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+-- Thread: Honing techniques? (/showthread.php?tid=7331772)
Honing techniques? - JSpill - 07-17-2017
I hone freehand using a bare leather strop. I am curious to find out how other folks prefer to hone chisels and plane blades.
RE: Honing techniques? - Rob Young - 07-17-2017
(07-17-2017, 02:39 PM)JSpill Wrote: I hone freehand using a bare leather strop. I am curious to find out how other folks prefer to hone chisels and plane blades.
At home, I have a power strop (the leather wheel side of a Schleppach/Grizzly slow speed grinder). If I'm at the KCWG shop or otherwise not at home with my chisels, I use a horse-butt leather strop. Happen to prefer that one smooth side out.
In both cases I've been using Autosol as my honing compound for a while now. Works very well.
If leather strop isn't at hand but I can put my hands on some MDF, that works as a strop even without compound. A bit slower, but it does work.
RE: Honing techniques? - Tynyyn - 07-17-2017
I glued a three inch wide hunk of leather to a oak board and then used the green stick buffing compound to load the leather. Lay the board down and then strop the blade about 25 times until the edge is mirror like. Works very well.
If you use a non-backed strop, be mindful of having the strop cup in the middle while you are dragging the blade through the stroke. Eventually you will end up with a curved blade.
RE: Honing techniques? - YSU65 - 07-17-2017
(07-17-2017, 05:11 PM)Dayle1960 Wrote: I glued a three inch wide hunk of leather to a oak board and then used the green stick buffing compound to load the leather. Lay the board down and then strop the blade about 25 times until the edge is mirror like. Works very well.
If you use a non-backed strop, be mindful of having the strop cup in the middle while you are dragging the blade through the stroke. Eventually you will end up with a curved blade.
I do the same... +1
RE: Honing techniques? - Derek Cohen - 07-17-2017
Pyramid ...
Regards from Perth
Derek
RE: Honing techniques? - Timberwolf - 07-17-2017
(07-17-2017, 02:39 PM)JSpill Wrote: I hone freehand using a bare leather strop. I am curious to find out how other folks prefer to hone chisels and plane blades...........................
I hone on several stones...depending on the mood, a fine India, followed by a Queer Creek and lastly a Black hard Arkansas...but I strop with either a high speed 4" leather wheel, or a slow-speed belt grinder with a leather belt, but I can also do a great job on a muslin buff...And of the stropping methods can round the edges off quickly if you have not used them enough to gain the experience and finesse. They require a special "touch"..
RE: Honing techniques? - hbmcc - 07-18-2017
Now, do you push the edge of the blade into the leather? Or, pull it away from the leather? And, is it rough side up, or down?
I have a little hunk of cow back--for tack--that I tried, using one of the finer diamond pastes. It is still on a shelf, nearby. Probably for pocket knives. And, yes, I tried honing edge-first to see what would happen. Leather--this one--is amazingly 'soft' in the face of a sharp edge. It's a bit shorter than when it began life as a strop.
I prefer the same paste on steel. My earlier chip carving always required the assistance of a stone to make the blades cut wood.
After establishing a hollowed primary bevel, anyone can freehand a secondary. Without an electron microscope, who's going to prove an angle on a flat of less than 1/100th inch? Just my cynical view.
RE: Honing techniques? - Bruce Haugen - 07-18-2017
(07-17-2017, 07:01 PM)Derek Cohen Wrote: Pyramid ...
Regards from Perth
Derek
Does the pyramid have to be crystal, or do other substances work?
RE: Honing techniques? - Tynyyn - 07-18-2017
hbmcc, the rough side goes down. Smooth side up and is used to hone. If you are right handed, place the strop in front of you and strop from left to right. You will want to initially place the bevel of the blade on the strop so the bevel is parallel to the strop. Then press down firmly on the blade while pulling the blade towards the right, if you are right handed.
Generally I keep both of my hands on top of the blade so I can apply even pressure to the front and rear of the blade. Then take quick strokes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8tt-VjwqI
Paul Sellers has a good video which shows his technique. A lot of folks on this site use it.
RE: Honing techniques? - Derek Cohen - 07-19-2017
(07-18-2017, 07:10 PM)Bruce Haugen Wrote: Does the pyramid have to be crystal, or do other substances work?
Kryptonite works best.
Regards from Perth
Derek