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Blind edge test! Ugly razors, fine finishes.

SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

I just checked out his prices... and honestly, It'd need to be a superior hone to pay what he's asking. $300 for a 8x3"? You can get a really nice Jnat for that money. I appreciate that leveling these things isn't easy... but $300 is top tier stone money... Labeled Y/G Escher money. 12x3" Translucent ark money. I mean the main difference from his stones and the polished stones I see on etsy (obviously rough stones mean you've got a lot of work to do as well), is thickness... and frankly... Like a hard ark... thickness is more of a nicety... I don't see a razor wearing through one of these things... ever... you just have the added need to back a thin one... not unlike a coticule.

Anyways...you're looking a little scruffy... bout time for a shave, isn't it?
 
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global_dev

global_dev

Yeah, those current prices are ridiculous. They were way more reasonable a couple months ago iirc. but finding a big enough “clean” slab , getting it delivered and cut and lapped seems like a decent idea but kind of inconvenient for trying out jasper.
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

A lot of the jaspers on etsy had a nice straight side... but yeah you have to sift through to find them. I have access to a waterjet cutter that the tech swears can cut the most brittle stone easily without fracturing it... so worse comes to worse, I could get one without a straight side and use that (debating trying that with that massive translucent black arkansas I bought to get a 10"+ side instead of the ~7" one I use now... but kind of want to keep it whole for the size record aspect of it (it's like 4.2kg) ).
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

global_dev said:
I thought about enlisting my local granite guy to see what they could do, they said they would help out for a modest fee.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm in my engineering major for a few more months, and part of what my outrageous tuition is going towards is paying for some garnet dust abrasive to use in the waterjet cutter... so I get to use it for free. It is a bit of a PITA creating the mapping files for the cuts because it can't be controlled directly; but it cuts like hell. I did some spinework on a couple razors using a 6" deep bench vise to hold the razor in place and it cut through the razor, the wood frame I had built to protect the vise and clean through the bench vise in seconds.
 
global_dev

global_dev

Red 61 battle

52DE5E02-04A6-4190-8399-6383AB73B153.jpeg

todays bout kit
2 red GD 61s
Mixed manchu/horse knot
CBL orange dirt

wiped off the oil, lightly stropped 20 linen/30 leather

3 passes and i dont think i recognize either of the feel of these edges well enough. They don’t resemble any of the finishes i think i can guess, but thats not saying much as my experience is neither deep nor wide.

I cant imagine either of these winning of the 5.

3 was way better than 2. 2 pulled a lot and felt like i didnt want to continue with it after the first stroke. Tried it multiple times though. Only looked at the scope after the shave. Under the 100x scope, 2 looked like maybe it had a too convexed bevel, but straight. 3 looked typical maybe a bit coarser than expected, maybe some edge degradation activity. After our ID PMs, i was guessing we are maybe dealing with (at minimum) different bevel angles based on spine wear.

3 on points in the third
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

Ok and just to be certain... #2 or #3 is the one with the extra honewear? I just checked our messages and I got them mixed up when I responded to you. You had suggested light honewear for #2 then I assigned that to heavy honewear in my reply.
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

Ok


My bad.

So the story with the red scales without the honewear... is it was a shave ready that shaved Ok, so I took it back to 8k to make sure I got rid of any rounding (I was almost certain they pasted stropped it) and then refinished. I thought I checked it to make certain I was hitting the edge, but obviously I forgot to; so it's a pasted "shave ready" that I "refinished" the bevel of but clearly hadn't done enough on 8k to be hitting the edge. Sorry about that. Let's just scratch that razor out; since the finish won't matter. There's no way that finish would tug if I had done it right.


The rest all have been rebeveled, so that should be the only bad one. Serves me right for not confirming I was hitting the edge. And I remember when I was packing them thinking "did I make sure I was hitting the edge on this one? Yeah, I'm sure I did."
 
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global_dev

global_dev

Lets wait. I honestly have no long term memory for honing finishes, its like 15 minutes max if i dont write it down immediately. I can remember almost everything else ive ever done with almost vivid recollection.
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

I think I solved the GD200 mystery by the way. Went to rehone it and I kept getting a slight wire edge that looked like a taped edge on one side and a wire on the other. Realized I never took the shoulder out of the razor when I bought it years ago, and if I didn't angle the razor hard enough and the spine @ the shoulder caught the corner of the hone, it would pitch the razor up on one side (as the spine was much fatter at that spot of the spine due to keeping it off the hone typically), microbeveling that side. Entirely possible that was my ark edge, presuming that I had been doing that when I honed it up and just not noticed. That would explain what I was seeing on the scope and the generally "too fat" feeling in the shave. Hadn't touched that razor in several years but with the experimenting I've been doing with GD's I wanted to throw it in the mix and just didn't even notice it still had a shoulder to it.
 
global_dev

global_dev

4v5
2889EE36-F9EB-46C9-AF97-3689A311D7E2.jpeg

same kit - added for the viewership! 20/30 ish linen/leather.

definitely hard to award points for these. Scoped both out before shave 100x to get an idea, very different edges it appears by the edge profile and bevel striations.

first pass - shared sides every other stroke swapped razor. 5 way smoother than 4.

Second pass- one face side one razor. Feels like 4 might be keener than 5 on atg. At one point of this pass i had a razor in each hand a la eddie scissorhands.

third pass - one face side one side xtg/atg. This pass feels like a wash for me. By this point, everything is almost good to go and while 4 feels slightly keener than 5 its hard to see/feel a different result.

This one is hard to award. I preferred the softer feel of 5, but the cutting of 4 on some atg areas. Maybe it took 4 a pass to come into its own.

given i could live without the pros of 4, i think I am gonna award the win to 5.
 
global_dev

global_dev

Last nights shave was hard to determine a winner. i finished with a splash of WH only and after 30mins, it was clear that the shave results pointed towards 5.

I also scoped out the vintage edge too. The bevel pattern makes me think it has a second bevel or something like that. I’ll give it a go tonight.

so far i think the current rankings of the 4 used are 5 > 4 > 3 > 2
 
SliceOfLife

SliceOfLife

Ok, now THAT was what I was expecting from that matchup. Glad we're done with the nasty surprises.

Please make sure to give #3 another shot at the title/a round 2 bout. I'd hate to think that how awful #2 was cheated him out of his chance through guilt by association. Maybe do #3 vs Vintage for todays shave?
 
global_dev

global_dev

SliceOfLife said:
Ok, now THAT was what I was expecting from that matchup. Glad we're done with the nasty surprises.

Please make sure to give #3 another shot at the title/a round 2 bout. I'd hate to think that how awful #2 was cheated him out of his chance through guilt by association. Maybe do #3 vs Vintage for todays shave?
Click to expand...

i was thinking i would do something like that.
 
global_dev

global_dev

Just finished shave battle 3

vintage vs 61 #3

very similar thoughts to yesterday’s shave. Almost down to the same points, but the smoothness difference isnt there. Did a couple extra things on this one. Stropped 40/40 linen/leather and did some extra ATG under the nose to end.


first pass - shared sides every other stroke swapped razor. 3 felt a bit nicer than vintage. Could be the size/mass diff.

Second pass- one face side one razor. Feels like similar, i feel like this round goes to 3

third pass - one face side one side xtg/atg. This pass feels like a wash for me. By this point, everything is almost good to go - hard to see/feel a different result. At first felt like 3 was better on atg, but vintage did ok.

ATG under nose felt like the vintage had the edge.

This one is hard to award. I preferred the feel of 3 overall. Even with the size differential of razors.

given i could live without the atg under the nose of vintage. i think I am gonna award the win to 3.
 
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