What did you hone today?

[Matt O]

I haven’t honed anything for awhile, and so I spent some time this evening with these old things.

Final slurry was of a rare divinity!

I finished under a light stream of water at the sink, and it didn’t take long at all to achieve the stiction I was hoping for on this beauty!

I do love a JNAT that puts a crisp mirror on the bevel near the edge…and on the hone wear!

HHT root in…root out…irrelevant!

 

[Empire straights]

SRD gold bug on a les lat that I flattened the hybrid side again and conditioned both. Much sharper today, going to try oil on it tomorrow, and then I'll probably go back to a super sharp razor.

 

[Empire straights]

Finally had time to lap my llyn idwal, it had a 1 mm belly but apparently my glass is now concave so I had to get the diamond plates out. Decided to run a kitchen knife and pocket knife over it to help condition the surface and they needed to be touched up. With any kind of pressure the stone is fast, with little it's fine. I don't know how a razor will do on it but I'd imagine ok, especially wedges. The picture of the edge isn't great but it's uniform with a very hazy mirror look to it.

 

[mattps1]

I've converted a few edges over to Coticule edges now, previously either factory edges being maintained on diamond pasted leather paddle strops, or edges I've adjusted on Naniwa 8k/12k. I'm still learning what i'm doing, but I shaved with 2 of 4 of these this morning, and I'm really impressed.

 

[Titleist]

I've converted a few edges over to Coticule edges now, previously either factory edges being maintained on diamond pasted leather paddle strops, or edges I've adjusted on Naniwa 8k/12k. I'm still learning what i'm doing, but I shaved with 2 of 4 of these this morning, and I'm really impressed.

Beautiful collection! Congratulations on achieving those edges.

 

[Empire straights]

I've converted a few edges over to Coticule edges now, previously either factory edges being maintained on diamond pasted leather paddle strops, or edges I've adjusted on Naniwa 8k/12k. I'm still learning what i'm doing, but I shaved with 2 of 4 of these this morning, and I'm really impressed.

If you can get a good coticule edge, almost as keen as a thuri will do, it is something very unique and enjoyable. They can do amazing things on knives and axes too.

 

[2bit_collie]

I’ve been struggling with honing recently. A George Korn “Magnetic” had been honed, partly or completely 3 times without a good shave, though things have gotten better with each passing attempt. Various issues, but a scan with my 50X USB scope indicated that there were still some remnants of corrosion on the edge of an otherwise mostly clean blade. A little extra work with the 2k took care of most of that and the 5k cleaned up the edge completely. Then it was easy to take it the rest of the way - Naniwa Snow White 8k, my unknown green slate, and a black Ark.

At the same time I did an initial hone on a recently acquired Theo Kochs. The Kochs was treetopping as is, but the same scope showed some tiny chips near the toe, so it got the same treatment as the Korn, with less time on the 2k.

Followed it up by 20 laps on linen and 50 laps on leather. The Kochs tore through my arm hair - the Korn clipped a few hairs, not as impressively. I’ll try the Kochs tomorrow and the Korn the day after - it may need to visit the diamond pasted balsa.

 

[Yg420]

Honed an Iwasaki 80 1/4 on a thin asano stamped koma.

 

[Empire straights]

Honed a couple more knives and a razor. I didn't take s picture of the razor but it was a gold bug on a les lat. Then I honed these knives on a couple coticules and the Charnley on the bottom. After went to the upper mystery stone with Tam slurry. I decided to pull out my green Vermont slate since I've really barely used it and put knife to it that was polished to see how it effects the edge. Didn't seem to change the polish too much, little hazier and the edge still feels like it's got some teeth, which is very unusual of the slates I've used. I did have a little slurry on it. I've got to start digging through my little used stones and give them some work.

 

[cotedupy]

Honed an Iwasaki 80 1/4 on a thin asano stamped koma.View attachment 1463508

So a koma benchstone is plenty fine enough to finish a razor then?

I'd love a full size mikawa nagura one day (though I'd probably save for polishing I think).

 

[cotedupy]

I don't often post work stuff here, but here's one I made for someone on KKF yesterday. Classic 2 piece from Olive wood and buffalo horn on an Ishizuchi 210mm Kiritsuke Gyuto in Aogami 2.

Gonna go on an SG500 and Washita later. This pairing is something of a dream team for me, a huge amount of the sharpening I do is on them.

 

[Legion]

I don't often post work stuff here, but here's one I made for someone on KKF yesterday. Classic 2 piece from Olive wood and buffalo horn on an Ishizuchi 210mm Kiritsuke Gyuto in Aogami 2.

View attachment 1463536

View attachment 1463535

View attachment 1463534


Gonna go on an SG500 and Washita later. This pairing is something of a dream team for me, a huge amount of the sharpening I do is on them.

View attachment 1463533

So, do you do the bulk of the sharpening on the SG500, then smooth the edge a bit on the washita, or....?

Lovely handle, BTW.

 

[cotedupy]

Ta!

So as with many, probably most, ‘Tosa style’ knives the finish on the main bevel (shinogi line down to the core steel) is sandblasted. I’ll use the SG500 to remove that and hopefully even out any low spots in the grind, which are invisible atm but exist on almost every knife, even from the poshest of knifemakers. From there the actual edge sharpening work will all be done on the Washita.

I could do the whole thing on the Washita; that one is very almost as fast as the SG500, but the latter leaves a nicer finish on jigane if you want to do a polishing progression after.

I don’t do this on every knife I send out for someone, but I know this person will want to do kasumi stuff on it, so I might as well get it started. Depending on the low spots this can take quite a bit of time, so I might switch down to a King 300 if needs be.

 

[Wid]

A touch up on a Puma 14 with a Black Shadow stone. Tried it with a slurry then diluted it down to plain water. The edge seems very nice, passed HHT easy.

 

[Empire straights]

Ta!

So as with many, probably most, ‘Tosa style’ knives the finish on the main bevel (shinogi line down to the core steel) is sandblasted. I’ll use the SG500 to remove that and hopefully even out any low spots in the grind, which are invisible atm but exist on almost every knife, even from the poshest of knifemakers. From there the actual edge sharpening work will all be done on the Washita.

I could do the whole thing on the Washita; that one is very almost as fast as the SG500, but the latter leaves a nicer finish on jigane if you want to do a polishing progression after.

I don’t do this on every knife I send out for someone, but I know this person will want to do kasumi stuff on it, so I might as well get it started. Depending on the low spots this can take quite a bit of time, so I might switch down to a King 300 if needs be.

I wish I knew what it was that makes those washitas with the rust colored spots different. Every one I have seems to be faster and finer than the rest in general save one very old, irregularly cut one. It'll easily out do my smith's white hard arkansas from 70s-80s, and I shaved off that stone for a long time. It'll get close to an old hard ark.

 

[thp001]

Took the MK.31 for its first shave. Edge was good but not quite there for me, I did a quick HHT beforehand, was more towards violin on most of the blade. Had a bit of resistance ATG during the shave also. Thought I’d hit the stones, gave it 50 light laps on the Translucent Ark; used with oil, much better response now from the HHT and hope to see and improvement on the next shave.

 

[Yg420]

So a koma benchstone is plenty fine enough to finish a razor then?

I'd love a full size mikawa nagura one day (though I'd probably save for polishing I think).

It gave a nice shave, but you can tell it can be keener. Still want to play with it. Ive been experimenting with finishing on different naguras lately. Its possible to get a good shave, cant say its better than a proper finishing stone though.

 

[Empire straights]

Honed an Iwasaki 80 1/4 on a thin asano stamped koma.View attachment 1463508

That stone is beautiful.

 

[Empire straights]

Took the MK.31 for its first shave. Edge was good but not quite there for me, I did a quick HHT beforehand, was more towards violin on most of the blade. Had a bit of resistance ATG during the shave also. Thought I’d hit the stones, gave it 50 light laps on the Translucent Ark; used with oil, much better response now from the HHT and hope to see and improvement on the next shave.

View attachment 1463916

I love those arks that have pink/ purple/red/rust color in them. From New to ancient, washita through translucent, it seems every one I've had cuts finer and faster than it's average counterparts. Maybe I've just had weird luck.

 

[Matt O]

My Zulu Grey Silkvein called to me, and since I have my FGU ready to go…I answered the call just fooling around with the Shavesmith FOR BARBERS USE that I had written off due to the last little bit of the heel always having a burr. This razor originally came to me from a guy that used tape, and tried to put a micro-bevel on it…I honed it without tape…thought I fixed it (still early on and didn’t know what I was really doing)…discovered the annoying burr…relegated it to just honing when I wanted to hone something. So it’s been a journey!

At any rate, the Silkvein with muddy slurry creates an interesting stiction that is there but you can push through without applying ridiculous pressure without the stone grabbing it…and it doesn’t skip. The feeling is a velvety stiction. It was a nice sensation, and just because I was curious to see what it was doing to the edge I looked under the loupe. I was extremely surprised to see that the burr had all but gone away! So I killed the edge on a glass bottle, and actually tried to get a nice edge, and the burr did go away! I couldn’t have been more surprised if I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet!

At any rate, I thought…why stop at the Silkvein…why not finish with the actual Zulu Grey…so that was what I did…slurry diluted down to stiction that is what we all think of where the edge stops on the stone, and then finished at the sink under water, which was all but instantaneous.

The edge looks great, and the HHT was great!

I am going to shave test this beast next to see what I have in this monster. It is a shade under 1 and 1/8 inch wide, and a near wedge.

Could this thing actually get into the rotation, and see some use?!? I hope so, because it is a neat razor that a craftsman poured his soul into when he forged it!