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Dulled my blade on a finishing stone

If your stone isn't flat it can eat your edge, especially an ark. Strop after, it'll help. The amount torque or pressure you hone with can also cause problems. I find ark do better if you start with some pressure and lighten up as you go. Where did your stone come from? Got any pictures of it?
It’s new from Dan Whetstone.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
 

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Greg, is this the Ralph Aust you posted about earlier?

If so, the razor needs to be properly honed, the Ark did not damage the edge, then you can learn to maintain it. It is very common for new stroppers to roll a shaving edge. It only takes one missed stroke on the strop.

A better finisher to learn to maintain an edge is a 12k Naniwia Super Stone or an 8k Naniwia Snow White. You will also need a 300-600 diamond lapping plate to lap and maintain the stone. This will get you shaving and keep you shaving. You will still need to perfect your stropping.

Perhaps someone local could help you out.

Where are you located?
I’m practicing on my Gold Dollar 208. I sent my Ralf Aust to the ShaveSmith to be honed. By the time I need to refresh the edge on the Ralf Aust, I want to know what I’m doing.

I’m in Puyallup, WA
 
It’s new from Dan Whetstone.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

A Dan's whetstone should be flat enough coming out of the box, but the stone's surface needs to be smoothed first for it to excel as a finisher. There are different schools on how to achieve this. One is just to use it until the blades have smoothed the surface. The other is to carefully lap it, anywhere from 120x on up to 2000x depending on how much aggression versus polish is desired. If choosing the former method, I would recommend honing with knives for a while before introducing a razor.

As for what caused your razor to "dull" after you honed with it, I would put it down to inexperience. But everyone has to start out at some point, and it only gets better with experience. As others have suggested, try stropping to see if that improves the edge, but with stropping, experience is also key. I never shave directly off a stone without stropping.
 
A Dan's whetstone should be flat enough coming out of the box, but the stone's surface needs to be smoothed first for it to excel as a finisher. There are different schools on how to achieve this. One is just to use it until the blades have smoothed the surface. The other is to carefully lap it, anywhere from 120x on up to 2000x depending on how much aggression versus polish is desired. If choosing the former method, I would recommend honing with knives for a while before introducing a razor.

As for what caused your razor to "dull" after you honed with it, I would put it down to inexperience. But everyone has to start out at some point, and it only gets better with experience. As others have suggested, try stropping to see if that improves the edge, but with stropping, experience is also key. I never shave directly off a stone without stropping.
For lapping plates (are they called plates or stones?) are there different grits?
 
For lapping plates (are they called plates or stones?) are there different grits?

Don't use a dedicated lapping plate (e.g., a DMT diamond hone for lapping) as the Arkansas stone will quickly trash it. Silicon carbide powder in the 80x to 400x range on thick plate glass works better for Arkansas stones, followed by 600x to 2000x wet/dry sandpaper on plate glass as needed. But Dan's stones don't necessarily need to be lapped; continued use through honing will do the trick as well. For this, knives are more effective from the start as the angle of introduction is generally a little bit steeper than with straight razors.

Edit:
I also note that you appear to be using a pipette to introduce the oil. Not a bad idea! Personally, I hand-hold; and with Dan's honing oil, I wear nitrile gloves. Your stone appears to be 6" x 3", which is pretty wide for a finisher. If you wanted a full Dan's oil-stone progression based on that for practicing on Gold Dollars and beyond, I would suggest picking up one of Dan's 11-1/2" x 2-1/2" x 1/2" fine aluminum oxide "oil bath replacement stones," cutting the length down to 6" with a hacksaw, and a 6" x 3" hard Arkansas. And then just use them out of the box, no lapping apart from occasional redressing of the lower stones as they become worn, clog with swarf, etc. The full sequence would run: fine aluminum oxide > hard Arkansas > black hard Arkansas.
 
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Don't use a dedicated lapping plate (e.g., a DMT diamond hone for lapping) as the Arkansas stone will quickly trash it. Silicon carbide powder in the 80x to 400x range on thick plate glass works better for Arkansas stones, followed by 600x to 2000x wet/dry sandpaper on plate glass as needed. But Dan's stones don't necessarily need to be lapped; continued use through honing will do the trick as well. For this, knives are more effective from the start as the angle of introduction is generally a little bit steeper than with straight razors.

Edit:
I also note that you appear to be using a pipette to introduce the oil. Not a bad idea! Personally, I hand-hold; and with Dan's honing oil, I wear nitrile gloves. Your stone appears to be 6" x 3", which is pretty wide for a finisher. If you wanted a full Dan's oil-stone progression based on that for practicing on Gold Dollars and beyond, I would suggest picking up one of Dan's 11-1/2" x 2-1/2" x 1/2" fine aluminum oxide "oil bath replacement stones," cutting the length down to 6" with a hacksaw, and a 6" x 3" hard Arkansas. And then just use them out of the box, no lapping apart from occasional redressing of the lower stones as they become worn, clog with swarf, etc. The full sequence would run: fine aluminum oxide > hard Arkansas > black hard Arkansas.
I will second that this can be done an be produces an insanely keen edge. When I was going this route I used a fine India, I've replaced it with pretty fine washitas for the most part but good india stones are insanely useful stones to have laying around. Im glad I got one by accident or I probably wouldn't have ever tried one. I like using my fine India to smooth out freshly lapped stones as well, they are amazing for it. It can freshen up the India stone too sometimes as well
 
I will second that this can be done an be produces an insanely keen edge. When I was going this route I used a fine India, I've replaced it with pretty fine washitas for the most part but good india stones are insanely useful stones to have laying around. Im glad I got one by accident or I probably wouldn't have ever tried one. I like using my fine India to smooth out freshly lapped stones as well, they are amazing for it. It can freshen up the India stone too sometimes as well

Just to clarify that the fine India that Empire straights is referring to is analogous to the fine aluminum oxide stone available from Dan's Whetstone. I mentioned the latter because gregory56 has already dealt directly with Dan's Whetstone and because I find Dan's in-house aluminum oxide hone more friable (which is to say quicker acting and less prone to clogging) than the Norton India version. But yes, the fine India works well in this sense and may be much cheaper as sold from a second party. As for Washitas, a no. 1 can still be picked up for cheap on the used market and would serve much the same function, but this involves a bit of experience both as a buyer and a user.
 
Just to clarify that the fine India that Empire straights is referring to is analogous to the fine aluminum oxide stone available from Dan's Whetstone. I mentioned the latter because gregory56 has already dealt directly with Dan's Whetstone and because I find Dan's in-house aluminum oxide hone more friable (which is to say quicker acting and less prone to clogging) than the Norton India version. But yes, the fine India works well in this sense and may be much cheaper as sold from a second party. As for Washitas, a no. 1 can still be picked up for cheap on the used market and would serve much the same function, but this involves a bit of experience both as a buyer and a user.
I've never used Dan's AlOx stones but I do like Nortons old ones. I'll say I've yet to get anything from dans that wasn't fantastic.
 
I had watched various videos prior to honing. Last night, I went to Lynn Abram's video on refreshing the edge. From the advice on this thread, and the Lynn Abram's video, I have a better idea of what I need to do. I also see what I did wrong. My primary mistake was too much pressure.

I did 100 laps on my strop before and after running the blade over the stone. I practiced what Slash McCoy described on how to run the over the stone. I practiced enough times to get a feel for it. I did this couple of days in a row. I'm at the point now where I'm going to send the blade to Portland Razor to get it re-honed.

I have a few more questions as a follow-up to the advice on this thread. I'll post those tomorrow.
 
New arks shed grit. It's one of the reasons behind dressing the stone with a hard steel of some kind.

Here is a guy doing an ark progression with new stones on a knife. It sounds like Rice Krispy's with loose grit rolling around under his blade. I don't mean to be critical of the guy I'm just pointing it out.
 
Don't use a dedicated lapping plate (e.g., a DMT diamond hone for lapping) as the Arkansas stone will quickly trash it. Silicon carbide powder in the 80x to 400x range on thick plate glass works better for Arkansas stones, followed by 600x to 2000x wet/dry sandpaper on plate glass as needed. But Dan's stones don't necessarily need to be lapped; continued use through honing will do the trick as well. For this, knives are more effective from the start as the angle of introduction is generally a little bit steeper than with straight razors.

Edit:
I also note that you appear to be using a pipette to introduce the oil. Not a bad idea! Personally, I hand-hold; and with Dan's honing oil, I wear nitrile gloves. Your stone appears to be 6" x 3", which is pretty wide for a finisher. If you wanted a full Dan's oil-stone progression based on that for practicing on Gold Dollars and beyond, I would suggest picking up one of Dan's 11-1/2" x 2-1/2" x 1/2" fine aluminum oxide "oil bath replacement stones," cutting the length down to 6" with a hacksaw, and a 6" x 3" hard Arkansas. And then just use them out of the box, no lapping apart from occasional redressing of the lower stones as they become worn, clog with swarf, etc. The full sequence would run: fine aluminum oxide > hard Arkansas > black hard Arkansas.
It's been a while. I purchased a Thiers-Issard Le Dandy and have been shaving with that. Already I've had to swipe it on the arkansas black to freshen the edge. I believe the strop I was using was the issue. I'm now using a 3" Oil Tanned Bridle Plain Chocolate Strop from Tony Miller, which is much better.

My Ralph Aust is finally coming back from the Shave Smith honed. Given this, I'm ready to pursue your recommendation. My Gold Dollar is already degraded, so start practicing on it.
 
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