Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Arrived today...
Nice. 8x3x0.5. Made by Dan's (and God of course).
Happy shaves,
Jim
Nice. 8x3x0.5. Made by Dan's (and God of course).
Happy shaves,
Jim
Finally bought an Ark
- Thread starter David
- Start date
You are going to love that stone! Getting it dialed in will be an adventure. Don't give up!. Arks are very rewarding when mastered.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I now have the kit I need to smooth and make this stone ready for use. Plus, I've figured out what I was doing wrong in checking surfaces for true flatness, link.
Today I'm busy watching college football but I will get going tomorrow if the creek don't rise.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Its a time consuming process you may wish to watch football and lap at the same time....lol
Yes that is correct you use the edge not flat wide bottom
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Today was pretty much an all day razor.
I started off by smoothing my new Arkansas. I used the method outlined in this video. Even though I purchased the array of SIC powders I used only the 220 and the 600 (like in the video). That seemed to work just fine.
The razor I used as a dry honing implement on the stone was my Gold Dollar 1996.
Next, I worked some on more restoration of a Wade and Butcher (above) I bought to work on. The photo (as purchased) makes it look a lot better than it was. Not saying it was horrible, but sometimes photos are flattering.
I'm not terribly impressed with my restoration job, but what I did certainly improved the razor. None of the photos show the writing on the tang or on the face, but it's there and in decent shape and I didn't want to remove it. There was a great deal of discoloration in spots and places; I got rid of a lot of it.
The lowest grit I used was 80. For some reason I didn't have 3000 grit sandpaper. I sure thought I'd bought the 3K. Still, I'm probably going to do another round of restoration when I remove the scales.
That's if I remove the scales. They're pretty horrible, but they function (I had to tighten up the pin because the blade was way too loose). For now, the scales will do + they'd be better with just a little bit of sanding. Sanding won't remove the split - by the tang pin - in the wood though.
Once the razor looked half decent I broke out my honing kit and got busy.
The Steelex doesn't get any press around here, but I surely like mine. I found out about it reading stuff on the Classic Edge website. Link. Mine was purchased on Amazon at a good price, link. I'm not touting the stone - I don't know enough to do anything more than report my experiences - but I like mine.
My final honing was done on the Arkansas hard black stone mentioned above. Like the guy in the video I used soap and water. I've already forgotten exactly how many laps I did, but it was pretty many. Maybe a couple of hundred.
I stropped on my wonderful Professional Strop from Classic Edge.
Anyway, how was the shave?
In a word...Great!
The edge was, I think, as sharp as any razor I've used. However, the edge was a lot kinder feeling than the other razor edges I've been exposed to. It just felt nice on my skin, this Arkansas edge did.
Count me as another guy pretty happy with his first Arkansas stone experience. I also want to thank all the gentlemen who've put up with my newbie questions and helped me. I have no idea how anybody could manage the SR world without help.
I will definitely be using this razor and this stone again.
Here's one more photo of the Wade. The top razor is the GD 1996 I used for dry honing today.
Happy shaves,
Jim
I started off by smoothing my new Arkansas. I used the method outlined in this video. Even though I purchased the array of SIC powders I used only the 220 and the 600 (like in the video). That seemed to work just fine.
The razor I used as a dry honing implement on the stone was my Gold Dollar 1996.
Next, I worked some on more restoration of a Wade and Butcher (above) I bought to work on. The photo (as purchased) makes it look a lot better than it was. Not saying it was horrible, but sometimes photos are flattering.
I'm not terribly impressed with my restoration job, but what I did certainly improved the razor. None of the photos show the writing on the tang or on the face, but it's there and in decent shape and I didn't want to remove it. There was a great deal of discoloration in spots and places; I got rid of a lot of it.
The lowest grit I used was 80. For some reason I didn't have 3000 grit sandpaper. I sure thought I'd bought the 3K. Still, I'm probably going to do another round of restoration when I remove the scales.
That's if I remove the scales. They're pretty horrible, but they function (I had to tighten up the pin because the blade was way too loose). For now, the scales will do + they'd be better with just a little bit of sanding. Sanding won't remove the split - by the tang pin - in the wood though.
Once the razor looked half decent I broke out my honing kit and got busy.
- That's probably 200-300 laps on the Chosera 1K.
- Then about a hundred on the the N-SS 3K.
- Next were many, many laps on the Steelex 8K. The second half of these were with lather.
The Steelex doesn't get any press around here, but I surely like mine. I found out about it reading stuff on the Classic Edge website. Link. Mine was purchased on Amazon at a good price, link. I'm not touting the stone - I don't know enough to do anything more than report my experiences - but I like mine.
My final honing was done on the Arkansas hard black stone mentioned above. Like the guy in the video I used soap and water. I've already forgotten exactly how many laps I did, but it was pretty many. Maybe a couple of hundred.
I stropped on my wonderful Professional Strop from Classic Edge.
Anyway, how was the shave?
In a word...Great!
The edge was, I think, as sharp as any razor I've used. However, the edge was a lot kinder feeling than the other razor edges I've been exposed to. It just felt nice on my skin, this Arkansas edge did.
Count me as another guy pretty happy with his first Arkansas stone experience. I also want to thank all the gentlemen who've put up with my newbie questions and helped me. I have no idea how anybody could manage the SR world without help.
I will definitely be using this razor and this stone again.
Here's one more photo of the Wade. The top razor is the GD 1996 I used for dry honing today.
Happy shaves,
Jim
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Excellent work there Jim!
Another milestone in the SR/honing journey.
I'm so glad the Ark did it for you as mine did for me, it really does make for a smoother feeling edge.
Another milestone in the SR/honing journey.
I'm so glad the Ark did it for you as mine did for me, it really does make for a smoother feeling edge.
The arky are slow but they are the best value imo.
Another Arkansas convert!!!! Two thumbs way up! Gamma's advice to lap to 600 grit has really improved my results.
I'm making all of the rookie mistakes.
I lapped my Ark a few weeks ago. I cross-hatched lines with a pencil, and when they all rubbed off, I thought it was good. I did it a couple of times to be sure. Ha, ha.
Lately, every time I tried to finish with my Arkansas, I would lose my edge and have disappointing results. So this morning I started rereading posts on this site. Back to basics. I found a metal straight edge, put it to my Ark (and also an Escher). Neither were flat.
I have been working the Ark with 120/220 grit for about 2 1/2 hours, and finally the Ark looks flat. I noticed while flattening that the grit will work its way to the outside where it dries and builds up. And that would wear the outside edges more, so I was very careful to keep the grit / slurry wet on the edges. I was also careful to keep up a figure eight to avoid a convex finish.
Now I'm at 400 grit. Then 600. I'll be at this for another hour, at least. Then maybe some finer w/d sandpaper and a straight razor to season the surface.
I lapped my Ark a few weeks ago. I cross-hatched lines with a pencil, and when they all rubbed off, I thought it was good. I did it a couple of times to be sure. Ha, ha.
Lately, every time I tried to finish with my Arkansas, I would lose my edge and have disappointing results. So this morning I started rereading posts on this site. Back to basics. I found a metal straight edge, put it to my Ark (and also an Escher). Neither were flat.
I have been working the Ark with 120/220 grit for about 2 1/2 hours, and finally the Ark looks flat. I noticed while flattening that the grit will work its way to the outside where it dries and builds up. And that would wear the outside edges more, so I was very careful to keep the grit / slurry wet on the edges. I was also careful to keep up a figure eight to avoid a convex finish.
Now I'm at 400 grit. Then 600. I'll be at this for another hour, at least. Then maybe some finer w/d sandpaper and a straight razor to season the surface.
Here is the best thing you can have too tell if your stones are dead flat. I have one and it’s incredible. A little pricey but it pays for itself when your taking hours too lap a stone.
Gamma recommend this to me a few years ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Starrett-380...aight+edge&dpPl=1&dpID=11Xpntk5YAL&ref=plSrch
Gamma recommend this to me a few years ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Starrett-380...aight+edge&dpPl=1&dpID=11Xpntk5YAL&ref=plSrch
What I don’t like about sandpaper is the edges lift and that wears the outside edges of the stone and makes them lower than the center and rest of stone. As long as your lapping surface is flat this won’t happen with lapping powders
Thanks Lucas.
Your welcome
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
You might compare it with this straight edge, linked. I have and have been using this tool but I claim no expertise. The specs are what I consider good and I have been pretty impressed in my dealings with the company selling it.
Keith is an expert, so you might want to go with what he advises.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Better deal than what I paid for mine. I bought mine bout two years ago if that one works it’s half the price save the cash and get the one you recommend, if I didn’t have mine I’d buy the one that’s cheaper.
Can't get cheaper than mine. Made it myself. Checked with dial indicator on granite surface plate. Gentlemen by sure to protect your straight edges. If you ding it on a corner of the edge it will raise a burr that will show light on a flat surface.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I'm pretty impressed with the feeling of my Ark edges. I've now honed two of my razors with the Ark in the manner and using the kit outlined above in post #608, linked.
I saw somewhere in this thread that Keith @Gamma does maybe 300 laps on the Ark. I don't think I'm doing that many (so far), but maybe (probably) I should be since Keith knows what he's doing and I've about a thimble full of honing experience.
Long ago I had a contest with the woman I shared an office with. She did all her shopping by catalog. This was before the internet. Anyway, she got lots and lots of catalogs in the mail being on all the catalog shoppers mailing lists I guess. I decided to see if I could spend very little money actually buying stuff but still get more catalogs than she did. It was hugely fun. I received the most amazing specialty catalogs. I decided I'd won the game when I had received several catalogs from vendors selling thimbles to collectors.
My woman friend didn't know it was a contest.
Anyway, I have a question. Actually several.
The main one is this: What is the Arkansas (mine's a Hard Black) doing? I see several options.
Okay, we all know the actual answer is buy them all - coticles, jnats, synthetics, films, Thuringians, etc. - but I'm not currently inclined to buy anything I don't actually need because my wife says she's on the warpath or something and I'm supposed to keep my credit card offline.
Regardless, I can certainly talk myself into buying a couple of stones - particularly the 5K and the 12K Kuromaku stones, linked here, which seem like a relative bargain, but only if I need them. As in actually need them to sharpen my razor sufficiently.
The 5K might fill in a hole in my progression and the 12K might make my razor sharper. Or, maybe not. Maybe I'm good now.
Like everyone else I want the razor I'm using to be both comfortable as sin and sharp as sharp can be. I really don't know whether I'm getting what I want yet. I know my razors are shaving me, and I know the shave is comfortable, but which option should I pursue?
For the record I know it takes a hundred shaves to learn the SR. I'm not in a rush and my shaves are improving.
It really is very cool to hone your own razor; seems to me the Hard Black Arkansas is a great stone. Everybody should try one. I also have a Zulu Grey ordered. It will arrive in a few months.
Happy shaves,
Jim
I saw somewhere in this thread that Keith @Gamma does maybe 300 laps on the Ark. I don't think I'm doing that many (so far), but maybe (probably) I should be since Keith knows what he's doing and I've about a thimble full of honing experience.
Long ago I had a contest with the woman I shared an office with. She did all her shopping by catalog. This was before the internet. Anyway, she got lots and lots of catalogs in the mail being on all the catalog shoppers mailing lists I guess. I decided to see if I could spend very little money actually buying stuff but still get more catalogs than she did. It was hugely fun. I received the most amazing specialty catalogs. I decided I'd won the game when I had received several catalogs from vendors selling thimbles to collectors.
My woman friend didn't know it was a contest.
Anyway, I have a question. Actually several.
The main one is this: What is the Arkansas (mine's a Hard Black) doing? I see several options.
- It's mostly just polishing the edge and making it feel better on your skin.
- It might be improving how your blade feels but it is also actually making the razor sharper than any 8K, or 10K, or 12K stone could possibly make it.
- It's magic and nobody knows what it is doing.
Okay, we all know the actual answer is buy them all - coticles, jnats, synthetics, films, Thuringians, etc. - but I'm not currently inclined to buy anything I don't actually need because my wife says she's on the warpath or something and I'm supposed to keep my credit card offline.
Regardless, I can certainly talk myself into buying a couple of stones - particularly the 5K and the 12K Kuromaku stones, linked here, which seem like a relative bargain, but only if I need them. As in actually need them to sharpen my razor sufficiently.
The 5K might fill in a hole in my progression and the 12K might make my razor sharper. Or, maybe not. Maybe I'm good now.
Like everyone else I want the razor I'm using to be both comfortable as sin and sharp as sharp can be. I really don't know whether I'm getting what I want yet. I know my razors are shaving me, and I know the shave is comfortable, but which option should I pursue?
- If I spent a lot more time on the Ark my razors would be sharper?
- If I honed to 12K before the Ark my razors would be sharper?
- If I honed to 12K and then used the Ark my razors would be just like they are now because the Ark isn't making the razor sharper; the Ark may be making the edge more comfortable but probably at the price of taking away some of the sharpness?
- There's more to this than I know, but you're going to clue me in I hope?
For the record I know it takes a hundred shaves to learn the SR. I'm not in a rush and my shaves are improving.
It really is very cool to hone your own razor; seems to me the Hard Black Arkansas is a great stone. Everybody should try one. I also have a Zulu Grey ordered. It will arrive in a few months.
Happy shaves,
Jim
