Convex balsa strop?

[Xijukx]

Finally applied the .1 to the convex leather. Funny how trying to apply and use these makes me feel like a newbie.

I let the paste dry and then stropped the concave edge. The edge off it was pretty nice.

So i need to use these pastes more or less for every shave?

Hehe, it's okay. I was stubborn about it for the longest time. Felt like using the balsa was akin to using a cheat code. Still do. I love my escher edges but if I feel like I'm having trouble with a pass I'll have a method edge ready to switch hit.

You can touch up on the .1 u each shave, but if you had all 3 going then depending on how the edge feels after 5 or so shaves you could take it back through all 3 rather than touching up on a finisher hone. It depends. Some guys treat the .1 u like stropping.

Did you take a gander to see if it definitely made contact along the entirety of the blades edge?

 

[global_dev]

Did you take a gander to see if it definitely made contact along the entirety of the blades edge?

Not yet. Will do when i get some time. I think the only issue is that its a bit harder to see striation direction change with convex hones as far as i can tell, but I’ll give a look.

 

[kohalajohn]

On the ATG, drop your shave angle to bare minimum. Let the spine nearly drag on the skin. Also try TWO WTG passes before ATG. And stretch the skin "upstream" always. Of course you could also drop ATG altogether. Two WTG passes with a very sharp edge makes for a rather nice shave.

Could you explain what you mean by stretching the skin "upstream"?

 

[Slash McCoy]

Could you explain what you mean by stretching the skin "upstream"?

Toward the root, not toward the tip of the hair. The direction that will stand the whisker more nearly straight up.

 

[kohalajohn]

So about convexing the balsa.

I maintain on some convex stones, but I choose not to convex my balsa.

I shave with a seven day mixed set. On the weekend a give them all a finish. Two of them are maintained on a convex black ark and the other five on flat pasted balsa.

If I was going to get into convexing my balsa, I'd get the nylon concave lapping plate from TSS, put a sheet of 400 sandpaper on it and lap on that.

But I don't plan to.

I think having a convex bevel, just by itself, is a difference that is very small. It only makes sense if your underlying progression is convex and you want to keep that convex bevel.

But most of our rocks are flat, so that would not work. I have only two razors that I have honed on convex from the start. And only on those two do I maintain on convex.

The advantages of convex, imo, relate only to arks. Arks are unusually hard. That is why I think it makes sense for arks to be convex.

First, lapping and burnishing an ark that you buy is a huge pain in the ***. I've seen guys just lose patience after days of trying and actually throw the ark away in frustration.

So, since you're paying a vendor, also have him do all the lapping for you. And if he's doing that anyway, use Jarod and have him use his convex lapping plates to make it convex while he's at it.

Convex on an ark is great. Since I've already decided I never want to lap the damn things, I have the vendor put a hill on it and then I never had to lap it in my lifetime. The convexity means that in addition to the ridiculous hardness of it, it has meat stored in the bank, and I'll never get it dished on me, in my life.

Convexity also deals with second headache with arks. They are slow. But convexity means you are concentrating the force on that one point of the edge that is riding along the top of the hill. So that speeds them up.

I have a convex soft ark that is good for bevel setting, but it is fast enough I can continue with it as a mid range progression, and then jump straight to my convex black ark for finishing. I would not want to do that with flat arks.

I shaved yesterday with a Bismarck that lives on only the convex soft ark and convex black ark and it was a great shave.

But all these advantages relate to the unique characteristics of arks.

I think all arks should be convex and everything else should be flat.

And finally, flatness on balsa has an advantage. Pasted balsa is abrasive stropping. The advantage of stropping is that the edge sinks into the soft medium and the soft medium curves up to hug the very edge of the edge. Neither a flat hone nor a convex hone will do that trick of curving up to wrap around the leading edge of the edge.

If you convex your balsa, you'll lose that advantage.

Convexing your bevel does assist with sharpness, a bit. It's nice to have. But having the edge sink into a soft stropping medium, for me, even exceeds that.

My flat pasted balsa exceeds the convex black ark for sharpness, which is saying a lot.

Picture of the Bismarck on a convex black ark is below:

 

[Slash McCoy]

I totally get your meaning on the smaller contact area of a convex Arkie giving you more pressure on one small area at a time, but if you are not very careful, this could be counterproductive. IME, once past the bevel setting stage, LIGHTER pressure, not heavier pressure, is essential for the sharpest possible edge. Pressure is the enemy. You don't overhone by too many laps. You overhone by too much pressure AND too many laps, or even without too many laps. It is quite possible to raise a big enough wire or fin edge that the balsa can't remove it. Concentrating your pressure is something that you could easily overdo.

A well burnished hard Arkie is slow. Too bad, so sad. It's just the way it is. Lots of laps, same light pressure, will still gitter done, and put a pretty good edge on a razor.

 

[kohalajohn]

Yeah, maintenance is becoming about lighter and lighter pressure. And there's something attractive frequent maintenance and super light pressure that leads to "super sharp".

I'm lucky, I don't have trouble with sensitive skin, or needing comfort. I can do a three pass in the morning and a three pass in the evening and my skin is fine.

I have fun with the stones, but sometimes to hell with it, I just want a shave with a super sharp edge and nothing else matters. So I go to the straight that is maintained on the balsa, or I grab an Artist Club Feather Professional.

 

[lightfoot]

I have fun with the stones, but sometimes to hell with it, I just want a shave with a super sharp edge and nothing else matters. So I go to the straight that is maintained on the balsa, or I grab an Artist Club Feather Professional.

If you read the literature included with most new SR’s they seem to encourage the user/owner to maintain the edge with some kind of compound. I just prepared a few convex poplar strops that I’m going to charge with some recently acquired compounds and see how long this can keep my brand new (still unused) T.I. shaving. I know that we’re all stone hounds here but I often wonder if we’ve went a bit overboard with it. Virtually all current SR makers finish on compounds so they’re only looking for the stones to get the razor to a point in which a paste can take over. I know there’s some debate as to whether or not most new blades are shave-ready out of the box but I don’t want to go there. But my personal opinion is that compounds overwhelmingly make the most sense for regular maintenance. Stones come back into play when compounds are unable to recover the edge. Pastes don’t get a lot of appreciation but they really shine in terms of what they’re intended for. Sometimes I believe that we get a serious case of tunnel vision when it comes to stones...

 

[kohalajohn]

I just prepared a few convex poplar strops that I’m going to charge with some recently acquired compounds and see how long this can keep my brand new (still unused) T.I. shaving.

I'm also interested in convex pasted wood.

I use The Method but fifty laps after every shave is a lot of laps. In terms of number of laps per shave, that's even slower than an ark.

Convexing might speed that up, the way it sped up my ark.

Although be careful. We don't want to be seen praising convex hones online. Remember the first rule of convex honing club is never talk about convex honing club.

 

[bluesman 7]

If you read the literature included with most new SR’s they seem to encourage the user/owner to maintain the edge with some kind of compound. I just prepared a few convex poplar strops that I’m going to charge with some recently acquired compounds and see how long this can keep my brand new (still unused) T.I. shaving. I know that we’re all stone hounds here but I often wonder if we’ve went a bit overboard with it. Virtually all current SR makers finish on compounds so they’re only looking for the stones to get the razor to a point in which a paste can take over. I know there’s some debate as to whether or not most new blades are shave-ready out of the box but I don’t want to go there. But my personal opinion is that compounds overwhelmingly make the most sense for regular maintenance. Stones come back into play when compounds are unable to recover the edge. Pastes don’t get a lot of appreciation but they really shine in terms of what they’re intended for. Sometimes I believe that we get a serious case of tunnel vision when it comes to stones...

I'll be very interested in your results. I'm hoping that you are going to use that razor nearly exclusively so that we can hear about it in some reasonable amount of time, as we already know that just clean strops can easily take a razor beyond 100 shaves. Are you planning on using the pastes on a regular schedule or just as a touch up when needed? What are the compounds?

 

[lightfoot]

I'll be very interested in your results. I'm hoping that you are going to use that razor nearly exclusively so that we can hear about it in some reasonable amount of time, as we already know that just clean strops can easily take a razor beyond 100 shaves. Are you planning on using the pastes on a regular schedule or just as a touch up when needed? What are the compounds?

My thought is to do no more than 4-7 strokes on paste. I don’t know if I’m going to use CrOx, Dovo black or red, or T.I. white paste for maintenance. I probably need to pick one and stay with it. The only reason I mentioned a convex strop was to stay congruent with the original bevel shape.

 

[kohalajohn]

My goals are a little bit different. Eventually I'll convex one of my .1u diamond pasted balsas.

One advantage is messing with The Method, which annoys the heck out of Slash.

But also I want to see if a Convex Method will give me the same benefits but with less work.