Thread: My new hone . . .

Okay, so I wanted a wicked good edge on my razor. Did I whip out a hone and work on a perfect stroke developed from years of honing practice? Nahhh, screw that, I cheated. Reviewing La Pogonotomia III, The Strop, I found this little gem:

“Good leather is calf, buffalo, or beaver. After gluing it on the wood, it is dressed with pumace (dry). Any substance put on the leather should be absolutely free of grains which might damage the edge. Many substances are used in powder form: stone, pencil, red chalk, hone, pumace, terracotta, pottery”.


Sure enough, I took a piece of paper, folded it over twice, rubbed a pencil all over the paper is several “coats”, then rubbed the pencil graphite infused paper all over my strop and stropped my razor up to a hyper-wicked edge. Worked like nobody’s business. Sharpest edge I’ve seen in years. Easy peasy! Wiped it all off after I completed about 40 laps . . . now we’ll see how well my strop lasts! J

If I’d known how easy this technique was I would of posted about it years ago. Darn the luck! A 100K grit hone for 12 cents?

Hmm...that is indeed very interesting!! I have read (don't know where know to be honest) that the graphite in pencil lead does have an a very fine abrasive quality. I'd be interested in trying that method on my linen strop, as I wonder how it would compare to the dovo white paste, which is chalk-based I believe. Be interesting if it would suitable for everyday use on the linen also....

I want to experiment now......

I tested this with one of those big solid graphite art pencil awhile back but didn't like it, which surprised me since I do like the Dovo black paste which is supposedly graphite. I don't know if the art pencil was pure graphite or not though, maybe there was something else in there as a binder...

I used a standard #2 Pencil. I tried on linen and it seemed to have no effect.

For full disclosure I should mention that this is a description of the correct way to treat an ordinary strop, not some special way to create a new hone.

In case anyone is interested here is the link to the page:

archives, la pogonotomia III

Sounds great!
Graphite is a mix that includes clay.
Depending on the hardness of the pencil its more or less.
Should be interesting to find out which ones work best.
(And what type of clay it is, hehehe)

That is really interesting, Thanks for the post. When I tried graphite I used powdered graphite on denim. It made a good edge but was very slow. I will try your method.



Charlie

Seems like this would work well with newspaper. You would use it the same way right?

......Neat!

Interesting.

As graphite has a hardness of only 1,5-2 HMohs, I rather think it's the clay in the pencil. To ensure an even flowing regular line, this needs to be very fine and very regular in grit - just what we like in hones and slurries.

To test this, we can make use of pencil grading: this ranges from 9B very soft to 9H very hard (B for Blei or Blackness and H for Hart or Hardness). If eg 2B pencils give better results than 2H pencils, it must be the graphite. Note that one of the important quality differences between brands consists in the clay used, so make sure you compare different grades of the same brand.

If graphite unexpectedly does turn out to be the abrasive, we can all go looking for good value lock graphite. This is nearly pure graphite powder used for lubricating locks. It can be had as (solution free) sprays or powder tins.

I love these kinds of methods involving repurposed materials. Thanks for the tip!

Incidentally, I've had great results stropping on newspaper before, and I've often wondered if it's possible to put newspaper ink on a more durable material (balsa, linen, etc.) and get the same results. Anybody ever tried it?