Thread: Honing razor with wide bevel..

Try diluting slower, this may help you. When I tried this method my coticule needed a very slow transition from slurry to water to make the edge keener, some can transits faster to water and be keener and more finished. Yours may be like mine and need more strokes and less drops of water in a longer period.

Originally Posted by Dups

Not much. Maybe a little, but not significantly more. I dulled the razor on the bottom of a glass and went to town on the coticule with slurry until the razor was shaving arm hair all across the blade. The next step is where is sort of went down hill. I don't know if I'm doing too many or not enough passes with the diluted slurry.

Just use water and make 200 passes if this wont satisfies you then go head send it out. gl

Complicated unknown variables like diluting watered slurry and such are troublesome for new guys. That's why I always recommend learning on the norton 4/8k waterstone, you just hone on it, flip it and hone on it. As long as its wet you're okay and you learn more about edges than slurry consistency.

Since you like the idea of using your coticule for it all though, by all means try out what I suggested and see what happens.

Success! Got the razor to pop hair!

awesome good to hear!

You may need to add more sharpness to the edge to get a good shave, I would finish on water and test.

Now get it to shave!

A razor with a wide bevel likes to stay on the hone for a very long time!
There really is no short cut other then sheer persistence. It will get sharp ...just at a much slower rate. Keep at it!

Originally Posted by Utopian

I'm sorry, I'm not criticizing the method, but I have never understood the point in pre-dulling the razor. I suppose I might if I didn't use a microscope to assess my bevel progression.

Regardless, you're going to have to assess whether or not you've got the bevel set. That's the hallmark, critical, make it or break it, here we go decision point. Aside from geometry, the bevel would also widen if you are using so much pressure that you're flexing the blade. If the bevel is set, you need to lighten up on the pressure and move on up the progression, even if that progression is just along one of the coticule paths. If the bevel is not set, then you might want to put on a layer of tape or two to finish it.

The rationale, as I understand it, is to use it as a tool to help you know when the bevel is set. If someone is honing a razor that has a micro-bevel, and they aren't using the same brand/thickness/number of layers of tape, or if there is any truth to the rounding bevel theory from pasted stropping, once the razor shaves arm hair after being pre-dulled on glass, you can be sure that the bevel is set. Otherwise, they could potentially get false-positives from their testing.

On razors in good shape, it really doesn't take long to get it back to shaving arm hair again, but on razors that I've honed previously, I don't ever do that.

But, as you mentioned, it's mostly beneficial to those who don't use microscopes for checking their bevels.

So how did the shave go? We're eager to hear about how your progress is going!

The shave was very nice. Sharp and smooth!