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- #61
Your youtube videos have been educational.I designed The Ax Method to be used on on any double bevel tools, knives or razors. It was after I bought my microscope (315x) in 2010 that I could visually monitor the progress of each stroke or set of strokes that I realized that there is a sweet spot where-when each stone provided it's unique finger print/scratch pattern on the steel blade, and that going beyond that finished stage, where the scratch extends from the base of the bevel to the cutting edge with more and more and more strokes, did not make a blade sharper and sharper and sharper.
After a scratch pattern is established on both sides of the razor, in our case as above, adding more strokes leads to deformation in the form of a burr or feather edge. There is an article in my book "Japanese Sharpening Stone Heaven-Narutaki Toishiyama" that explains the deformation in more detail.
Finding through observation, perfect pairings with stone to steel can be rewarding. There are so many types of steel on the market, it can save a lot of time discovering how many strokes it takes to abrade certain steels with certain stones. Counting strokes is like building a handicap in golf, knowing what you limits are can take a lot of the agony and money off the table. For me to play Pebble Beach would be a waste of money, Silverado is doable. I am in my early 70s now, why waste time?
Alx
Does it make a difference in the results if you did the same number of strokes on each side, but flipped the blade over on each pass?
I have found the jump from 1k to dmt slurry a little challenging. I can remove the striations, but the apex still needs allot more refinement. Starting with a 2k, or even a 3k seems to work better.
Going from a 6k to a nagura progression, or a light dmt slurry have been the sweet spot for me.