Currently up to shave number 10 with a straight and still haven't experienced a sharp razor - I gave up on the last three shaves after half a pass and finished with a DE.
Latest episode in my honing saga was yesterday - I mentioned in previous posts on a couple of threads that I bought a "shave ready" Gold Dollar 66 and am stuffing about with it, trying to learn the dark arts of honing. A guy on one of the FaceBook pages, showed me a couple of pictures of his GD66 and how you modify the toe and heel by rounding them off to make it sit better on the stone. So I got out the Dremel and away I went. No problems and it didn't look too bad either.
Next step was the bevel - I have read the compendium on the burr method but find it rather confusing. Anyway, I had a go, but couldn't get a burr happening - this was with a 1k Shapton ceramic. I did follow one bit of advice and coloured the edge with a texta. This was really useful - the first couple of passes wore away the black and I could see that bits of the heel and toe were untouched. I kept doing passes until the whole of the edge was shiny. Basically, up and down on one side - 60 passes, then 60 on the other side, 50 and 50, 40 and 40 etc all the way down to 1 pass. Then about 10 x-strokes and repeated a few times over. Using my loupe I could see that it all looked even and it did shave arm hair. Was the bevel set? Absolutely no idea, how do you tell? All I could do was assume it was.
So I proceeded with the progression. I have a Norton 4000/8000. Starting with the 4k I could see the edge getting shinier, however, a bit on side of the toe and the other side of the heel didn't seem to be getting the attention that the rest of the edge was. Was this honing technique, a bent razor, or the stones? How do you tell? I kept going until all the scratches from the 1k were gone and eventually the heel and toe spots were consistent with the rest - all up, a couple of hundred passes.
Same deal with the 8k and then the 12k, another Shapton ceramic. By this time you could see that the edge now had a mirror finish. I did keep testing it on my arm and it did seem to tree top, however as with the actual shaving, I have never experienced a really sharp razor, so nothing to gauge it with. I have found that tree topping isn't a very good test anyway, as arm hair is a lot thinner than whiskers. After a few hours of honing I felt that it was ready to test with a shave.
How did it go in bathroom? Basically, it wouldn't shave - you had to force it through the whiskers and I gave up after half a pass because I was scared it would bog down and suddenly jump free and cut myself.
As I mentioned in another thread, I am getting so disillusioned with the whole thing. I don't really want to spend 6 months learning to hone just to get a half decent shave. It's frustrating that I can't get a shave ready razor. I have sent a Bengall off to a honer in the UK, but it took the post 4 weeks to get there from Australia, due to everything being slow because of the virus. It's now on it's way back but goodness knows how long that will take.
Absolutely no idea of what I am doing wrong and why I can't get it sharp enough to shave with. I think some of it has to do with being able to tell when the honing is ready to go onto the next stage and testing techniques. Cutting arm hair means nothing, and as many have said, your pocket knife can do that. I have seen thumbnail and thumb pad tests on YouTube but no idea of what they are doing and they don't tell you. I have seen stuff about cutting up tomatoes but that's just crazy - surely they can't be serious. My kitchen knives will do that, you know those Wiltshire knives in the self sharpening scabbard?
Maybe there is a step missing with getting your razor sharp enough to shave with - I don't know, everything seems to be there. Starting to understand why you can't buy a shave ready razor, and why there is nobody in this country that you can send your razor to, it's just to difficult to master.
Yeh, I know a lot of people are going to disagree with this and I am happy to be proven wrong, but it's going to be difficult!
cheers
Andrew
Latest episode in my honing saga was yesterday - I mentioned in previous posts on a couple of threads that I bought a "shave ready" Gold Dollar 66 and am stuffing about with it, trying to learn the dark arts of honing. A guy on one of the FaceBook pages, showed me a couple of pictures of his GD66 and how you modify the toe and heel by rounding them off to make it sit better on the stone. So I got out the Dremel and away I went. No problems and it didn't look too bad either.
Next step was the bevel - I have read the compendium on the burr method but find it rather confusing. Anyway, I had a go, but couldn't get a burr happening - this was with a 1k Shapton ceramic. I did follow one bit of advice and coloured the edge with a texta. This was really useful - the first couple of passes wore away the black and I could see that bits of the heel and toe were untouched. I kept doing passes until the whole of the edge was shiny. Basically, up and down on one side - 60 passes, then 60 on the other side, 50 and 50, 40 and 40 etc all the way down to 1 pass. Then about 10 x-strokes and repeated a few times over. Using my loupe I could see that it all looked even and it did shave arm hair. Was the bevel set? Absolutely no idea, how do you tell? All I could do was assume it was.
So I proceeded with the progression. I have a Norton 4000/8000. Starting with the 4k I could see the edge getting shinier, however, a bit on side of the toe and the other side of the heel didn't seem to be getting the attention that the rest of the edge was. Was this honing technique, a bent razor, or the stones? How do you tell? I kept going until all the scratches from the 1k were gone and eventually the heel and toe spots were consistent with the rest - all up, a couple of hundred passes.
Same deal with the 8k and then the 12k, another Shapton ceramic. By this time you could see that the edge now had a mirror finish. I did keep testing it on my arm and it did seem to tree top, however as with the actual shaving, I have never experienced a really sharp razor, so nothing to gauge it with. I have found that tree topping isn't a very good test anyway, as arm hair is a lot thinner than whiskers. After a few hours of honing I felt that it was ready to test with a shave.
How did it go in bathroom? Basically, it wouldn't shave - you had to force it through the whiskers and I gave up after half a pass because I was scared it would bog down and suddenly jump free and cut myself.
As I mentioned in another thread, I am getting so disillusioned with the whole thing. I don't really want to spend 6 months learning to hone just to get a half decent shave. It's frustrating that I can't get a shave ready razor. I have sent a Bengall off to a honer in the UK, but it took the post 4 weeks to get there from Australia, due to everything being slow because of the virus. It's now on it's way back but goodness knows how long that will take.
Absolutely no idea of what I am doing wrong and why I can't get it sharp enough to shave with. I think some of it has to do with being able to tell when the honing is ready to go onto the next stage and testing techniques. Cutting arm hair means nothing, and as many have said, your pocket knife can do that. I have seen thumbnail and thumb pad tests on YouTube but no idea of what they are doing and they don't tell you. I have seen stuff about cutting up tomatoes but that's just crazy - surely they can't be serious. My kitchen knives will do that, you know those Wiltshire knives in the self sharpening scabbard?
Maybe there is a step missing with getting your razor sharp enough to shave with - I don't know, everything seems to be there. Starting to understand why you can't buy a shave ready razor, and why there is nobody in this country that you can send your razor to, it's just to difficult to master.
Yeh, I know a lot of people are going to disagree with this and I am happy to be proven wrong, but it's going to be difficult!
cheers
Andrew