Honing/Shaving Question

[Tom Gabison]

Honing setup:

Norton 4K/8k
Ozuku Asagi Jnat from Chef Knives with a Tomo from Gamma

I’m having a little trouble with a razor and thought I should ask the great community at B&B. I may have rolled the edge when I tried to use the Jnat to bring the shave up a notch.

It cuts arm hair on all sections of the blade and the wtg pass goes great. No pulling and smooth. The xtg goes well. The atg pass leaves plenty of stubble but still no pulling or tugging. It just doesn’t get close enough. Should I take it back to the 4k? I’m considering just sending it out because it’s a Jerry Stark 9/8 custom. Thanks for your help.

 

[Tom Gabison]

It wasn’t cutting arm hair before I took it back to the 4k. Once it started cutting arm hair I kept going for another let’s say 20 laps with good undercut. I then went through the rest of the progression.

 

[stone and strop]

It should be cutting arm hair at bevel set easily at skin level.

 

[stone and strop]

These are the hardest questions to answer because we can't see the blade or feel what the blade is doing.
From your first post I would have asked how did you finish the honing.
Seeing as it was smooth but needed more keenness I would suggest finishing closer to water only to get that.
Your next post says it wasn't even cutting arm hair at 4k. Ok then, you are not even close to finishing then!
As stated you should easily cut arm hair at skin level from your bevel set. If it doesn't don't waste your time doing anything else.
If for some reason after a few efforts you still can't, send it out for honing.
A custom razor is no place to learn to hone. Buy yourself a few practice razors and burn steel there.

 

[Jnatcat]

It all comes down to having the bevel set, my method is usually set the bevel with a slurried Shapton GS 4k then work the slurry down to straight water then Shapton GS 8k then do a nagura progression, Jerry‘s razors are works of art but IMHO his edges lack and they need to be honed.

My suggestion is to make sure you have a good solid bevel, I don’t do arm hair I just use a cherry tomatoe and TNT test and then after I know the bevel is done I finish up on the 4k then 8k then nagura progression which normally consists of three stones ( Tenjyou, Mejiro and Tomo ) then strop

There is no shame in sending out a razor to be honed and sometimes it’s best to have a fresh set of eyes look at the blade, if frustration kicks in walk away for a day as being frustrated and rubbing steel to a stone will only serve in ruining a nice razor.

 

[Tom Gabison]

It does cut arm hair and it shaved WTG well. That’s the only reason I thought the bevel was set. I’ll give it a try tomorrow and send it out if I can’t get it to where it needs to be. As usual this forum rocks! Stay safe everyone!

 

[MO1]

How does it tree top? If it's weak, go back to the 8k with light pressure once it tree tops well, go to the jnat and try to keep the slurry a little more wet.
Maybe you used to much slurry or let the slurry get too muddy.

 

[Tom Gabison]

It does pop arm hair mid way up the hair but it doesn’t feel like the arm hair is being “pulled into” the blade like I do with my other razors that are truly shave ready.

 

[alx gilmore]

You haven't mentioned your stropping technique. With some steels you need to pay more attention to the stropping, like going to the strop between 20x on your Jnat and the next 20x on the Jnat. If it is keen but not keen enough go to the strop again. The difference between keen and super keen is in the microns level, below the grit component level and this is why everyone strops. No one that I know of hones and shaves, everyone hones and strops and shaves. Try more stropping before you go back to the stone, it takes less time and the edge might be just that close already. Try palm stropping too.

Alx

 

[Tom Gabison]

I just went back to the 4k until it was easily popping arm hair then went through the rest of the progression. I will be doing a shave test soon. I’m excited for it. Thanks everyone.