Closing the Gap: Off slurry; Onto Water

[jonnyangel]

Number 32 arrived early Tuesday morning and I have given my hand at some of the Dilucot Method...And I am missing something. First time around I didn't do enough stroke toward the end and then I had trouble with the slurry drying out cause Im not quick enough with my extra strokes. Then, I don't know how to close the gap in keenness between the slurry and the water. HELP!

 

[Smythe]

Some folks have a bowl of water near by when honing and dip the fingers in the water and drip on the slurry to dilute or to keep the slurry "fluid". some folks use a spray bottle and mist the slurry to dilute.

You could also try honing near a source of water such as the kitchen sink with the tap dripping (warning!!!.... watch out for the faucet.. it is too easy to ding the edge on the tap).

Closing the gap is all about controlling the dilution, with the slurry milky it will cut fast and quickly flatten the bevel, however, as the edge gets sharper the slurry will also wear away the edge because at that point there is too much "grit" in the slurry, so you must slowly dilute the slurry, this will reduce the cutting power but the edge will continue to become sharper until you have mostly water and very few grits. At that point only the surface of the hone is cutting the bevel to refine the edge.

 

[tat2Ralfy]

Thats good advice :thumbup:
Also remember that the Dilocut is a hard method to master, and the edges are no better than the best Unicot edge, so if all else fails, add a layer of tape, do 25 laps on a light slurry, rinse everything and finish with 50 on water, a failed Dilocut will return the best Unicot result.

There is another way to try Dilocut, I was about to start experimenting with something very similar, and Sir Bart posted this:http://www.coticule.be/the-cafeteria/topic/425.html

Give it a go, and remember it can take months of honing practice before the Dilocut is mastered, I have been at it for coming up to a year now, and still cant be sure of success everytime.