Some of you might recognize this post for a sharpening forum, thought I should see what the Straight Razor community had to say as well.
So, I have these couple of straights that defied my attempts of putting a nice edge on them with my Shapton Pro´s (220, 1k, 2k, 5k, 8k, 15k).
Some days ago, I was rotating through the collection and decided to do something about them and picked up my Belgian coticule i got from The Superior Shave.
Note now, that I have never felt real comfortable with it, so it was more an attempt to get some practice (any reason for honing is a good one - right?). Surprisingly enough out tof the 6 razors I honed I have tried shave with 3 and all have got an improved edge compared to the Shapton sequence.
I didnt reset the bevel but just started on the coticule with the existing edge, something like 20 laps on slurry, then 20 on very thin slurry, then 15 on the grey side. Same progression as I use after Shapton 15k.
More or less the same on all of the razors and then followed by stropping on CrOx, 0,5 diamond and 0,125 CBN. All compounds on Balsa.
So far I have come up with three possible reasons why the shave suddenly became better:
1) It was not because of the couticle, but because the extra laps on any hone that improved the edge. (this is somewhat disproved considering that I put quite alot of laps on the higher grit stones here already)
2) The coticule is a better finisher then Shapton Pro 15k (sorry Tom )
3) Some properties of the couticle made it "fit" these razors better than the others (or some property of the razor made the coticule a better tool.
4) I have practiced honing alot since I last used the coticules and have levelled up enough to make use of it. (if so, shouldn't also the Shapton progression have improved as well - I get a decent edge from it on other straights)
I´m sure there are other reasons, but I can't think of any now..
About the straights:
the 3 straights i ttried shaving with so far have been quite small typically less than 4/8. Some bigger ones are queing for attention..
So, I have these couple of straights that defied my attempts of putting a nice edge on them with my Shapton Pro´s (220, 1k, 2k, 5k, 8k, 15k).
Some days ago, I was rotating through the collection and decided to do something about them and picked up my Belgian coticule i got from The Superior Shave.
Note now, that I have never felt real comfortable with it, so it was more an attempt to get some practice (any reason for honing is a good one - right?). Surprisingly enough out tof the 6 razors I honed I have tried shave with 3 and all have got an improved edge compared to the Shapton sequence.
I didnt reset the bevel but just started on the coticule with the existing edge, something like 20 laps on slurry, then 20 on very thin slurry, then 15 on the grey side. Same progression as I use after Shapton 15k.
More or less the same on all of the razors and then followed by stropping on CrOx, 0,5 diamond and 0,125 CBN. All compounds on Balsa.
So far I have come up with three possible reasons why the shave suddenly became better:
1) It was not because of the couticle, but because the extra laps on any hone that improved the edge. (this is somewhat disproved considering that I put quite alot of laps on the higher grit stones here already)
2) The coticule is a better finisher then Shapton Pro 15k (sorry Tom )
3) Some properties of the couticle made it "fit" these razors better than the others (or some property of the razor made the coticule a better tool.
4) I have practiced honing alot since I last used the coticules and have levelled up enough to make use of it. (if so, shouldn't also the Shapton progression have improved as well - I get a decent edge from it on other straights)
I´m sure there are other reasons, but I can't think of any now..
About the straights:
the 3 straights i ttried shaving with so far have been quite small typically less than 4/8. Some bigger ones are queing for attention..