Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Gentlemen, I have a razor that’s so far beaten me, but I am making progress and believe that I will get an edge in the next outing or two (I’m an optomist). It’s reminding me of Glen Mercurio’s saying that ‘Honing is easy, until it isn’t’. The razor is a Frederick Reynolds chopper, should be easy peasy but it’s been anything but easy. The problem is that when I go above a certain grit level, the edge breaks down. For instance, at 4k the edge is straight and even and will mostly pass HHT after stropping, at 8k it isn’t straight and even and won’t pass HHT. You can see the little shiny liney along the edge with a 7x - 10x loupe at 8k that isn’t there at 4k.
Usually an old chopper I don’t measure the bevel angle, because most of them are too steep anyway. But since this one wasn’t holding an edge at higher grits, I measured it, 16.6 degrees which is fine if the steel is good but apparently it is not. So I put a layer of 1 mil Kapton on it which which gave me about 17.1 degrees, and back on the stones. This time I had a straight even edge at 8k, and hair parted when it touched the edge. That’s a fully set bevel at 8k. But the shiny line and poor HHT is back after the JNat finisher, even with good slurry which tends to wear micro fins and burrs off, and again, you can see it. It’s a beautiful shiny bevel, it just has futz at the apex and I know that it will not shave well.
But I’m one step further and in a day or three I’ll try a layer of Scotch and a layer of Kapton which will give me about 18 degrees and we’ll see what that does.
Advice is most welcome!
Usually an old chopper I don’t measure the bevel angle, because most of them are too steep anyway. But since this one wasn’t holding an edge at higher grits, I measured it, 16.6 degrees which is fine if the steel is good but apparently it is not. So I put a layer of 1 mil Kapton on it which which gave me about 17.1 degrees, and back on the stones. This time I had a straight even edge at 8k, and hair parted when it touched the edge. That’s a fully set bevel at 8k. But the shiny line and poor HHT is back after the JNat finisher, even with good slurry which tends to wear micro fins and burrs off, and again, you can see it. It’s a beautiful shiny bevel, it just has futz at the apex and I know that it will not shave well.
But I’m one step further and in a day or three I’ll try a layer of Scotch and a layer of Kapton which will give me about 18 degrees and we’ll see what that does.
Advice is most welcome!