Evening folks, I'm a bit of a newbie to straight razors, tried the shavettes before, but they were way too unforgiving. Picked up a vintage (really good shape) American straight razor and a dubl duck with a chip. I have been using a fallkniven ceramic whetstone, a 100mmX40mm coticule (seems very coarse), 100x40 bbw, and a surgical black arkansas. I roll with the ceramic till shaving armhair, then coti, bbw, arkansas, then strop. I can get an okay shave but it likes to catch. Any advice would be appreciated.
Cant get a straight edge sharp
- Thread starter silverdog25
- Start date
I suggest you change out your bevel-setter for something more suitable. That's a diamond-ceramic stone, right? I suggest not using diamond as your bevel setter. It likes to make deep, harsh scratches.
Spend time with your bevel setter until you feel as though you could shave with the edge.
My bevel-setter is the Shapton Glass 1000. Other people like the Shapton Pro 1500, or the Naniwa Chosera Pro 1000. I'm sure others will be along with their suggestions.
Also a BBW is usually coarser than a coticule. A "very coarse" coticule seems strange, and also not something that should be a part of a razor sequence.
Your Ark finisher sounds great.
Spend time with your bevel setter until you feel as though you could shave with the edge.
My bevel-setter is the Shapton Glass 1000. Other people like the Shapton Pro 1500, or the Naniwa Chosera Pro 1000. I'm sure others will be along with their suggestions.
Also a BBW is usually coarser than a coticule. A "very coarse" coticule seems strange, and also not something that should be a part of a razor sequence.
Your Ark finisher sounds great.
- Thread starter
- #3
Yeah, I used the diamond to get the chip out and since I've just been using the ceramic side which is slowwwwwwww. I also have a few spare arks laying around somewhere and a chromium oxide? The coticule with a thick slurry takes metal off faster than I was expecting. It still refines the edge a lot more than the ceramic but it doesnt seem to be shaving smooth afterwards. I also have a diamond kit with up to 1200 grit and a 6k water stone laying around somewhere. I thought it might be something to do with not spending enough time with the lower grits.
Your coticule should produce smoother results just by diluting the slurry with water. Maybe not shaving sharp, not all coticules do that, but maybe once you successively dilute the slurry down to just water, it will set you up for your hard Ark. All that after a really really good bevel set, of course, which is where the bulk of your time and effort should be focused.
Use your ceramic stone to kick up a thick slurry on the coticuleand work it until it's really dark then start diluting down, those garnets won't break down. Keep going SLOWLY diluting until plain water, finish on the ark with mineral oil. Do lots of circles just like the coticule and finish with a rolling x stroke.. I've had this exact problem before and if you replace the ceramic with an old fine India you would have the same set up. Use the diamond to make sure that ark is flat, keep diamonds off the coticules imo.
rbscebu
Girls call me Makaluod
@silverdog25, you have not properly or fully set your bevel. Being able to shave arm hair is not an indication that the bevel is properly and fully set.
If you are not experienced in setting the bevel on a straight razor, a good start is to read, study and use the burr method.
www.badgerandblade.com
You may also be better off (for now) using lapping films rather than stones. See Annex III of the Traditional SR Shaving Instructions.
www.badgerandblade.com
If you are not experienced in setting the bevel on a straight razor, a good start is to read, study and use the burr method.
Setting the Bevel with the Burr Method
The Burr Method of honing is perhaps the method of setting a bevel that is most easily understood perfectly. It is the most sure and positive means of setting a bevel, as the method itself is the proof. There is no guessing and very little subjectivity. It is fairly fast, and easy to learn for a...
www.badgerandblade.com
You may also be better off (for now) using lapping films rather than stones. See Annex III of the Traditional SR Shaving Instructions.
Traditional Straight Razor Shaving Instructions for Beginners
The attached are instructions for beginners in the gentlemanly art of traditional straight razor shaving. Updated instructions will be posted in this thread as they are developed. To keep this thread reasonably clean and easy to read, please post any comments/suggestions in this thread and ask...
www.badgerandblade.com
Also if your bbw and coticule are separate you can try using the bbw to slurry the coticule which ever is harder will not slurry as much but you usually end up with a mix of smaller aggressive garnets in the surface of the coticule but at the same time the bigger, smoother(slower) garnets in the bbw will polish while the coti part is doing the cutting. This doesn't always go great with all coticule/bbw mixed slurries but when I hone on coticules I do it fairly often but I mostly use my lpb slurry stone. Slurries are a game changer, you could even use a light coticule slurry on the ark if you use water to help quicken up the process of removing deeper scratches in the bevel. Rule number 1..... no rules. Go from roughest to smoothest is a good outline, but when I started using different slurries on "unconventional" base stones I began to be able to completely control how that edge felt when I was using some I'm proficient with. Don't be scared to try new stuff or let curiosity get the best of you, but.... also don't hesitate to post a thread asking "am I going to ruin my gear?". Never forget, they are rocks. They've been in the ground for millions of years. Structures built from these same exact stones, in some cases, from a thousand years ago still stands and don't look too terribly much different than they did the day they were built. I was always told not to play with rocks as a kid but I'm grown now and we can do what we want!
First things first. Use a sharpie to mark the edge and stay on your bevel setter till you no longer see any trace of the sharpie. Shaving arm hair can be an indication of the bevel being set. As long as it is effortless.
Without a proper bevel you’ll never get a razor shave ready. Once that’s done you can move on to the coticule. Look up the diluticot method and follow the instructions.
Get the razor shave ready with the coti before you try the Ark. I’ve had more than a handful of coticules and they all will get a razor ready to shave.
Without a proper bevel you’ll never get a razor shave ready. Once that’s done you can move on to the coticule. Look up the diluticot method and follow the instructions.
Get the razor shave ready with the coti before you try the Ark. I’ve had more than a handful of coticules and they all will get a razor ready to shave.
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Stop and catch your breath. Have a good drink and a nice cigar. Trim your toenails and your nose hairs. Contemplate your navel and the mysteries of the universe. Take a drive. Take a walk. Shoot squirrels with your finger gun, pew pew pew! March in a protest. Protest a march. Download a Capt Kangaroo episode or two, watch them. See what Mr. Moose and Mr. Bunny Rabbit are up to, and Mr. Green Jeans, too. Clear your mind, empty out your noggin. Don't burn out. That's what The Captain would tell you, I bet.
Good? Good, then. Now go back to the threads and read, read, read, with your subjectivity filters turned on high. I think you said you had a chip. So, you want a coarse repair stone and a standard bevel setter, which might or might not be a stone. Could be film, but that only works if you get the right stuff. If you don't read the relevant threads beginning to end I almost guarantee you will not get the right stuff. Anyway, carefully choose your tools. Think twice, pay once. Forget about whatever you already got, unless after deepest thought and consideration, what you want just so happens by sheer utter coincidence to be exactly what you got. Don't settle for crap stones or stuff that works but not all that great. You DO NOT need any handicaps. Give yourself every advantage while you are beginning the journey.
Pick ONE GUY to listen to, even if it isn't me. I got no dog in this fight. No time right now for ego games. I happen to think my way is the absolute best way particularly for a newbie. Others disagree. That's okay. Pick one maestro to follow and follow him well. Stick to the very dead center of the most well trodden path you can find! Do not go astray, do not ask if this or that will work, do not mix and match techniques, and above all, go until it is done, done, done. There is no "ought to be done". There is only done, or not done. Done incorrectly generally means not done. "Good enough" means not done. So, make sure what you are doing, you are doing correctly, and go until you are done. If you do it exactly the way your chosen maestro does it, with no variation whatsoever, it stands to reason that you will get the same results, nest paw? Or go ahead and throw the dice, use your imagination and your guess fu. The force isn't going to help you. Your chi isn't. Your mojo isn't. Your feng shui isn't. la dee dah dee diddly-eye beebly-boop shooby dooby doo pull step 37 out of the hat isn't gonna work. Find someone you can follow who gets great results and follow. Do the thing exactly the way he does it with the exact same tools that he uses. Don't use faith based honing. No random stuff. There are a lot of ways to get your bevel set, but if you don't use one of those ways, you will probably fail.
Good? Good, then. Now go back to the threads and read, read, read, with your subjectivity filters turned on high. I think you said you had a chip. So, you want a coarse repair stone and a standard bevel setter, which might or might not be a stone. Could be film, but that only works if you get the right stuff. If you don't read the relevant threads beginning to end I almost guarantee you will not get the right stuff. Anyway, carefully choose your tools. Think twice, pay once. Forget about whatever you already got, unless after deepest thought and consideration, what you want just so happens by sheer utter coincidence to be exactly what you got. Don't settle for crap stones or stuff that works but not all that great. You DO NOT need any handicaps. Give yourself every advantage while you are beginning the journey.
Pick ONE GUY to listen to, even if it isn't me. I got no dog in this fight. No time right now for ego games. I happen to think my way is the absolute best way particularly for a newbie. Others disagree. That's okay. Pick one maestro to follow and follow him well. Stick to the very dead center of the most well trodden path you can find! Do not go astray, do not ask if this or that will work, do not mix and match techniques, and above all, go until it is done, done, done. There is no "ought to be done". There is only done, or not done. Done incorrectly generally means not done. "Good enough" means not done. So, make sure what you are doing, you are doing correctly, and go until you are done. If you do it exactly the way your chosen maestro does it, with no variation whatsoever, it stands to reason that you will get the same results, nest paw? Or go ahead and throw the dice, use your imagination and your guess fu. The force isn't going to help you. Your chi isn't. Your mojo isn't. Your feng shui isn't. la dee dah dee diddly-eye beebly-boop shooby dooby doo pull step 37 out of the hat isn't gonna work. Find someone you can follow who gets great results and follow. Do the thing exactly the way he does it with the exact same tools that he uses. Don't use faith based honing. No random stuff. There are a lot of ways to get your bevel set, but if you don't use one of those ways, you will probably fail.
I don't have anything constructive to say other than keep at it. I had an easier time learning to shave than I had learning to hone, but got there eventually.
It's worth the time and effort (and hopefully no ruined razors) because shaving on a good edge that you put on yourself really is something else.
It's worth the time and effort (and hopefully no ruined razors) because shaving on a good edge that you put on yourself really is something else.
Yep, its practice and your not the first or will be the last to have this problem, but keep going and you will soon be posting on what a great shave you had.
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