What did you hone today?

[cotedupy]

I've never tried honing a razor on a BBW, so going to give these a run in a little while:

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Three quite different stones it seems. The first is just a little slice of BBW, other two are with coticules. The middle, dark one is notably coarser than the other two:

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So this was interesting. It was my first time playing around at length with BBW, and I tried them mostly on a knife to begin with. But here are some impressions...

BBW is slooooow. Really slow. It's also not particularly fine as an abrasive; these ranged a fair bit, but in terms of cutting they topped out around 7k, with the middle one considerably coarser - maybe 3k. The coarse stone however wasn't really much faster, which I imagine is probably to do with the shape of the abrasive, i.e. kinda rounded or flattened. Frankly they're not very good sharpening stones, and behave far more like quite slow slates than they do cotis.

BBW is however a good polishing stone. Coticules are quite good, but BBW is very good. If you try to ignore my fingerprints on the blade, and the fact that these are indoor nighttime pictures, you can see this here:

It's taking core steel to quite a bright semi-mirror, with nice contrast, but the really impressive part is how even *and shallow* the scratch pattern is on the cladding. I'll do a proper polish on a nice knife, and take some daytime pictures tomorrow, but these stones have a lot of promise.

I only honed the razor on the third of those stones, but it was really rather good. Which probably chimes with most of my other (limited) experience; low-abrasion stones that polish knives well seem to work very nicely on razors, as long as they're not too soft.

To be completely honest I'm slightly surprised that the yellow coticule layer is regarded as a better razor finisher than BBW.

 

[Empire straights]

Just a touch up on a new to me coti bout. It was like honing on velvet. The edge is very promising. View attachment 1345689

Beautiful razor and stone. I need to buy more razors and strops instead of just stones but I only shave once a day and I sharpen tools constantly. When I see a really pretty piece it makes me kinda regret not investing in more blades off all types. Gotta work on that!

 

[Empire straights]

So this was interesting. It was my first time playing around at length with BBW, and I tried them mostly on a knife to begin with. But here are some impressions...

BBW is slooooow. Really slow. It's also not particularly fine as an abrasive; these ranged a fair bit, but in terms of cutting they topped out around 7k, with the middle one considerably coarser - maybe 3k. The coarse stone however wasn't really much faster, which I imagine is probably to do with the shape of the abrasive, i.e. kinda rounded or flattened. Frankly they're not very good sharpening stones, and behave far more like quite slow slates than they do cotis.

BBW is however a good polishing stone. Coticules are quite good, but BBW is very good. If you try to ignore my fingerprints on the blade, and the fact that these are indoor nighttime pictures, you can see this here:

View attachment 1346707

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It's taking core steel to quite a bright semi-mirror, with nice contrast, but the really impressive part is how even *and shallow* the scratch pattern is on the cladding. I'll do a proper polish on a nice knife, and take some daytime pictures tomorrow, but these stones have a lot of promise.

I only honed the razor on the third of those stones, but it was really rather good. Which probably chimes with most of my other (limited) experience; low-abrasion stones that polish knives well seem to work very nicely on razors, as long as they're not too soft.

To be completely honest I'm slightly surprised that the yellow coticule layer is regarded as a better razor finisher than BBW.

To be honest friend, and I know it's not a popular opinion, but I prefer a razor finished on the right bbw over the coticule side. With the really glassy ones you can get a very keen edge of you spend enough time on it. I think people give up on them too early because they are less aggressive than the coticule side most of the time but that super shallow scratch pattern is what makes it so fine. No half measures on stropping and I think you'll be able to get a surprisingly enjoyable shave out of it.

 

[cotedupy]

To be honest friend, and I know it's not a popular opinion, but I prefer a razor finished on the right bbw over the coticule side. With the really glassy ones you can get a very keen edge of you spend enough time on it. I think people give up on them too early because they are less aggressive than the coticule side most of the time but that super shallow scratch pattern is what makes it so fine. No half measures on stropping and I think you'll be able to get a surprisingly enjoyable shave out of it.

This was certainly my initial impression. It was better than any shave I've had off a coticule, though tbh I've only tried them as razor finishers a few times, so need to learn various slurry management tricks I imagine.

 

[cotedupy]

I bought a couple of cheap old SRs at a local antique / seconds shop today. A Bengall, which seems in alright condition but needs a bit of work, and a German 'Wilheim Weber' which was in great nick. I gave it a quick 2000 WnD run, then going to hone later on; Naniwa SS 3k, BBW, Asagi.

 

[Legion]

I bought a couple of cheap old SRs at a local antique / seconds shop today. A Bengall, which seems in alright condition but needs a bit of work, and a German 'Wilheim Weber' which was in great nick. I gave it a quick 2000 WnD run, then going to hone later on; Naniwa SS 3k, BBW, Asagi.

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You might want to set the bevel on something coarser than a 3k, since that looks like it probably has the original 100yo+ factory edge. I'd start at at least 1k, and go up from there.

 

[cotedupy]

You might want to set the bevel on something coarser than a 3k, since that looks like it probably has the original 100yo+ factory edge. I'd start at at least 1k, and go up from there.

Haha yes, good call... I tried it on the 3k for a while and didn’t get anywhere at all really. So was thinking of going back down further. Ta!

 

[Gamma]

This old thing shaves pretty nicely...

 

[cotedupy]

My wife who I love dearly most of the time, decided yesterday that the best thing for chopping up some roast pork, with very hard/crunchy cracking, was one of our smarter Aogami Super knives. (She also then left it wet, so it has some rust to polish off too).

Aogami Super is the hardest of the Hitatchi paper steels used in knifemaking. More hard = better edge retention, but also = less tough = more chippy. So here's how it looks now all the way along the edge:

And I only sharpened that knife last week. Hey ho! Here is it with a coarse Washita, and an unknown (probably German or UK) slate. And another knife I'm going to play with polishing on BBWs:

 

[JPO]

This could be a new thread. What did your wife do to your knife
I am the only knife person in the house. That is why i only have softer knifes. They get abused every day. On the positive side, i get to use my stones and practice my honing skills

 

[cotedupy]

This could be a new thread. What did your wife do to your knife
I am the only knife person in the house. That is why i only have softer knifes. They get abused every day. On the positive side, i get to use my stones and practice my honing skills

Ha! Yes I do quite like sharpening, so can't really begrudge her. I do wish she wouldn't use that particular knife quite so much like a cleaver sometimes though!

(I'd built a fair bit of thickness and convexity into it too... if it was much thinner she would have taken large chunks out of the edge, rather than just 'micro-chipping'.)

 

[JPO]

My

Ha! Yes I do quite like sharpening, so can't really begrudge her. I do wish she wouldn't use that particular knife quite so much like a cleaver sometimes though!

(I'd built a fair bit of thickness and convexity into it too... if it was much thinner she would have taken large chunks out of the edge, rather than just 'micro-chipping'.)

My mother-in-law also uses my knifes sometimes. She can mess up a knife in a short time All my kitchen knife now have what i call working edges. 1k to coticule or Tsushima works fine.

 

[cotedupy]

My
My mother-in-law also uses my knifes sometimes. She can mess up a knife in a short time All my kitchen knife now have what i call working edges. 1k to coticule or Tsushima works fine.

I've been doing similar a lot recently; two stone sharpening with a mid grit synth followed by natural finisher. Really nice, and quite durable, edges .

 

[Legion]

This could be a new thread. What did your wife do to your knife
I am the only knife person in the house. That is why i only have softer knifes. They get abused every day. On the positive side, i get to use my stones and practice my honing skills

Yes. On one side of the kitchen are the stainless knives in a block, which I maintain, but are open to all to use.

On the other side are “Dads knives”, on a magnet rack, and no touchy.

 

[Christian1212]

If my fiancé is cooking, better believe my gyuto is getting sharpened again that weekend haha.

Recently honed a mk 10 on my karasu jnat and my helje mk 4 on this coticule with oil. Sweet edges

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Yup, 42 years, at least I got her to stop leaving them in a sink of dishes. I just do a quick check, rinse the knives and set aside for full cleaning after eating.

Her argument is “What’s the point of having a Mr. honer-pants in the house? It’s what you do. By the way this knife is dull.”

The girl can cook, and it is not worth the aggravation, we have 2 drawers of knives in wood knife trays, so there is always a sharp knife at hand.

 

[Empire straights]

Yes. On one side of the kitchen are the stainless knives in a block, which I maintain, but are open to all to use.

On the other side are “Dads knives”, on a magnet rack, and no touchy.

Yeah we have "Dad's knives" and "everybody else's knives" in my house too, that way I'll be the only person in the house missing a finger! Im only down half a thumb so I figure it's be OK to keep it interesting a while longer.

 

[thp001]

Honed up an 8/8 Wedge razor that I made myself. 1084 steel with buffalo horn scales, faux-ivory wedge and nickel silver pins and washers. Set the bevel on a 4K Norton, went to the 8K then finished on Vermont Purple Slate. For anyone who grinds razors, make sure you bring the blade faces to an apex when grinding so you get an absolutely tiny bevel when doing the final honing, also allows you to set the bevel on a much finer hone than usual.

 

[cotedupy]

Honed up an 8/8 Wedge razor that I made myself. 1084 steel with buffalo horn scales, faux-ivory wedge and nickel silver pins and washers. Set the bevel on a 4K Norton, went to the 8K then finished on Vermont Purple Slate. For anyone who grinds razors, make sure you bring the blade faces to an apex when grinding so you get an absolutely tiny bevel when doing the final honing, also allows you to set the bevel on a much finer hone than usual.


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Seriously smart! What grinding setup do you use for making something like that...?

 

[cotedupy]

Funnily enough I'm also doing some work on a knife I made myself from 1084. Unfortunately my skill levels are considerably below the above, so it's needed a fair bit of thinning.

The others I didn't make, and are for woodworking; a small sloyd knife, and perhaps the one tool I use most - a meuchi spike. Which is designed for nailing the head of your eel to a board, so that it doesn't thrash about too much as you skin and fillet it alive. I use it a little more prosaically for digging out knots and faults in wood.

Stones; Turkish, dunno but it's silly hard and fine, Medium-ish India, Shapton Pro 12k.