I've been using a shavette mostly for the past two weeks or so. One of the reasons is to make use of some of my DE blades, but another is that I was having "fun" with a sinus cold and feeling a little too much under the weather to play with hones. I'm back to about 85-90% right now and missing my "normal" straights, so I decided to spend some time to resharpen my Wapi. Me mudder ("my mom" for non-Newfies) is visiting from Newfoundland, so I decided to hone in the kitchen rather than the bathroom.
She learned last week that I use straights and reminisced that "dad" (my grandpa ) used to use them. "You need a piece of leather, you know, and a stone to keep it sharp." were her comments. "I know," says I "I have strops and hones."
Brought out my OVB barber's hone, which is in a case so old that the lettering is 90% gone from the outside and the instructions inside are written in Italian and German. "Do you spit on it? Dad used to spit on his" she asked. "No spit, but some people use a drop of dish soap, which does much the same thing" I answered.
After getting some undercut on the stone, I moved to my Nubatama 10k. She hadn't seen one like that before, so I told her it refined the edge even more to provide a better edge for shaving. The stone started getting some steel grey on the outer edges but not the center, so I stopped and did some light lapping under the sink with a 260 grit diamond plate and redid the edges of the stone as well. Light swarf now being evenly generated on the stone, so I think it's flat enough again.
After a few minutes, I brought out my linen and leather strop and hooked it up to a chair. She helped out by sitting in the chair and as I stropped away, she mentioned how pop never had "that cloth piece" (linen component) and that his strop was black and was my light coloured one good enough? She also was chatting about how her dad would hook his "leather" over the back of a chair and slide his razor in a little box when he was done (i.e. a razor coffin).
She started wondering where his razor and strop went after her parents moved in with us. She remember the razor in our bathroom but at some point it seems to have disappeared. She says she'll look for it when she goes home, but I said that someone probably stole it years ago as we used to have many renters staying at the house for about 25 years.
She liked the HHT tests at the end, as I put a piece of white paper on the table and used my wife's dark hair to test the edge. I tried with hers but they are too fine and delicate.
All in all, even if the honing was a horrendous failure (which it wasn't), it was a really nice 20-30 minutes spent with my mom, reminiscing about her dad. I think we both really enjoyed the experience.
She learned last week that I use straights and reminisced that "dad" (my grandpa ) used to use them. "You need a piece of leather, you know, and a stone to keep it sharp." were her comments. "I know," says I "I have strops and hones."
Brought out my OVB barber's hone, which is in a case so old that the lettering is 90% gone from the outside and the instructions inside are written in Italian and German. "Do you spit on it? Dad used to spit on his" she asked. "No spit, but some people use a drop of dish soap, which does much the same thing" I answered.
After getting some undercut on the stone, I moved to my Nubatama 10k. She hadn't seen one like that before, so I told her it refined the edge even more to provide a better edge for shaving. The stone started getting some steel grey on the outer edges but not the center, so I stopped and did some light lapping under the sink with a 260 grit diamond plate and redid the edges of the stone as well. Light swarf now being evenly generated on the stone, so I think it's flat enough again.
After a few minutes, I brought out my linen and leather strop and hooked it up to a chair. She helped out by sitting in the chair and as I stropped away, she mentioned how pop never had "that cloth piece" (linen component) and that his strop was black and was my light coloured one good enough? She also was chatting about how her dad would hook his "leather" over the back of a chair and slide his razor in a little box when he was done (i.e. a razor coffin).
She started wondering where his razor and strop went after her parents moved in with us. She remember the razor in our bathroom but at some point it seems to have disappeared. She says she'll look for it when she goes home, but I said that someone probably stole it years ago as we used to have many renters staying at the house for about 25 years.
She liked the HHT tests at the end, as I put a piece of white paper on the table and used my wife's dark hair to test the edge. I tried with hers but they are too fine and delicate.
All in all, even if the honing was a horrendous failure (which it wasn't), it was a really nice 20-30 minutes spent with my mom, reminiscing about her dad. I think we both really enjoyed the experience.
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