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Finally, a decent blade

I have been honing for about two months now, practicing on beaters from eBay. It's been very rewarding, but very frustrating as well. These beaters had less than perfect grinds and a multitude of problems likely based upon poor honing by previous users. Some had the toe rolled and I could not get a bevel there. I did not want to roll the toe, because I use it for outlining my beard. I wanted it sharp and I did not want to roll every time I honed or touched up. So I did super hard and fast half strokes to get there. And I got a nice blue/red patina on the steel. I knew immediately I had heated the steel above 900°F and destroyed the temper. And now there was no way to get and hold an edge on that blade.

But by working with less than great blades, removing chips, and making mistakes, I learned to keep the blade flat, ride with the undercut of water and work without much pressure. And I got better at lapping the stones.

And finally, I got a good blade from eBay. Winning with a low bid, I got a Kinfolks Blue Steel Special. It was in pristine condition. While not shave ready, there was no spine wear and the scales indicated little use. I had heard that there were some great American razors out there and Kinfolks was listed as one. Starting with no work, it would not slit the cherry tomato. I marked the blade with a sharpie and it took only two x-strokes on my Naniwa 1000 to completely remove the ink. It took about 20 x-strokes to create a bevel. I felt like I was watching the Doc226 video. My strokes were very low pressure and effortless. I was then able to slice the cherry from heel to toe with ease. Finally, a good bevel from heel to toe! Now I look forward to taking this razor out to 12k and then smoothing it with my Oozuku.

I have some well respected razors that I bought new, such as Ralf Aust, Le Grelot and Wacker. This effort tells me that I will be able to hone or touch them up when needed. This also confirms the great advice I have gotten on this forum and thanks to all of you for that. BTW, the other razor in the photo is a Japanese Rosette with a 2-1/4 inch blade.

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So I did super hard and fast half strokes to get there. And I got a nice blue/red patina on the steel. I knew immediately I had heated the steel above 900°F and destroyed the temper. And now there was no way to get and hold an edge on that blade.

900 degrees F by hand honing........dude, I never wish to arm wrestle you :-O

Glad you got a great edge finally. There are many variables that lead to a great edge. Don’t be disappointed if next one is not so perfect as that is part of learning too. Blaming the eBay razors is exactly analogous to guys who blame rifles for not shooting straight - chances are you just didn’t have the experience yet. But that’s why they are great to learn on. When you can easily fix lost-cause junk razors, then few other razors will stump you. In this instance, you had a good bevel, good honing, good stropping, and good shaving. Those are all the major buckets of variables that it takes for a good shave and many details in each bucket like prep and soap and technique during the shave for example. There is so much to get right other than the razor and honing......in fact I still think good stropping can be one of the greatest influences.
 
With a small area like the toe of a blade and a coarse 600 chosera it's easy to get enough friction for a high temperature. The blue/red patina confirmed that. I was moving fast with downward pressure.

I won't do that again!
 
Those new razors look awesome, glad you’re making progress.

I highly doubt you screwed up the temper sharpening by hand on a wet stone, it’s much more likely that what you’re seeing is some form of surface level oxidation from being exposed to water/some of the chemicals in the stone for an extended period of time.
 
Well, it's definitely surface oxidation. And that's what happens when you heat steel. But since you feel it may just be from exposure, I'll keep those razors around. Perhaps to practice on or even pass around. But it's odd that the only oxidation is at the very tip, where I was working hard.
 
I definitely would keep the razors, even if you did effect the temper of the steel sharpening by hand, which I really don’t think you did, the area effected would be quite small and easy to hone past.

If you really want to test, grab a cheap razor, go at it on the stone, and feel if you’ve generated any warmth at all. I would presume that if you got the edge hot enough to effect the temper, the area right behind the edge would at least be warm to the touch.
 
Out to 12k and treetopping with ease. But not so great on the HHT. Got a few hairs, but not all. When I did get a working hair, I could cut it with repeatability. Next step will be another session on the 12k. I will follow that with diamond paste or jnat; not sure. Maybe go back to the 8k?
 
It took about 20 x-strokes to create a bevel. I felt like I was watching the Doc226 video. My strokes were very low pressure and effortless. I was then able to slice the cherry from heel to toe with ease.

It sounds like you have made huge progress - congrats!

I remember you describing some of your earlier experiences at bevel setting :). And I can definitely relate to the experience of gaining efficiency when honing. I guess it's like anything else, you just learn by doing.
 
I’ve always struggled to do well with the HHT. I think my girlfriend has very long quite fine hair so sometimes it cuts but mostly it doesn’t depending on how I hold it and where along the length I try to cut it. A DE blade has better results with the same pieces of hair but it’s still intermittent. Here’s the thing though. Although I can get the DE blade to cut the HH better there’s no way it shaves better. I think the DE blade might just be more ‘toothy’ so it cuts the hair better but isn’t sharper.
 
I agree completely. My wife also has ridiculously fine hair. Sometimes I can cut it, if I seriously endanger the digits holding it. Usually I feel like the Bugs Bunny cartoon where he forms the hair into a loop and saws through it! I just had a shave with a coticule sharpened W&B that would barely treetop and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Or, maybe I just suck at honing!
 
This HHT is a funny business. I can get a good shave with a jnat edge that fails HHT. But I have sent my jnat and razor to Alfredo for testing the jnat and honing my razor with it. Alfredo gets a sharp edge with a jnat that passes HHT. While passing HHT is not the most important thing, it says something about my honing ability with the jnat. So id Alfredo can get an HHT edge with my jnat, it means I need to practice more with the stone. I easily pass HHT with a balsa/diamond progression.
 
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