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Damn Comfortable Shave

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Friday my shave was pretty good.

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Good edge. Wonderful brush. Great soap.

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The alum for only for my fingertips and a very tiny little nick.

Good shave.

Happy shaves to you,

Jim
 
My Edge On Up instrument was tested today.

Here's a link to the results.

I'll let the post speak for itself, but it was certainly an eye opening learning experience.

Happy shaves,

Jim
Very interesting set of results there Jim.
Your Kukri is in the same ball park as a Polsilver and a used AC Proline. Thats not bad at all.
i would be happy with that.

At least now you have something to measure your edges and hopefully see how it progresses with different honing methods.

Testing is one thing, shaving is something else.
Don't get too hung up on inconclusive results.
At least you didn't put chips into any of your blades.
 
Thank you for sharing your insight. I didn't know that measuring tool existed.

I have a question. Consider that only thing I hone are gardening sheers and kitchen knives. Is 40 significantly sharper than 80, regarding DE blades feel?
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Very interesting set of results there Jim.
Your Kukri is in the same ball park as a Polsilver and a used AC Proline. Thats not bad at all.
i would be happy with that.

At least now you have something to measure your edges and hopefully see how it progresses with different honing methods.

Testing is one thing, shaving is something else.
Don't get too hung up on inconclusive results.
At least you didn't put chips into any of your blades.

Yes. I regard it as a very successful test. Damage control was Number One on my list today side by side with jumping into the water with the instrument.

You're exactly right about the Polsilver SI vs Kukri results. That's two edges I like. However, I know I get a closer, smoother, longer lasting shave with the Polsilver and also a much more comfortable shave with the Kukri.

Thank you for sharing your insight. I didn't know that measuring tool existed.

I have a question. Consider that only thing I hone are gardening sheers and kitchen knives. Is 40 significantly sharper than 80, regarding DE blades feel?

I really can't answer that, but my guess is it might be.

Not very helpful at all, but it's the truth. Sorry.

:001_cool: Thank you Jim.

You're welcome, Cal.

I'm very pleased to know where I am with things and to have an objective measuring system to guide me forward. I really am fine with my Kukri edge; if I never get a better edge I'll be fine. Still, a sharper and still equally comfortable edge would I think improve my shaves.

We'll see as things progress.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Saturday my shave was good.

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Same edge I've been using. Good shave. Good Proraso Pro brush (still getting better).

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Just this stuff so far. Plenty great software all around.

I'm considering taking the Kukri to the pasted strops and then testing its edge again. Not today and maybe not tomorrow tomorrow being Mother's Day and our daughter being home for only about 24 hours.

She just got here and has to be back in her apartment tomorrow evening for work early Monday morning. She's off from college for the summer but has a full time and demanding nanny job. I don't pay her rent over the summer; she does. She says she's figured out that dollars are different now that she's earning her own way more. She worked as a nanny all of last summer too but with a much easier position. She's learning about job choices, too, which is another good thing.

She's also smart enough to make really great grades, and to have picked a major which leads to a decent job right after graduation, and, most importantly, she's smart enough to figure out she'd better come home and see her mom on Mother's Day.

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My wife and I have a lovely daughter and my daughter has a great mom.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
Congratulations Jim! It take a lot of right calls and good choices to raise kids to be that self sufficient, responsible, and caring! It sounds like you and your wife did a great job, and you should be quite proud!

Give the missus a happy mother’s day for me!
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Congratulations Jim! It take a lot of right calls and good choices to raise kids to be that self sufficient, responsible, and caring! It sounds like you and your wife did a great job, and you should be quite proud!

Give the missus a happy mother’s day for me!

Thank you, sir.

We were blessed and got lucky with this child + my wife made many good calls. She had a plan which included the very best of our local schools. Our schools are terrible except for the magnet schools so her plan including doing what was required to gain admission to these very competitive schools and what it took to make sure our daughter did very well in the magnet schools. That led to an excellent college scholarship which allowed us to afford an excellent university. Much went well because of her plan and the effort she put into keeping the ball rolling.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
I wish you chaps wouldn't post messages like that. We have Mother's Day earlier in the year over here in the UK and you just gave me heart failure that I had forgotten to send a card...

Regardless of date Happy Mothers' Day indeed!
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
My Mother's Day shave was good.

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Before shaving I put the blade to the pasted strops (CrOx + Devo Red + Devo Black) and stropped on linen, leather, denim, leather (my usual stropping post and pre shave).

Next up, my Kukri. This is the razor I've shaved with for over a month, off a coticule and then off the Zulu Grey for finishing. Refreshed on the Zulu Grey several shaves back. Stropped yesterday after shaving; results along the edge 60/71/47/72. The blade was stropped on horsehide; results 81/65. I have no idea that I tested the same places before and after the horsehide.

That's yesterday's Edge On Up testing results. I have no idea that the sequence was in any particular order such as toe to heel. Today's results are below and are toe to heel.

Results 50/67/182/59/90.

Objectively, about the same (except for the outlier). What does that outlier mean?

Subjectively, the razor seems sharper today.

Serum.Preshave.GroomingDept.480.Mine.2-26-19.JPG


Nice stuff.

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More nice stuff.

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I have a plan. I'm going to see what I can do today (if I get a chance) or on Wednesday to improve the edge on the Kukri. Now that I have the instrument I should be able to accurately and objectively monitor my progress during the honing process.

I would like to switch razors. That means I need to either find another very sharp razor in my stash of razors, or sharpen to my satisfaction another razor. Then I'll "retire" the daily Kukri, shaving with and maintaining the other razor for a while. Just like with the Kukri, this is not a rigid plan. It's subject to change whenever I feel like changing, but I want to mostly stick with one razor at a time to learn the razor and make sure I can maintain it.

Not that rotations or random/whimsical daily razor selection are options I won't try at some point.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
I wish you chaps wouldn't post messages like that. We have Mother's Day earlier in the year over here in the UK and you just gave me heart failure that I had forgotten to send a card...

Regardless of date Happy Mothers' Day indeed!

Here it's a holiday invented by the card companies to sell their wares, but every mom I know has long bought into it. Which means I have, too. Please don't tell my wife it's supposed to be celebrated twice a year.
 
My Mother's Day shave was good.

View attachment 980119

Before shaving I put the blade to the pasted strops (CrOx + Devo Red + Devo Black) and stropped on linen, leather, denim, leather (my usual stropping post and pre shave).



That's yesterday's Edge On Up testing results. I have no idea that the sequence was in any particular order such as toe to heel. Today's results are below and are toe to heel.

Results 50/67/182/59/90.

Objectively, about the same (except for the outlier). What does that outlier mean?

Subjectively, the razor seems sharper today.

View attachment 980120

Nice stuff.

View attachment 980121

More nice stuff.

proxy.php

I have a plan. I'm going to see what I can do today (if I get a chance) or on Wednesday to improve the edge on the Kukri. Now that I have the instrument I should be able to accurately and objectively monitor my progress during the honing process.

I would like to switch razors. That means I need to either find another very sharp razor in my stash of razors, or sharpen to my satisfaction another razor. Then I'll "retire" the daily Kukri, shaving with and maintaining the other razor for a while. Just like with the Kukri, this is not a rigid plan. It's subject to change whenever I feel like changing, but I want to mostly stick with one razor at a time to learn the razor and make sure I can maintain it.

Not that rotations or random/whimsical daily razor selection are options I won't try at some point.

Happy shaves,

Jim
Jim, I like what you are doing with the edge testing. Combine that with methodical approach to practising honing techniques and I think you will become quite the meister in time.
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Jim, I like what you are doing with the edge testing. Combine that with methodical approach to practising honing techniques and I think you will become quite the meister in time.

Well, today is not the time.
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This has been the worst afternoon of honing and sharpening in the history of honing. Well, at least my history of honing.

Yesterday my Kukri's numbers were these.
  • 60 71 47 72
Today I was trying to improve things. Little did I know.

I'm going to start off with the beginning and the end.

I began with an edge off the pasted strops. I ended up with an edge off the very same pasted strops.

My beginning numbers (off the pasted strops today) are #1 below. My ending numbers (off the pasted strop later in the day) are #2 below. These are all heel to toe.
  1. 50 84 67 182 59 90
  2. 69 146 52 114 46 79
I was able to get a good shave this morning with numbers #1 above. I assume I'll do okay with the second set, but I'm not pleased. Not pleased at all. That's not the half of it not by a long shot.

Between the two sets of numbers above I did a whole lot of honing!

Coticule First. Dilucot Oil Honing method.

Results.
  • 153 160 109 72 163 153 205
Zulu Grey Next. One try with water (first). Two tries with Ballistol and water (1:4)

Results.
  • 215 205 290 264 204 50
  • 106 106 54 107 196 113
  • 111 109 161 207 140 66
Last stone was the Norton Hard Translucent Arkansas. Ballistol and water (1:4)

Results.
  • 82 89 71 121 143 64

Then the pasted strops. Out of desperation actually.

Results.
  • 69 146 52 114 46 79
Since I started with an edge with these numbers...
  • 50 84 67 182 59 90
...I basically did a whole lot of honing (and stropping on linen, leather, denim, leather between every honing effort) to get nowhere. This was a whole afternoon of honing and such.

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I have no idea where to go from here. I don't think I screwed anything up. I was using stones and honing methods which have worked reasonably well for me in the past.

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The good stuff is easy to see.
  • My razor's edge wasn't damaged.
  • I'm about where I started off and not worse off.
  • Disappointment is not permanent.
  • Maybe I learned something I've not realized yet.
  • None of my stones were damaged.
  • I got some practice using the Edge On Up instrument.
  • No reason to think my Kukri won't shave well enough tomorrow morning.
  • My wife has had a pretty good Mother's Day I think.
  • We both got to see our daughter.
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It's a journey, right?

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
Last edited:
Have you considered the results are not telling the whole story? Maybe the machine can't deal with things like, the angle your cutting, if your leaning the razor over slightly to one side - or not. Or something else regarding how the test is done.

You maybe right, the Kukri will shave tomorrow just as well as it did today.
Call me sceptical, but I don't trust these machines to be as accurate and consistent with the results as the manufacturers say.

I may have mentioned this before and it's probably a poor analogy.
One of my hobbies is/was headphones.
I've have read extensively about how they work, what is good and what is bad, etc, etc. I could go on and on.
I used to read a forum dedicated to headphones and there was a growing number of people who insisted they could tell how headphones sounded by looking at graphs produced by measuring machines. Some would go so far as to say, if the graphs were bad so therefore the headphones must be bad. Then write a review based on this rubbish and declare it accurate without ever putting the headphones on and actually listening to them.
I no longer read that forum. Only time I look there is to find some info about something I'm interested in. And take everything I've read with a pinch of salt, a very big pinch!

What I'm trying to say is this. The results from this machine may not be that accurate. A proper way to test something is to repeat the results over and over to perceive a level of accuracy - or not.
Even get someone else to repeat the test with the same razor (without changing anything else) and see if that changes the results - or not.

I would just use the tried and tested method that we all do to test an edge. And that is to shave with it.

Even so, it's all interesting stuff. :001_smile
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Have you considered the results are not telling the whole story? Maybe the machine can't deal with things like, the angle your cutting, if your leaning the razor over slightly to one side - or not. Or something else regarding how the test is done.

You maybe right, the Kukri will shave tomorrow just as well as it did today.
Call me sceptical, but I don't trust these machines to be as accurate and consistent with the results as the manufacturers say.

I may have mentioned this before and it's probably a poor analogy.
One of my hobbies is/was headphones.
I've have read extensively about how they work, what is good and what is bad, etc, etc. I could go on and on.
I used to read a forum dedicated to headphones and there was a growing number of people who insisted they could tell how headphones sounded by looking at graphs produced by measuring machines. Some would go so far as to say, if the graphs were bad so therefore the headphones must be bad. Then write a review based on this rubbish and declare it accurate without ever putting the headphones on and actually listening to them.
I no longer read that forum. Only time I look there is to find some info about something I'm interested in. And take everything I've read with a pinch of salt, a very big pinch!

What I'm trying to say is this. The results from this machine may not be that accurate. A proper way to test something is to repeat the results over and over to perceive a level of accuracy - or not.
Even get someone else to repeat the test with the same razor (without changing anything else) and see if that changes the results - or not.

I would just use the tried and tested method that we all do to test an edge. And that is to shave with it.

Even so, it's all interesting stuff. :001_smile

Doug,

I get your meaning.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
Jim,

I think you are jumping between the different stones / progressions too frequently. When I stuck to one coticule throughout February it was very very helpful. I didn't get my best edges doing that but I learnt some consistency.

In six sigma, as I remember it, you try to reduce the outlying results and then improve the mean. I would recommend sticking to one methodology, trying to get the numbers consistent along the edge, then getting repeatable numbers and then trying to improve those.

That's how I would tackle it. I think.
 
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