxidation?

A crack will be visible on both sides at the same place. Oxidation is unlikely to be on both sides at the same place.

This is also true of pitting, devil’s spit, etc. If you see pitting on the bevel in the same place on both sides, you’re going to lose steel (probably) all the way up to the spine side of the pit. If you only see it on one side, that’s better but still a bit of pot luck.
 
Update:

I just shaved quite a bit off of my arm without pressing down too hard. It still doesn't take off everything in it's path but this is significant progress for me.

Also, I noticed that the edge is smling inwards near the heel. I will try to capture it in the pictures below.
 

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Update:

I just shaved quite a bit off of my arm without pressing down too hard. It still doesn't take off everything in it's path but this is significant progress for me.

Also, I noticed that the edge is smling inwards near the heel. I will try to capture it in the pictures below.
Oof, that's a frown! Sorry that you were making progress and that happened. You are probably going to want to remove that and try again unfortunately. I am certainly not qualified to give advice, but best of luck!
(I would use my diamond plate and the side of a stone, but more important is addressing how you did it.)
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
@TheBeast you have a definite frown towards the heel. This is not greatly detrimental to the edge's shaving ability but it will make it harder to later refine and maintain the edge in that area.

TheBeast Frown.jpg
If this frown was not already present before you started to hone the blade, it has developed either due to your honing surface not being perfectly flat, due to your honing technique or a bit of both.

You also have a double bevel. This is most probably from you honing with tape.

TheBeast Bevel.jpg
My suggestion is that you go back and reset the blade's bevel using the burr method. While resetting the blade's bevel, you can work on removing that frown.

Here is a Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60 that I set the bevel on a couple of days ago. This was done using only the 12µm lapping film, about the same as a perfectly flat 1,500 grit to 2,000 grit whetstone. Notice the absence of any light reflection off of the edge after bevel-set, and I was trying really hard to find even a spot of light reflection.

SR Breadknifed.JPG
Before bevel set

SR Bevel Set.JPG
After bevel set
With that bevel set and no further honing on finer grits, I was able to get a close and just-comfortable shave. If you follow the burr method instructions to the letter, you should be able to achieve the same results in your first (or at most second) attempt.
 
Update:

I just shaved quite a bit off of my arm without pressing down too hard. It still doesn't take off everything in it's path but this is significant progress for me.

Also, I noticed that the edge is smling inwards near the heel. I will try to capture it in the pictures below.
I think the stabilizer/shoulder may be issue here. The frown at the heel is an indicator and the stabilizer seems to be very thick, typical of GD-like razors. Shaving off the stabilizer upto a point where the edge is flat all across may be helpful.

When I honed up my W&G straight, I noticed an increase in bevel towards the heel. I tried to be consistent in my technique so this was hard to understand. I think the thick stabilizer can lead to honing issues as the thickness in metal lifts up towards the heel.

Here is one video I watched to understand the process. DrMatt shaves off the sides but I just opted to shave off it straight, just to make it easier..
 
I think the stabilizer/shoulder may be issue here. The frown at the heel is an indicator and the stabilizer seems to be very thick, typical of GD-like razors. Shaving off the stabilizer upto a point where the edge is flat all across may be helpful.

When I honed up my W&G straight, I noticed an increase in bevel towards the heel. I tried to be consistent in my technique so this was hard to understand. I think the thick stabilizer can lead to honing issues as the thickness in metal lifts up towards the heel.

Here is one video I watched to understand the process. DrMatt shaves off the sides but I just opted to shave off it straight, just to make it easier..
Thanks, I'm thinking about that stabilizer a lot and I Also Saw that video, I just don't have the guts to try that.

I will try again with the burr method while keeping the stabilizer off the Stone (blade at an angle while honing and the heel slightly off the Stone)
 
You have a minor frown now because you're not honing on the stabilizer anymore, and that heel isn't being honed.

There is a thread down the page a bit called Heel Correction--Reprofiling. Read it. All you need to do is grind that heel forward away from the stabilizer. Then you can focus on the bevel set.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I agree with @Darth Scandalous on this. You may have been trying too hard not to let the blade's stabiliser ride up onto the honing surface. In doing this, you failed to hone the bevel where the heel edge starts to kick up towards the stabiliser. Stop trying so hard, just concentrate more on what you are doing. Because I concentrate when honing, I have never had a problem with stabilisers when honing. This now comes naturally to me when honing.
 
That heel needs to go anyways. Even if you had honed it cleanly without getting into the stabilizer the first time, it would become a problem with further honing because of the way the stabilizer is ground on that razor. If you look at the Sharpie marks that are still on the heel, that's about how much you should take off to make your life easier.
 
So, the problem with these razors, the spine is poorly ground. Note how the spine dives down toward the edge over the heel and is more than twice as low over the stabilizer, distance between the blue and red lines.

When the distance (edge of the spine to the bevel) changes like this, the angle also changes because the distance from the edge of the spine and the bevel, dictate the bevel angle. This is the source of your double bevel at the heel.

When you hone over the wonky spine or stabilizer it lifts the bevel off the stone. Adding more pressure trying to force the heel on the stone, is the cause of the frown and heel hook, (Red Arrow), not the flatness of the stone. You must repair the frown or you will make the heel hook sharper, literally into a hook. As it is now it will cut you. The edge must be straight or smiling, never a frown.

You have two choices, reshape the heel to move the heel corner well forward of the stabilizer, (Red circle) and the spine where it begins to curve down (Green arrow). Green line is where the new heel corner will end well forward of the curved spine and take the stabilizer completely out of play.

Or grind the spine and stabilizer flat and to the same angle as the rest of the bevel, as in the video. It is a lot of work and will look terrible. You see many old razors with this problem where they are massively ground, a simple heel correction would have eliminated the issue and saved lots or good steel.

You can tell this is the problem, because when you did the 2 layer of tape test avoiding the spine over the heel, almost all of the rest of the bevel sat flat on the stone and cut a nice straight, flat bevel.

It is an easy fix, go the HEEL CORRECTION – REPROFILING thread, in the honing forum for a photo tutorial. Use a diamond plate, Carborundum Silicon Carbide Stone or a piece of 220 wet and dry glued to a piece of glass. It will take you about 5 minutes. After which the razor should sit flat on the hone, avoid the stabilizer and wonky spine and hone normally.

Also, when using tape, learn to feel when you burn through the tape, it will feel slightly sticky on the stone, and you may see bits of tape on the hone. Once you burn through the tape you change the angle defeating using tape.

If you correct the heel, you will be able to easily hone the razor.

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