Thread: Extremely Stupid sharp...

I also have been tossing around the idea of buying that granite surface plate for $30 from Woodcraft. It's been on my mind for months. I just like the idea of having something that wouldn't take up much table space but would be that inexpensive but be that flat.

I have all the 3M honing films you talk about including the .5 chrome and the .3. I've found that unless I use a honing oil on the chromed paper especially, it's pretty much unusable. The blade chatters and stutters across the surface worse than anything else I've experienced. Oil takes care of that, but even with oil "only the weight of the blade IME is pretty much out of the question. Get ready to help that razor along with exerting some backward and possibly downward spine pressure (which I do anyway to the horror of some I'm sure).

The only thing I didn't like about using the oil is that I have waterstones not oil stones. I was careless in not removing every bit of residual oil from my honing table and a bit soaked into one of my Belgian Blues. I'll have to just lap past it down the road in my life since I'm not going to take detergent or oven cleaner to my Belgian Blue.

The reason why I bought the film? Well, I had a crazy idea that the ultimate hone for a warped razor would be to afix the honing film to a 1" wood dowel or PVC pipe and literally hone (a la chef steel style) on a LINE of abrasive absolutely insuring that every bit of the bevel of any warped razor would make contact with what would really be the world's narrowest hone! So far, it hasn't proven good results. Randy Tuttle's theory to this is that there is so much force applied to the edge that it makes for difficult if not practically impossible to hone that way with a touch light enough to provide good results.

Chris L

Originally Posted by Chrisl

The only thing I didn't like about using the oil is that I have waterstones not oil stones. I was careless in not removing every bit of residual oil from my honing table and a bit soaked into one of my Belgian Blues. I'll have to just lap past it down the road in my life since I'm not going to take detergent or oven cleaner to my Belgian Blue.

Detergent will not damage your coticule or blue in any way.
I know people who use water with detergent to wet their belgians.

Originally Posted by Chrisl

I have all the 3M honing films you talk about including the .5 chrome and the .3. I've found that unless I use a honing oil on the chromed paper especially, it's pretty much unusable. The blade chatters and stutters across the surface worse than anything else I've experienced. Oil takes care of that, but even with oil "only the weight of the blade IME is pretty much out of the question. Get ready to help that razor along with exerting some backward and possibly downward spine pressure (which I do anyway to the horror of some I'm sure).

Chris L

The diamond lapping films that I use exhibit none of these characteristics. I started using them wet (water), but I have definitely gotten better results dry. My razors glide along quite effortlessly on all of the grit levels.

I think the diamond lapping films have the abrasive embedded into the film, whereas the abrasive papers have the abrasive adhered on top of the paper. This may have a dramatic effect on how well the blade is able to move across the surface.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

The diamond lapping films that I use exhibit none of these characteristics. I started using them wet (water), but I have definitely gotten better results dry. My razors glide along quite effortlessly on all of the grit levels.

I think the diamond lapping films have the abrasive embedded into the film, whereas the abrasive papers have the abrasive adhered on top of the paper. This may have a dramatic effect on how well the blade is able to move across the surface.

3M abrasive film have the abrasive embedded into the film (resin) as well, making for a longer lived product than traditional sandpapers. However, the .5 micron Chromium Oxide 3M film has a surface so smooth it's similar in nature to the emulsion side of old photographic film. On chromium oxide "pasted" balsa or leather, a razor glides very smoothly across those surfaces. I've found this not to be the case with the 3M chromium film.

I found the coarser grits of 3M film to be just fine for honing and seemed to cut aggressively. Water or oil is advocated for use in conjunction with the films for improving the life of the film but to me has the disadvantage of storage issues.

All of this is fun to experiment with for certain.

Chris L