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What did you hone today?

Eskultuna Frameback, Rosewood scales.
1k Chosera, Naniwa Gouken Hayabusa 4k, Coe Whetstones Arkansas Grey.
Test shave Manyana, but I can't even feel the cut during HHT.
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A pair of Sheffield "Chinese" near wedge blades from the 1850's.
A few freehand rolling Xs soon got these smiling swaybacks in shape - after lots of work with kamisori these unimetallic symmetrical blades are refreshingly simple!
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Did you ever get into coticules ? Oh, and how are the kamisori for head shaving?
 
Did you ever get into coticules ? Oh, and how are the kamisori for head shaving?
Aha! I’d forgotten all about those Chinese Razors...
... yes I’ve got a very nice vintage hybrid Coticule which is both a lot of fun and extremely effective.

And I’m settling into a regime of using straights to shave my face and the Gillette Guard to shave my head.
When I use a safety razor I’ll shave both my face and head with it.

But straights for the face and Gillette Guard for the head really is the best of both worlds in terms of results.
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
What is the blue & red paste like?

I've just used it once, today, link, so don't think I know much yet. The red is a sharpening paste to be used after CrOx, and is finer than CrOx. The black (in a blue wrapper) is a polishing paste used after the red.

Both are like a soft square crayon. Kind of messy, but easy to apply. I applied them to two smallish leather strops. I may have used more of the product than some guys use, but I didn't use all that much. I kinda rubbed the stuff around on the leather, with my fingers, to make sure it was spread widely. It was all very easy to do.

I believe they added sharpness without any loss of comfort. There might have been an increase in comfort! The edge seemed very good to me. I'm only about fifty something shaves into the SR and not trying to act like I know anything other than what I've read and what my limited experience tells me, but I am glad to have these two pastes in my kit.

The box is tiny and the two crayons are about half as big.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
Looks like it got the job done. What is the coarse stone like compared to a Washita?

It did indeed, although I just now did a few more passes on the Bethesda black side to even the edge a little bit more. The coarse stone is somewhat sandy feeling and water absorptive. Nothing like a Washita; it reminds me of a soft Turkish stone found near the Black Sea (i.e., not a Cretan "Turkey" stone) that I received from a eBay contact based in Istanbul 2-3 years back, or an old Pike "Lake Superior" sandstone (which differs from a Queer Creek in my opinion in that the "Lake Superior" stone is a little more aggressive). My sense is that the Mountain View coarse stone probably leaves a nice toothy edge for slicing tomatoes. I ordered a set of unfinished 6" x 2" medium, fine, and polishing stones from Mr. Coe recently, and he threw in the combo stone as a freebee. Most kind of him. The Turkish stone, which is back in France, I've always used with olive oil. I'm going to stay with water with this one for the time being as it is quite absorptive. Feel on the Bethesda black afterwards is a most delicious, velvet suction with water. The water on the Bethesda black is saliva-like, making me think that a mild amount of auto-slurrying might be going on there.
 
That’s neat. Is it used for cutting or digging or both?
A scythe sort of variation on a hoe, for cutting low young weeds off by the roots mostly. It’s easy to skim it along just under the surface, in and amongst garden plantings. You can get right up to a plant without hurting it’s roots, and with precision cull out weeds and grass roots. It makes for a great weeder/cultivator/aerator, or you can use it to harvest greens, herbs, and such, trim or edge encroaching grass out of planting beds, or digging and transplanting seedlings.
 

David

B&B’s Champion Corn Shucker
It did indeed, although I just now did a few more passes on the Bethesda black side to even the edge a little bit more. The coarse stone is somewhat sandy feeling and water absorptive. Nothing like a Washita; it reminds me of a soft Turkish stone found near the Black Sea (i.e., not a Cretan "Turkey" stone) that I received from a eBay contact based in Istanbul 2-3 years back, or an old Pike "Lake Superior" sandstone (which differs from a Queer Creek in my opinion in that the "Lake Superior" stone is a little more aggressive). My sense is that the Mountain View coarse stone probably leaves a nice toothy edge for slicing tomatoes. I ordered a set of unfinished 6" x 2" medium, fine, and polishing stones from Mr. Coe recently, and he threw in the combo stone as a freebee. Most kind of him. The Turkish stone, which is back in France, I've always used with olive oil. I'm going to stay with water with this one for the time being as it is quite absorptive. Feel on the Bethesda black afterwards is a most delicious, velvet suction with water. The water on the Bethesda black is saliva-like, making me think that a mild amount of auto-slurrying might be going on there.
Thanks, Alan. They sound like interesting stones.
 
You're welcome David. And if I'm not mistaken, being found in NE Arkansas (as opposed to Arkansas stones proper, which come from western Ark.) they're not all that far from your neck of the woods.
I would love to try these new stones, they look really interesting to me. Are they novaculite?

As a big fan of Arks and novaculite - no mean feat in Europe, though the Germans seem to love 'em, and we have Charns in Britain - it's an interesting thing to me, what is and isn't an "Arkansas" (or "Washita). That in itself is a bit of a story to unravel, then beyond that: The many names used within different grading systems, now and in the past; Even though there is a fairly well recognised SG rating for each "grade", modern usage puts the two / three 'top' grades all within the same SG bracket (all of it is at least more meaningful than just place names ); Then, throw in confusion over quarry names vs stone names ("Dunston"); Add a sprinkle of Canadian novaculites...

I've been meaning to do a table of Arks myself, to cut down on confusion for newcomers - a sortof extended "Dan's 101" table - illustrating where the top 3-4 suppliers / vendors put their Arks in relation to one another, how they name them differently, differentiate differently, etc. I feel sortof inhibited to make such a thing. I'm a relative newcomer, and not American.
 
I would love to try these new stones, they look really interesting to me. Are they novaculite?

As a big fan of Arks and novaculite - no mean feat in Europe, though the Germans seem to love 'em, and we have Charns in Britain - it's an interesting thing to me, what is and isn't an "Arkansas" (or "Washita). That in itself is a bit of a story to unravel, then beyond that: The many names used within different grading systems, now and in the past; Even though there is a fairly well recognised SG rating for each "grade", modern usage puts the two / three 'top' grades all within the same SG bracket (all of it is at least more meaningful than just place names ); Then, throw in confusion over quarry names vs stone names ("Dunston"); Add a sprinkle of Canadian novaculites...

I've been meaning to do a table of Arks myself, to cut down on confusion for newcomers - a sortof extended "Dan's 101" table - illustrating where the top 3-4 suppliers / vendors put their Arks in relation to one another, how they name them differently, differentiate differently, etc. I feel sortof inhibited to make such a thing. I'm a relative newcomer, and not American.

No, these are not novaculite Arkansas stones. They are located in northeastern Arkansas and are softer. Coe's calling them Arkansas is confusing as they are not the traditional "Arkansas stones" as referred.

Here's what he wrote me regarding the "Arkansas Grey," saying that the base was limestone:

Bethesda Black Medium and the Dota Creek Fine are hard stones, whereas; the Arkansas Grey is a soft stone requiring maintenance after every 5 uses. Folks have a hard time accepting that a soft stone can also be a high grit level performing stone, BUT the secret is its secret ingredient: Silica grains embedded in the surrounding limestone. The silica grits are buffered by the surrounding soft grey colored limestone. Basically a splash water and go , or mineral oil and go as Jarrod does.

Lapping them after every five uses speaks for itself as to a difference, I should think.

From what I can tell, Hall's Dunston Arkansas is similar to a Dan's black hard, whereas the Natural Whetstones' black translucent Arkansas is similar to a Norton black Arkansas of old. Coe's line is a different animal...
 
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12-29-18:

My wife has this cheap pair of "Kleencut" scissors that she uses for sewing reparations. They had grown dull with use, and today, she asked me if I could do something about it. Looking at the blades, they were a little worn, with gummy surfaces in places; so after cleaning them with a sponge and warm water, I gave them a mild rub-down with the coticule bout as pictured, not really knowing what to do otherwise. Holding an opened, exposed blade with my off-hand, I did some repeated diagonal passes on the bevel with the stone towards the flat side, so as to create a burr on the flat side. When this had been achieved, I then rubbed the stone on the flat side until the burr was gone. Then a few more strokes on the bevel followed by the flat side like this to even out some remaining patchy areas, followed by the same with the other blade. A noticeable amount of swarf was generated on the stone throughout the process. After rinsing and wiping off the blades, I gave the scissors back to my wife, who upon cutting the same piece of fabric she had been having trouble cutting before, announced that things were now much improved. Guess I lucked out with a less-is-more approach...

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Old reliable Kropp (Sheffield only) beginning to pull a little too much. I'm on a family holiday in Norway, and brought no stones or pastes! The local hipster barber might let me use his coticule (or whatever) for 10 minutes, but it's closed for the Jul duration. What to do? Hunting through Lady Fatboy's grandfather's tool kit, on an unrelated DIY matter, I came across two 3 x 1" Arks - a (rather hard) soft, and (surprisingly) a white/yellow translucent.
Small, but perfectly formed. A little time and a little dish soap yielded a pretty good edge ATC, and subsequently a high end DFS.
What is even more surprising; In a decade of coming here I have only just found them.
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