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Bevels produced by various hones

Tim Zowada Custom razors

This is a quick study Tim Zowada^[1] put together while learning how to hone razors on a semi-production basis. This is not meant to be a definitive study of the honing qualities of various stones. Rather, it is just meant to give a basic idea of what's going on. Please also see Edges produced by various hones.

The text and images were taken from Tim's page^[2]. We thank Tim for allowing us to re-use his material. Make sure to visit his site.

Background

• The stone surfaces, and the razor edges are all at 200x.
• The razor is O1/L6 Damascus at 62.5 HRC.
• The edge is honed at a 15 degree included angle.
• The initial edge was a horizontal, along the edge, scratch pattern developed with a Norton 8000 grit hone.
• Ten strokes were used on each side of the blade.
• Only the weight of the blade was used for pressure.

The idea was to see how quickly the stones would cut, along with the depth and frequency of the scratch pattern. This information is not indicative of the edge, or shaving quality of the razors. It is more a test of the stones' ability to cut and/or polish the bevel.

The Gallery

Razor bevels created by various hones

Norton 8000	Spyderco - Ultra Fine
Translucent Arkansas	Hard Arkansas
Shapton 30k	Shapton 15k
Blue/Green Escher - No Slurry	Blue/Green Escher - With Slurry
Coticule - No Slurry	Coticule - With Slurry
Chinese 12k - No Slurry	Chinese 12k - With Slurry

References

1. ↑ http://www.tzknives.com/, 4509 E. Bear River Road, Boyne Falls, MI 49713, Phone/Fax: 231-348-5416
2. ↑ Zowada Custom Knives http://www.tzknives.com/razoredges.html