What did you hone today?

[cotedupy]

Finally got round to sorting out a couple of my own knives this weekend. This was mostly thinning and bevel work done on a King 300 and SG500, before going onto finishers.

Mazaki Shiro 2 150mm Petty & Cerax 1500. Knife doesn't have a pronounced 2e bevel, that's just light reflections of final stone work.

This is a 185mm double bevel Kiritsuke I made myself from 1084 with a deliberate RH bias, finished on a very fine and quite soft Aiiwatani. Handle's pretty swish too I think (though you don't want to know how difficult it was to do!)

 

[Matt O]

Well I am posting what I will be honing tomorrow. Got this razor as "shave ready, shave tested". It was shipped oiled. Tugged like crazy so I put it aside and this is what I saw after I finished shaving with a different razor.

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By the way the seller forgot to mention this:

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Boooooo…that’s awful!

 

[Matt O]

 

[mattps1]

A newish TI Le Grelot, the first time I've put it to stone. The edge was never great from the factory on this one.
3K, 8K, 12K Naniwas did the job nicely. It gave a very smooth and sharp shave this morning!

 

[cotedupy]

Noticed earlier that an old and rusty Sheffield gouge chisel I found was the same producer (Ward and Payne) as another one I'd cleaned up a bit recently, so now I have a rather natty matching pair .

Feck all idea about how to go about sharpening though. Got a Norton Washita, Soft Ark Slip, and a couple of things I found in my box of random job lot stuff. Wish me luck...

 

[MasterOfPups]

Its fun to switch things up from time to time.
I found this poor WB at a flea market with crushed and warped scales and a grind that must have been done by someone who had too much grog at lunch.
Gave it a new set of scales and decided to pull out some stones that seldom get used - the grunt work was with a Naniwa 400 due to the wavy edge, then removed the grind marks with a bench sized nagura stone that left a nice surface to build on. The finish was done with a hard Okudo suita that I had not gotten around to testing yet. I originally picked this suita up with the idea of cutting tomos from it, and after working with it, it does seem to be capable - it produced a very comfortable edge that passed HHT and took off a three day beard in two passes, with no sting whatsoever from the witch hazel. It is an odd shape for a razor finisher, but is taylor made for doing x strokes on a wavy blade.
I may still cut a tomo or two off one end and test it on some other stones, but will probably leave the rest of it intact for problem blades like this one.

 

[cotedupy]

I used this stone in earnest today for the first time. The HHT was as perfect and silent as I’ve seen off any stone on any razor, and the shave was excellent. One for those who like it seriously sharp and close.

 

[Tomo]

I cleaned up a pair of new Bengalls and set the bevels. The ugly one had a small chip in the edge. It took a while to get it out. As soon as one chip was gone a new one would appear. There was a bit of pitting near the edge. As the little pit holes worked their way to the edge they transformed into little chips. I seem to be back into the good steel now. She will never be a looker but I’m optimistic that they will both shave.

 

[Possum092]

Tomorrow’s likely shaver and this past Sunday’s shaver.

 

[Empire straights]

Tomorrow’s likely shaver and this past Sunday’s shaver. View attachment 1450556View attachment 1450557View attachment 1450558

What'd you hone it on? That looks like a coticule. I've got a coticule axe stone that's an amazing stone that I used on razors and knives very frequently. Both the coticule and bbw are very, very fast. They're also very fine and actually leave a little tooth(black ark, not washita) and was my favorite coticule to shave off of got a while, though I had a couple big ones that are pretty good(especially then). One much harder and finer so it was a better finisher, but the other muddy and quick so great for knives. This is the axe stone in the picture related. It's amazing rock and I've yet to sharpen an axe, kitchen knife or machete with it. But they're on the list. I have a suspicion that stone like these have a little quartz scattered throughout them the way les lats do. It finishes very much like that layer and even the hybrid side with a light touch and lather. I hope someone can identify the layer. I'd love to have a 100 x 50 mm to match the stone. It's like a cheese grater in its feedback in a buttery kind of way. I can feel it cutting steel like novaculite but it's pretty fine. If carry it around but I don't want to break it before I find it's better half. I'll try to take better pictures tomorrow. It looks like s picked chicken all the way through. My Les lats yellow sides have those same dots. They aren't pink they're almost an off white.

 

[Possum092]

What'd you hone it on? That looks like a coticule. I've got a coticule axe stone that's an amazing stone that I used on razors and knives very frequently. Both the coticule and bbw are very, very fast. They're also very fine and actually leave a little tooth(black ark, not washita) and was my favorite coticule to shave off of got a while, though I had a couple big ones that are pretty good(especially then). One much harder and finer so it was a better finisher, but the other muddy and quick so great for knives. This is the axe stone in the picture related. It's amazing rock and I've yet to sharpen an axe, kitchen knife or machete with it. But they're on the list. I have a suspicion that stone like these have a little quartz scattered throughout them the way les lats do. It finishes very much like that layer and even the hybrid side with a light touch and lather. I hope someone can identify the layer. I'd love to have a 100 x 50 mm to match the stone. It's like a cheese grater in its feedback in a buttery kind of way. I can feel it cutting steel like novaculite but it's pretty fine. If carry it around but I don't want to break it before I find it's better half. I'll try to take better pictures tomorrow. It looks like s picked chicken all the way through. My Les lats yellow sides have those same dots. They aren't pink they're almost an off white.

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I used a combo of natural and synthetic stones tonight. I started with an unknown super fast synthetic, a diamond carbide, a couple soft/medium Arks, and finally a 6K and 10K synthetic water stone.

 

[Empire straights]

I used a combo of natural and synthetic stones tonight. I started with an unknown super fast synthetic, a diamond carbide, a couple soft/medium Arks, and finally a 6K and 10K synthetic water stone.

The edge on that axe is far more impressive to me than the razor, without question. It takes work to get that kind of edge on an axe, especially newer ones. I'm going to either find an old carbon steel axe in good shape out I'll build a forge and forge one. You have to sharpen in between trees but that's your time to rest abs put that perfect edge back on it. It's hard to do with carbines. I need to get a barbers hone to try out on axes and machetes. I got lots of trees to cut and I want my son to learn how to use/maintain a blade well before a chainsaw.

 

[Possum092]

The edge on that axe is far more impressive to me than the razor, without question. It takes work to get that kind of edge on an axe, especially newer ones. I'm going to either find an old carbon steel axe in good shape out I'll build a forge and forge one. You have to sharpen in between trees but that's your time to rest abs put that perfect edge back on it. It's hard to do with carbines. I need to get a barbers hone to try out on axes and machetes. I got lots of trees to cut and I want my son to learn how to use/maintain a blade well before a chainsaw.

I agree SRs are super easy; some tape, ride the spline a few passes on increasingly finer stones, strop and done. A hand forged axe head with slightly imperfect forge geometry is slightly more difficult for achieving a symmetrical edge good enough for shaving.

 

[TexNat]

Had an itch to use the ILR. So, my go to daily driver Le Grelot went to the ILR with mineral oil for a touchup. For me, the ILR produces a better edge with mineral oil than than water and is nicer to use too. I started enjoying the ILR much more after changing to using mineral oil on it. Stropped it on Tony Miller horsehide. Very sharp edge and smooth and comfortable shave.

 

[JaggardJ]

Yanagi time!

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Thanks for putting your arm in there for scale. At first I thought those were the size of paring knives!

 

[cotedupy]

Thanks for putting your arm in there for scale. At first I thought those were the size of paring knives!

Ha! TBF none of them are the longest yanagi tbh. One's about 170mm, 2 are 190 ish, and the larger 2 are about 240 I think. Whereas a 'full size' chef's yanagiba might be 270 or 300mm.

All of them are pretty old knives which I restored and made new handles for, so sizes were probably less standardised back in the day than now. And they will have lost some length over time, and when I restored.

 

[Possum092]

Had an itch to use the ILR. So, my go to daily driver Le Grelot went to the ILR with mineral oil for a touchup. For me, the ILR produces a better edge with mineral oil than than water and is nicer to use too. I started enjoying the ILR much more after changing to using mineral oil on it. Stropped it on Tony Miller horsehide. Very sharp edge and smooth and comfortable shave.

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I’ll second using mineral oil. I really like knife edges finished with mineral oil on a hard Ark or ceramic.

 

[JaggardJ]

Tonight was the first time I got hht straight off the stone! Very happy about improving my honing on a jnat

 

[Matt O]

HHT was RIGHT! Easy Aces for everyone!

 

[TexNat]

Polished my favorite Le Grelot up, so needed to touch up the edge again. ILR with mineral oil.