Thread: Honing Quiz

Every now and then I see questions about magnification, hone grits and scratch patten, so here's a quick quiz. The following images are the bevel of the same razor under the same lighting conditions.

Picture C is what the shave-ready edge looks like (after sropping).


The question is what hones the scratch patterns in A and B correspond to.

To make your life easier I'm including a scale (a picture of a ruler placed exactly where the razor is, so there is no discrepancy during different magnifications)

I'm guessing A is 1K level, B is 4K level.

Are these synthetic stones?

Yes, they're synthetics, so the grit rating is well defined by the manufacturer.

I think this is a trick question . I think the same hone was used , with pressure on the blade , and without pressure .

Originally Posted by dave5225

I think this is a trick question . I think the same hone was used , with pressure on the blade , and without pressure .

Or maybe with a slurry in pic B

Do they both pass the HHT?

King Ice Bear 4k and 6k.

What did I win?

a cinderblock and a piece of cardboard

haha, nah just kidding

ok how about an escher and a brown escher

No, no tricks at all. Same way of honing, just different hones. In fact between A and B I did a number of circles on hone B until the previous striations were gone, and then did the regular x-pattern, so that there is no memory effects between the two photographs.

Anyways, hone A is Naniwa 1000 superstone, and hone B is DMT-E i.e. 1200. So pretty much the same grit level.

If you look at the irregularities at the edge and use the size of the ruler to calculate their size you get about 9 microns. They're certainly smaller if you progress up the grits, but I don't have good pictures, and certainly not good enough to be able to measure them the same way you can on these.

In real life looking through the microscope directly shows a lot more detail than I can capture in the photograph. I can hone a razor just using the microscope and never testing the edge - it's not the scratch pattern, but the irregularities on the edge what I'm looking at.