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Blind edge test! Ugly razors, fine finishes.

Tanuki

Tanuki

Opie v Raven, stropped 10/30, cleaned up neck sideways with an SE and a DE (Micromatic Monday + Slantember).

I had a clear winner for both sharp and smooth today. Today's shave was a good as it gets for me, I'm calling it BBS. There was not that much for the cleanup to accomplish.

GMW v Raven next and I will have tested all the two razor combos. Should I do a second round, or should I get these razors back to @SliceOfLife ? Anybody who is following the thread is welcome to advise me.
 
Tanuki

Tanuki

I will give them another round of six side by side shaves, then I ship. Plus, I'm going to make a gentle effort to tighten the scales on GMW today.

GMW v Raven is in the books. Stropped 10/30, got a good lather, but did not quite hit the excellence of yesterday's shave. Another clear winner, especially in the smooth department.

Six more shaves should give me plenty of opinions on these edges.
 
Tanuki

Tanuki

Second round, GMW v Opie. GMW scales tightened. Stropped 10/30. I've completely standardized my lathering. I expect my chosen soap will last thru 5 more shaves. A clear winner again from today's face off.

The GMW scale tightening made a big difference in the ease of stropping and shaving. I should have done it immediately.
Today's hero:
D79EBAFC-F843-4797-8A6E-255A87BF3267.jpeg


I would say at this point that my linen/leather stropping is doing a decent job of holding the edges. It does very well on maintaining smoothness, sharpness not quite as much. In my normal practice, these razors would soon visit the 200k diamond pasted balsa strop for 60 laps. They are cutting fine, but I'm starting to work a little harder.

Lathering has been the biggest variable shave to shave, so I am not messing around with different soaps, brushes, or lathering routines anymore. It is the same every shave from here on out. If I can't give the full time required to prep and lathering, I'll skip a day.
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

Awesome.

And yeah, I've got the post-it with the answers still stuck up on my desk. I'll reveal the finishes when you post up your rankings/opinions.
 
Tanuki

Tanuki

Raven v Magneto. Stropped 10 linen and 30 horse as is standard.

Yes, sharpness is down a notch with 4 shaves to go in the test, two more half shaves for each razor. I will be prepping and lathering to my highest standards to counteract the fall off.
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

Tanuki has sent the razors back and messaged me his opinions/experience. I'll let him provide the details beyond the rankings... but drumroll please....



First place was the "Raven" or "Supple". It was finished with clear water on a "Wakasa Tamurayama Tomae" Jnat from ikkyujapanavenue: a Japanese knife and stone vendor who has a website and eBay shop.

Second place was "Magneto", the "Cutlery Co" razor that had magnetized. This was finished on a Vintage Brown Hybrid coticule.

A Close third was "Opie". This was finished on a vintage ultra-hard and fine brown (not hybrid) coticule.

A distant fourth was the GMW. This was finished on a vintage Escher Thuringian.


Below is a scan of the postit with the finishes (and my references for the razors in question) as well as a group shot of the stones (Left to right: Brown Coti, Brown Coti Hybrid, Wakasa Jnat, Escher)
 

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Tanuki

Tanuki

My first reaction is "Maybe I do know what I'm talking about?".

Jnat, coti tie, Escher. I don't hone with any of these stones, but I might have predicted the order just based on the total word count of posts by stone type on the honing threads.

Or maybe there are so many jnats that there will never be enough words for them.

All four razors arrived perfectly sharp. So smoothness and the durability of the sharp edge were my criteria. I shaved side-by-side with every combination, rating them separately on cheeks and neck. First for the closeness of shave. Second for the smoothness of the feel, both in hand and on face.

When I started through a second set of shave offs, I realized that by my standards they all were needing a refresh, so I bailed after 4 half shaves with every razor (and a uncomfortable 5th half shave with two).

The jnat Raven/Supplee won every face off it entered. It was holding its edge best at the end, which no doubt affected the later rounds. The two coti edges were not a long way behind.

The Escher/GMW result was probably affected by my lack of comfort with my grip on this razor when stropping and shaving. The blade blank (and therefore the tang/shank) was unusually thin, plus the grip area of the tang was deeper (up and down) than is usual.

That thin grip area and high aspect ratio made GMW want to flip out of my fingers. Add to that some floppy and very light scales. This is a hard razor for me to grip and balance. Tightening the pivot pin helped. A different razor would help more.
 
Steve56

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
A good jnat edge is hard to beat. The jnat won here too (hint, skip to the end):

www.badgerandblade.com

The Thrilla in Manilla

Manilla envelopes, that is.... They're on their way. Finally:blush: :tongue_sm Hey, you get what you pay for sometimes~!
www.badgerandblade.com www.badgerandblade.com
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

The GMW is if I'm remembering it right (I only used it a time or two) a very thin and aggressive razor to wield. I liked when I threw a 13k synthetic edge on it for a real treat. It would be a light saber, but any slop in your technique at all and it will make you sorry. I had a similar ground razor awhile back by Magnetic cutlery co that was <13 degree edge angle. There were a few finer finishes I couldn't use on it, but with a coticule finish it was divine.

I'll have to let you try a Thuri edge on another razor at some point to see if the razor was more to blame for the Thuri's poor showing or if Thuri edges degrade fast enough to explain where it fell (I hone before almost every shave, so edge longevity is not a big concern for me).

These four were matched to finishing stone at random. I've honed up four more (with four different finishes) that I've tried to better match razors with finishes that suit them for a round two.
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

Thanks to @Tanuki for doing all the real work.

Round 1 razors are back, GMW (the loser) has been removed. Will be pif'ed with a finish of the winners choice (US Only) to a random winner of a PIF in another thread.

PIF thread here:
www.badgerandblade.com

Testing Edges Loser PIF

So Tanuki is doing some edge testing of user/ugly razors for me. First round ended and one razor was a clear loser. It has been removed from the competition and will be PIF'ed to a random winner with a US shipping address who posts "I'm in" and their preferred finish for the razor if they win...
www.badgerandblade.com www.badgerandblade.com
 
Tanuki

Tanuki

The nine razors in the current round have been waiting for my attention. The plan is to have three heats of three razors each, then advance the heat winners to a final round of three.

The first heat features:
Magneto, back from the first shave off.
Karnak, a round point, perhaps to pretty for an ugly razor test
Silver King, a square point, sufficiently ugly

My stropping for this second test will be 20 linen, 60 horse. Lather will come from a Tabac stick, every shave.

Tonight's inaugural running saw Karnak beat Silver King solidly on smoothness, with both razors about equally sharp. It was a late shave, so they ran a challenging course of day and a half stubble. Next: the King v Magneto
 
Tanuki

Tanuki

First heat, second shave:

20/60, Tabac as planned
The Silver King on the right side could not keep up with Magneto on the left, in either smoothness or closeness. I don't think The King lost that much from yesterday, the shave was similar. Magneto just outclassed it.

Tomorrow will match the King beaters and decide which razor advances to the finals. The King is dead.
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

This makes me wonder. Should I reveal the finishes as razors are eliminated. King is not a huge surprise for me, and I think people will understand why when they see the finish. Tanuki what are your thoughts? Reveal losers as they lose, or all at once when you finish?
 
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