Absence makes the heart grow fonder

[Jakebullet]

A while ago I built the three balsa wood strops and diamond pastes necessary to follow @Slash McCoy’s ‘Merhod’.
I remember that the very first razor I did on it blew me away, I never knew things could get so sharp.
But little by little I moved back to the softer feel of my natural stones.
I kept one razor with the balsa edge but hardly used it and didn’t keep up with the maintainsnce advised by The Method.
Lately I’d been considering giving my balsa strops and pastes away to any struggling beginners as I felt it was a great experiment but that I’d probably never go back to using them with any regularity.
So for that past year I’ve been using stone and have been happy.
But today just on a whim, I took my method edged Gold Dollar back through the .5, .25, .1 diamond progression for this mornings shave.
As I was finishing the process I was struck by the brilliance of the shine on the edge and spine.
As soon as the shave began I felt a softness and smoothness to the shave.
I’d genuinely forgotten how sharp an edge the balsa delivers.
Also I hadn’t remembered it feeling so soft.
Maybe my shaving has improved since I last tried the method edge, who knows, but the edge id done was a real winner.
Where it really stood out was atg especially on my neck and top lip. Soooo much more efficient and easier than my stone edges.
I thought my stone edges were pretty good but the balsa edge makes them pale by comparison.
Today I got one of the closest most comfortable shaves I’ve done in ages, probably made all the more special due to the long absence.

 

[rbscebu]

It sneeaks up on you like that. I hope you include short X strokes on the 0.1μm. That really is a game-changer.

 

[Jakebullet]

Yes I sure did thanks, I always follow the method to the letter. I use the prescribed X strokes, short x strokes and pull strokes.
I knew it gave a good edge but it seems every time I do it I’m genuinely surprised.

 

[Herrenberg]

I always liked the variant version of the thread title: "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder."

I agree with your observation about going back to Method edges, and I share it. After shaving only with stone edges for a while, I started to think maybe I agreed with those people who say that Method edges have no character. I guess it's true in a sense; they don't differ with each other, the way edges from different finishers do. But when I went back to mixing in some Method edges into my shaves, wow!

It's like going from a cheap tool to an expensive tool. Control is very, very precise, and you have to be too, because these edges are a tad easier to cut yourself with, compared to the stone edges. Not when shaving, exactly, but if you've gotten used to the idea that you can break the rules by lightly resting an unmoving edge on the skin, that's just not going to work.

Clearly I need both kinds of edges in my rotation.

 

[Jakebullet]

Yes, I think the better your shaving technique the more you’ll get from the Method. I didn’t remember it feeling so lovely and smooth.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I think about two thirds of my razors are method edges. The others have ark edges. As I've been getting better at the ark, some of those have been absolutely stellar. Others are acceptable. But it's kind of nice to know that with the method razors, I know exactly what I'm getting and how to keep them there. I'm not planning to go all natural at this point. Variety is nice but so is consistency.

What stones have you been using, @Jakebullet ?

 

[Slash McCoy]

I think sometimes after a while we reach a point of stagnation and it is good to step away from the same old thing, try something else, develop a new set of skills, and then come back to the fold. Definitely, my DE shaves are better, having spent a few decades with straight razors. Definitely, after getting into shavettes and hoe handle wedge blade razors, my straight shave improved.

Also sometimes it really seems like the standard Gold Dollar razors and the balsa finish go particularly well together. Maybe it's the rather large bevel angle? But I think a Method edge improves a GD more than any other popular razor.

 

[Tomo]

I have three razors that I permanently keep on balsa edges. Sometimes it’s fun to shave with a laser beam!

 

[Jakebullet]

I think about two thirds of my razors are method edges. The others have ark edges. As I've been getting better at the ark, some of those have been absolutely stellar. Others are acceptable. But it's kind of nice to know that with the method razors, I know exactly what I'm getting and how to keep them there. I'm not planning to go all natural at this point. Variety is nice but so is consistency.

What stones have you been using, @Jakebullet ?

I mostly use a lovely kitta jnat which I really like plus a coticule and a couple of Welsh slates.
They all deliver very good shaving edges but after the balsa shave I feel I’ll now need to up my game when using them.
I’ll probably never get them to hone to balsa standards but I feel there’s got to be more meat on the bones which I’m not getting.
It’s good to have a new standard to aim towards. I’m going to keep shaving with the balsa edge for a week or so then take my other razors back to the stones and try to get somewhere near.

 

[Tomo]

I mostly use a lovely kitta jnat which I really like plus a coticule and a couple of Welsh slates.
They all deliver very good shaving edges but after the balsa shave I feel I’ll now need to up my game when using them.
I’ll probably never get them to hone to balsa standards but I feel there’s got to be more meat on the bones which I’m not getting.
It’s good to have a new standard to aim towards. I’m going to keep shaving with the balsa edge for a week or so then take my other razors back to the stones and try to get somewhere near.

Sounds like it’s time to try an Arkansas. I don’t think it’s possible to get a sharper edge with a natural. It’s just a touch behind the balsa in sharpness but very skin friendly. My favorite finisher.

 

[Jakebullet]

Sounds like it’s time to try an Arkansas. I don’t think it’s possible to get a sharper edge with a natural. It’s just a touch behind the balsa in sharpness but very skin friendly. My favorite finisher.

I think you may be right, do you use oil with it or plain water?

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I've been experimenting with my ark, my favorite so far is WD40, followed by water and dish soap. I think a lot of guys use mineral oil.

 

[Eastcoast30]

I find it interesting that so many members can discriminate between edges. I think that is a great skill to have. Me, I just don't have it. For some reason, I just can't tell one edge from the other. I must be insensitive in that respect. I have honed some razors on pasted balsa, some on a jnat. And I have many that have been honed by vendors using various stones, including a Suehiro 20k. I strop my razors on cordovan and they all do well with respect to tree topping and HHT. But I find it difficult to tell one experience from the other. They all seem to shave well, with no nicks, weepers or irritation. I did have one that was honed by a vendor and it tugged a bit. I sent it back and it was returned with a good edge. Perhaps with more experience, I will learn to discriminate between finished edges. BTW, my beard is thick and not fine.

 

[Jakebullet]

I find it interesting that so many members can discriminate between edges. I think that is a great skill to have. Me, I just don't have it. For some reason, I just can't tell one edge from the other. I must be insensitive in that respect. I have honed some razors on pasted balsa, some on a jnat. And I have many that have been honed by vendors using various stones, including a Suehiro 20k. I strop my razors on cordovan and they all do well with respect to tree topping and HHT. But I find it difficult to tell one experience from the other. They all seem to shave well, with no nicks, weepers or irritation. I did have one that was honed by a vendor and it tugged a bit. I sent it back and it was returned with a good edge. Perhaps with more experience, I will learn to discriminate between finished edges. BTW, my beard is thick and not fine.

Yes Its interesting how we notice the subtle differences in finishers.
I personally judge the differences by using a combination of the actual shave and the post shave feel.
It’s not hard to notice when using a balsa edge as it’s head and shoulders sharper than anything else I’ve got.
It’s efficiency is most notable on the toughest areas of growth such as throat, chin, top lip etc. it stands out here as it makes much easier work of those areas than my other edges do.
My stone edges all feel very very comfortable and shave great and each stone does seem to me to have it’s own feel. Could I do a Pepsi challenge and tell you if the edge I’m using was honed on a coticule or a jnat? Probably not, though I think I could tell if it was finished on balsa.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I mostly use a lovely kitta jnat which I really like plus a coticule and a couple of Welsh slates.
They all deliver very good shaving edges but after the balsa shave I feel I’ll now need to up my game when using them.
I’ll probably never get them to hone to balsa standards but I feel there’s got to be more meat on the bones which I’m not getting.
It’s good to have a new standard to aim towards. I’m going to keep shaving with the balsa edge for a week or so then take my other razors back to the stones and try to get somewhere near.

With the right Jnat and the right technique you can get surprisingly close to a Method edge, in terms of cutting power. Well, maybe not THAT close, but you can definitely beat an ordinary 12k edge by an obvious margin. I am sure you have tried a lot of different slurrying techniques and finishing under running water, but maybe you haven't tried thoroughly rinsing every trace of slurry from your stone and honing in lather from your brush, or dish soap solution. When you nail it, it works great. The principle is that the lather or dish soap forms a buffer layer, causing the razor held with light pressure to skim a micron or three above the nominal surface of the stone. You do make contact but it is extremely light and so your scratch pattern is extremely shallow. You start out with very light pressure and perform a LOT of laps as you gradually reduce pressure even more, to actually less than the weight of the razor, essentially helping the buffer to hold the razor above the stone. It will feel like you are not doing any steel removal at all, and actually you almost aren't. This is why it takes a lot of laps and why those lots of laps don't raise a fin edge. Ignore feedback here... it is irrelevant and unreliable. It is a difficult trick to master but when you nail it, the edge will surprise you. Not amaze you, since you have had Method edges, but it will surprise you that the edge can be so sharp off a rock. As for comfort, you still get the cloudy appearance on the bevel and the resulting glide over the skin, though the increased sharpness will make you pay for using too high of a shaving angle. Like I said, you should have an edge that feels considerably sharper than off a 12k Naniwa or similar quality synth, so you can always segue straight into the balsa if you get bored with it.

The lather trick also works on synthetic stones and lapping film, by the way. Makes them perform like a next higher grit stone. In fact you can even shave reasonably well off your typical 8k synth if you use that trick, and it won't feel like stunt shaving, either. I have heard of guys stropping with lather, too. I haven't though.

I may have to break out my Awesado one of these days. I haven't touched it in years. If nothing else, to give it one last go, take pics, and list it on fleabay.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I find it interesting that so many members can discriminate between edges. I think that is a great skill to have. Me, I just don't have it. For some reason, I just can't tell one edge from the other. I must be insensitive in that respect. I have honed some razors on pasted balsa, some on a jnat. And I have many that have been honed by vendors using various stones, including a Suehiro 20k. I strop my razors on cordovan and they all do well with respect to tree topping and HHT. But I find it difficult to tell one experience from the other. They all seem to shave well, with no nicks, weepers or irritation. I did have one that was honed by a vendor and it tugged a bit. I sent it back and it was returned with a good edge. Perhaps with more experience, I will learn to discriminate between finished edges. BTW, my beard is thick and not fine.

Yes, indeed. Me, my last shave from someone else's edge...

"Hmmm... yes indeed... a very nice edge from probably a late 17th century quarried and shellac-ed knockyamama with honeyamama noguru slurry mixed with a smear of uncured silkworm poop using the rolling "R" stroke and the stone held with let's see... a chamois glove, I think. Left handed honer? Yes, I believe so... I believe the honer would turn out a very much improved edge if he worked on his breath control and meditated on his zen koans more..."

NOT!

Sometimes the shave from a slurried natural is obvious, as is the shave from a synthetic stone or film. Sometimes I can probably guess the approximate grit of a synthetic edge. Mostly, not. The hand of the honer is more expressive than the hone, and easily masks the high or low qualities of the hone. Plus, hey it is either sharp, or not. It either feels nice to shave with, or not so nice. It's kind of like my wine tasting or beer tasting. I can tell you how much I like it on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 or whatever, but I am not discerning enough to throw out all the high-tone, sophisticated adjectives and descriptions. I like it, I like it a lot, it is fantastic, it is okay, it kinda sucks. That's about it. At my marina, on my pier we used to have a crazy mix of dirt poor folks who lived aboard because they couldn't afford an apartment, and multi multi millionaire lawyers and bank presidents. One neighbor with a lot of money and presumably sophisticated tastes used to give me samples of this or that. I tossed an offered shot of whiskey one time, it actually smelled and tasted sort of like Scotch which I don't really like, and he stood there in shocked silence. I had just downed a shot from a bottle of obscenely old single malt scotch that he had just paid $1400 for. "You were supposed to SIP that! Did you even taste it going down? OMG, I can't believe it! You drink like a f###ing savage!" Well, he shoulda said something, right? <me>"Sorry bout that... I didn't know. But for Scotch, it actually didn't taste all that bad. I thought you expected me to DRINK it, not write a friggin' haiku about it." I won't bore you with the last time he had me try a glass of crazy expensive and presumably excellent champagne. My sensory perceptions are just not that discerning and I am not pretentious enough to pretend that they are. That's okay. I know when I like something, and I know when an edge is sharp and when it isn't and when it is super duper sharp. Good enough, I would say. Not all of us have conoisseurial talents and the ability to name that edge beyond the obvious. That's okay. We aren't professional razor honing critics here. We hone, we shave. we try to make it even better next time. Good enough.

 

[Eastcoast30]

^ Thanks for a good post. Yes, I have used the dish soap method and I do like that final glide over the stone. There is one aspect that does interest me. When I was using DE razors, I had and still have over 50 different DE blade samples. And with the DE blades, I could definitely feel the difference between blades. Some were very smooth while others were quite irritating. But as of yet, I have not found such a difference with my straight razors.

 

[Eastcoast30]

I did the same thing with my first shot of 25 year Macallan - chugged it right down. I don't do that any more. And I can't find 25 year Macallan any more either.

 

[Jakebullet]

I did the same thing with my first shot of 25 year Macallan - chugged it right down. I don't do that any more. And I can't find 25 year Macallan any more either.

Yeah that cruel mistress wisdom always turns up fashionably late to the party

 

[Jakebullet]

With the right Jnat and the right technique you can get surprisingly close to a Method edge, in terms of cutting power. Well, maybe not THAT close, but you can definitely beat an ordinary 12k edge by an obvious margin. I am sure you have tried a lot of different slurrying techniques and finishing under running water, but maybe you haven't tried thoroughly rinsing every trace of slurry from your stone and honing in lather from your brush, or dish soap solution. When you nail it, it works great. The principle is that the lather or dish soap forms a buffer layer, causing the razor held with light pressure to skim a micron or three above the nominal surface of the stone. You do make contact but it is extremely light and so your scratch pattern is extremely shallow. You start out with very light pressure and perform a LOT of laps as you gradually reduce pressure even more, to actually less than the weight of the razor, essentially helping the buffer to hold the razor above the stone. It will feel like you are not doing any steel removal at all, and actually you almost aren't. This is why it takes a lot of laps and why those lots of laps don't raise a fin edge. Ignore feedback here... it is irrelevant and unreliable. It is a difficult trick to master but when you nail it, the edge will surprise you. Not amaze you, since you have had Method edges, but it will surprise you that the edge can be so sharp off a rock. As for comfort, you still get the cloudy appearance on the bevel and the resulting glide over the skin, though the increased sharpness will make you pay for using too high of a shaving angle. Like I said, you should have an edge that feels considerably sharper than off a 12k Naniwa or similar quality synth, so you can always segue straight into the balsa if you get bored with it.

The lather trick also works on synthetic stones and lapping film, by the way. Makes them perform like a next higher grit stone. In fact you can even shave reasonably well off your typical 8k synth if you use that trick, and it won't feel like stunt shaving, either. I have heard of guys stropping with lather, too. I haven't though.

I may have to break out my Awesado one of these days. I haven't touched it in years. If nothing else, to give it one last go, take pics, and list it on fleabay.

Thanks a lot for this, I’ll mix up a nice lather later and give this a try on the jnat.