Convex club.

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I just have to weigh in on this most epic of threads... I've been happily shaving away with straights now for four or five years and maintaining them with Naniwas and my two coticules, though I haven't been on B&B for a while. Last month I went to the TSS website for my annual soap and aftershave purchase, and what should I discover but he's selling Arkansas stones! Picked up a convex black translucent originally for a friend but figured I'd give it a try first! 400 or so laps and three shaves on a test razor later and my friend can buy his own darn stone because I'm keeping this one!

I could obviously write a whole series of posts / shave journal about tells that a totally blind person uses on different stones and how it's totally possible to get a nice sharp edge totally eyes-free, but right off the bat I like the way the edge sort of smooths out sound-wise 40 or so strokes into a set of 100 strokes. I'm getting to where I can actually feel the balistol coming up over the edge, and, more importantly and extremely fascinating to me, I can actually feel parts of the blade that *aren't* getting balistol! I always tried to do this on coticules with slurry but I just can't feel it as well. It's also crazy-fascinating that you can feel the up-hill and the down-hill, and the part of the blade that's getting the attention as you go. I hone on the counter, not with stone in my off-hand.

I haven't felt this way in a while, but it may be time to get an Ebay special and put it on the Naniwas (or try out the soft Ark I also picked up,) and then see what this finisher can do. Just had to share...

I hope to achieve that feel. My hearing isn't good enough to hear the edge; that must be so cool to hear.
Trying to imagine honing without sight and shaving without sight is beyond me.

Somehow what you're doing sounds both normal as apple pie and also BOSC-level crazy. I like it.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Zach]

I hope to achieve that feel. My hearing isn't good enough to hear the edge; that must be so cool to hear.
Trying to imagine honing without sight and shaving without sight is beyond me.

Somehow what you're doing sounds both normal as apple pie and also BOSC-level crazy. I like it.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Thanks! 'Tis normal as apple pie for me, though I couldn't have imagined myself doing it even five years ago. Just ordered two gold dollars. My plan is to put one on the naniwas from bevel to 12k and put the other on the convex soft ark, then finish both on the translucent and compare. Maybe I'll post some videos / sound recordings of those finishing sessions so you can hear. I bet if you get a good pair of headphones and turn Youtube videos of people honing up loud enough you can learn to hear edges reaching their finishing points; that's actually a big part of how I learned. Then I'll give those gold dollars away to promote the hobby as someone up-thread mentioned; that was a really good idea!

I have one razor (my favorite right now) which I honed using dilucot on a coticule and then did a bunch of laps on the translucent. That one gave me a baby-smooth face this morning with two passes and very little effort. The ones done on the naniwas feel a little harsher to me, even with 200 or 300 laps on the translucent. I've also experimented with lather (using the left-over lather from the shave to do a hundred or so laps on the translucent on the bathroom counter,) but I think I'm coming around to balistol over lather.

 

[Basil]

Glad you are enjoying the ark. Really happy with my ark too. Gives some amazing edges for sure!

 

[A Cut Above]

With the convex, if your edge is in shave ready condition, you shouldn't need more then 20 laps. I find mineral oil to work the best. I have taken the razor from the convex stone to 5-7 laps on my Escher and the edge and shave are amazing. Best ever. Less is better. Start with fewer laps and increase 3-5 laps at a time to shave to see what improvement is being done. This shows you can go from the convex to the flat and back with no problems.

 

[MilkyLee]

A question for you gents who have the soft convex arks: Have you seen any degradation in the convexing after multiple uses? I understand the translucent stones will most likely never have to be re-lapped, but how often for the soft arks?

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

A question for you gents who have the soft convex arks: Have you seen any degradation in the convexing after multiple uses? I understand the translucent stones will most likely never have to be re-lapped, but how often for the soft arks?

Not sure how I'd tell, but no.

The "soft" side of my DCA is very hard, just not as fine a stone as the hard side/finishing side.

I'm no expert so this is just my observation as I've used the kit over a few months.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[A Cut Above]

Jarrod told me you would have to hone a lot of razors, ie like he does, to ever see any change. These stones are very hard.

 

[StuartT]

Jarrod told me you would have to hone a lot of razors, ie like he does, to ever see any change. These stones are very hard.

+1

 

[kohalajohn]

I have not seen any degradation in my convex soft ark. But then, it's not seen a huge amount of use.

And also, like they said, "soft" is a bit of a misnomer. It's a very dense rock, and the current thinking is that we'll not have to reconvex it in our lifetime.

If we do, then in ten or twenty years I'll just send it back to Jarrod for a convexing.

 

[kohalajohn]

Zach, I'll be very interested in your sound recording project.

 

[MilkyLee]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

For today's efforts I used mineral oil.

I believe I like this MO best of the ones I've tried, but I'm not convinced it works as well as Ballistol/water mixtures. Maybe it does.

The Torrey (left) was honed on the white Norton convex. The Tanifuji, on both sides of the DCA, and then on the Norton.

I'm trying to improve these edges. After shaving today with the Tanifuji post honing I believe its edge can still be improved upon.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[kohalajohn]

Keep on the journey, man.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

More work on these two. Both sides of the DCA using Ballistol/water mixture. Shave test with the Tanifuji reveals improvement but it's not where I want it.

 

[blancom]

Purchased a combination convex black/soft Ark stone from SS in late August. Used the black arkansas on a few straights to touch up the blades, no issues, pleased with the black. Friday was going to set a bevel on the soft side (first time side used) and noticed a crack when applied water and ballistol mix.

It runs across the whole way through and on both edges. Was only visible to me when wet, fingernail scrape gives a faint bump.

Emailed the vendor he says "only affects my stones pride"?

Not sure I want to set a bevel on a stone with a crack, seeking advise from knowledgeable forum members.

Thank you.

 

[bluesman 7]

If you can't feel the crack when the razor passes over it, it should be OK.

 

[stone and strop]

Emailed the vendor he says "only affects my stones pride"?

Very helpful!

I would ask for a replacement. Not inquire about the obvious crack in your new hone.
Unless you paid for a "second" quality hone of course. Felt or not, it is a flaw.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I don't know enough about the stone to be sure whether it's a problem or not, but Jarrod has a great reputation as a straight shooter. He's talked me out of buying things by telling me I didn't really need them when it would have been easy for him to say nothing and get a sale.

That said, I'm not saying I have a clue about this or about the next step, but have you honed on the stone? How does it feel?

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[blancom]

Regarding my previous post did not infer a flippant response or reference out of context on Combination stone issue. Vendor made it VERY clear the change in feel must be unidirectional and that is a VERY important point.

 

[blancom]

Tested soft side with razor and knives it feels ok. Thank you.