Hey all you honemeisters, I would like to challenge you to hone a pocket knife until it can be shaved with (and then of course, you have to shave with it). This idea came to me when I was sharpening my pocket knife yesterday and i decided to finish it on a ceramic stone that is intended to be a polishing stone for sharpening skis. The ceramic stone put a mirror finish on the blade and so I decided to try stropping the knife on a leather belt (I haven't made the switch to straights yet) and then seeing if it could cut hair. I found that if I put it on a harsh angle, it would shave my arm hair, but it was as useless as expected on my face. So to get back to the challenge, this got me thinking about if someone with experience, and a real set of hones instead of a $5 whetstone might be able to get a shaveable edge from a pocket knife.
A Challenge
- Thread starter Shmu
- Start date
I see no one has introduced you to Honed..
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My congrats to you. I don't know if I'd have the time or the patience to hone a knife to that degree, but I tip my hat to you for doing so.
I must say I'm not surprised by the lack of responses to your challenge. Perhaps if you made it a smidge more manly one of the meisters might respond, just a friendly suggestion. Maybe, they should do this daring feat blindfolded or in some blacked cave in the wild surrounded by hostiles, again just a thought.
RED
RED
been done
What's a honemeister? I thought they were merely a myth in these parts.
I have this thing and have often thought of "honing" it up for a shave ...
But I love the thing and to get it "shave ready," I would need to grind the sholder not only down but up. Then I would need to change the whole edge angle, bla, bla, bla.
It would make a great razor now that i think about it! Arg! A kind of Japanese/German highbred lol!
But I love the thing and to get it "shave ready," I would need to grind the sholder not only down but up. Then I would need to change the whole edge angle, bla, bla, bla.
It would make a great razor now that i think about it! Arg! A kind of Japanese/German highbred lol!
- Thread starter
- #12
So I spent some time on the internet and I discovered that norton stones are really expensive... is there a cheaper alternative for a decent hone? I really want to make my pocket knife into a usable straight razor 
You are going to be hard pressed to get anything "worth while" under the $80 USd or so that the Norton will set you back but, there is this 3M stuff that Slash talks about on this thread - http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/267923-Honing-concept-question
It might be worth a shot. I know I am thinking about it but then I have a coti and I am not sure it'll be worth it for me.
It might be worth a shot. I know I am thinking about it but then I have a coti and I am not sure it'll be worth it for me.
Check out the thread "Making a hone" in the honing sub-forum. Instead of a Norton 4K/8K, I am using a piece of slate I got at Home Depot. It leaves about a 6K edge (not quite shaving sharp), and set me back all of $1.49. The slate (once properly prepared) should get the hairs on your arm to part ways with no problems. My recent hone acquisitions includes a piece of slate that set me back $1 (and I am hoping it will get things to shaving sharp). I also have a neat hone/strop that I got a while back, it was inexpensive and leaves a nice enough finish for shaving. I had to watch for a LONG time to find one that I could afford, but that's part of the fun. Finishing on a Chromium Oxide pasted balsa strop is a great way to add some keenness to a blade, and is very cost effective. There are many other cost effective methods, you just have to do some reading.
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