I’m sorry to read about the chips and hope your Ralph Aust is back in action soon.
I’m sorry to read about the chips and hope your Ralph Aust is back in action soon.
With axes - wood chopping axes - it's recognised that the outermost steel can be quite soft and easily damaged. Maybe through over tempering, or through surface carbon being burnt off in production. I've noticed this myself on them, and it takes a few sharpenings to get down to good steel. Maybe that happens with straight razors too. Indeed, maybe that's why some people like older straights over freshly made ones, as the soft shell as been used and honed away.
What I'm angling at, is that the edge holding of your razor may improve with time. Having a second razor of sorts, even if that is DE, is still a good thing though. It removes the time pressures of getting this razor rehoned, either by yourself or a third party. In fact, you may find vast improvements in your DE technique from spending time with the straight.
Do be careful to ensure you haven't embedded any grit in the strop from sanding though, or transferred over from the stone. Particulates in the strop won't help matters. Have you found anyone over there that will hone it for you yet?
Thanks Thom! We'll see tomorrow. I spent some time refreshing the edge further. No other decisions made yet.
Thanks for the input Al!
I would blame the user in this case more than the tools. The fact that the razor felt great 2 days ago and it suddenly degraded fast leads me to think about problems in stropping and handling. It might have also been that the edge was made more brittle due to refreshing the edge too frequently and possibly too much as well.
The tiny chips I am talking about, were probably there but I overlooked them. After the refresh earlier today, there are still some uneven reflections on the corresponding spots, but the chips are no longer visible.
I doubt there was any particle embedded in the strop. My progression involved sanding it down with sandpaper up to 1.2k grit and then move to pads with varying grit from 2.4k up 12k. After each step I would thoroughly wipe out the strop with my palm and a cloth. I guess that any particle would have been removed by the next step in the progression.
Unfortunately, I haven't found anyone here to send it for honing, yet. I could seek for some help from fellow shavers in the Greek forum, but no professionals.
Thankfully, my DEs are still with me, so I can switch back to them.
Sounds like becoming self-sufficient is the best plan, unless you can find other EU based honers.
That is how most of us started.In the long run, that's the plan. I am wondering whether a couple of videos are enough of a training for a start.
Just make sure that you get the S2 naniwa stones that are 20mm thick. The S1 naniwa stones that are 10mm thick warp like crazy. I have a 12k naniwa S1 super stone that I had to glue to a pieced of ceramic tile to make it useable.I have decided on the stones, Naniwa pro 1k and 3k and ss 8k. I just need to order them at some point.
Just make sure that you get the S2 naniwa stones that are 20mm thick. The S1 naniwa stones that are 10mm thick warp like crazy. I have a 12k naniwa S1 super stone that I had to glue to a pieced of ceramic tile to make it useable.
View attachment 1199198View attachment 1199199View attachment 1199200
And then to prevent the stone from sliding all over the place I also glued a piece of neoprene to the bottom!
View attachment 1199201
Yes, the S1 naniwa stones are terrible, but the S2 and the chosera stones are really nice. I have an 800 naniwa chosera that probably gets more use than any of my other stones, almost never needs to be dressed. It is a little too coarse for setting bevels, as it leaves some pretty deep striations, but it is a kitchen knife sharpening master.Wow, it's that bad? Thanks for the tip! I'll keep it in mind.
Yes, the S1 naniwa stones are terrible, but the S2 and the chosera stones are really nice. I have an 800 naniwa chosera that probably gets more use than any of my other stones, almost never needs to be dressed. It is a little too coarse for setting bevels, as it leaves some pretty deep striations, but it is a kitchen knife sharpening master.
I use a convexed coticule stone for setting my bevels.
Thanks for the info! Arkansas stones, yet another possibility. I'm glad I am following this path. A new world to experience.
At the moment, I need a well-controlled setup, so I think a synthetic progression to complement my Naniwa 12k will serve me well. I get along with this edge, so better stick to it for now.
Every new skill requires, learning, practice and experience. It might be easier and definitely less complicated and expensive to choose a specific path for this part of your journey. Having a fondness for either path helps. There is no Right Path.I am very interested in Coticules and other natural stones, but I feel they require experience that I don't currently have
Every new skill requires, learning, practice and experience. It might be easier and definitely less complicated and expensive to choose a specific path for this part of your journey. Having a fondness for either path helps. There is no Right Path.
Lapping papers, diamond pastes on balsa. Do not require stones. The Method. Most economical. It is widely used very successfully by many shavers and there is a ton of how-to-information on this site. This method happily referred to by the stoners as the synthetic edge. Arguably one of the sharpest edges available.
As you already know from DE blades the sharpest edge available on your blade may not be your favourite or most comfortable edge. (Technique being a large factor)
Stones on the other hand require initial money invested. Much more expensive at the beginning until stones are acquired. The edge finish is still loosely referenced by some to be a Synthetic Stone Finish and your planned 1K,3K,8K,& 12K Naniwas ( they are all thick) Are the stones that I successfully use.
Somewhere between 8k & sometimes further progression Natural stones enter the game. This is the Very Large, very complicated and preferential Stone World. Arkansas, Coticule, Jnat, Cnat, etc, etc. The stoners will state; that well a Natural finished edge may not achieve the Scary Sharpness of diamond paste on balsa progression; A natural finished edge can and does provide a different feel. That may be your Huckleberry. I have shaved with natural stone finished edges, and they are my preference at my present technical ability. (I prefer stones over balsa. It’s a preference) I have shaved with balsa edges progressed to .1 micron, Scary Crazy Sharp. I did like the shave, no complaints. I did not like the feel of the blade purely preference at this stage of my technical ability. I suspect and believe with better technique in SR shaving I may amend or possibly change my preferences.
The most important part of the hone video you watched was stone lapping. Your Ralf edges are straight and true. They can only be maintained on straight and true stones. With my level of experience, a beginner, learner like you. Lapping stones is most economical using using wet/dry on a very flat surface. The nicest easiest, quickest most fun way to do it. Atoma diamond plates in a stone holder. My 400, and 1200 plates in the pic.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/sharpening/stones/70346-atoma-diamond-plates
You can touch up flatness and true stones in seconds during a honing session. I started with the 400 but found it too aggressive for touch ups during honing sessions. I’m glad I have the 400 for one of the Chinese razors I purchased. It has an 18.3 degree bevel angle on it. I don’t like the feel and SR angle required for theses obtuse larger angles. They require Shallow Razor Angles. I do not like or prefer shallow shave angles on Straights or DE razors (my preference and I have reasons.) Grinding down .009 of thickness off each side of the spine will bring the bevel angle to 17 degrees. 400 Atoma diamond plate is ideal for spine reduction.
On the balsa side of things I did do One 3x12 balsa plate with .5 micron diamond paste. I used two sided tape to attach to a porcelain plate. ( it’s ok, a bit thin and whisker heavy) It will be in the same area as your 12k. I did not want a lot of paste variations around. Minimize any cross contamination I use four fabric strops (one in the mail) Two bovine and two equine strops. I prefer natural stones as my preferred Path. I have a Cnat recently purchased.
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I have only used it once both sides after lapping. I do not have enough experience for assessment, reviews, or opinions. I can say that I have the hots to acquire more stones. Sotiris at this point my best advice would be from Yogi Berra, “when you come to the fork in the road take it”
Thanks John for this wealth of information! It helps a lot!
What is certain, is that once down this path new ADs start appearing and get stronger by the minute.
Check list, so as to rationalize things a bit: 1) Bevel setter (needed), 2) pre-finishing progression (needed), 3) finisher (solved, I got the Naniwa 12k for now), 4) lapping method (solved for now, thick piece of glass and sand papers), 5) loupe (needed), 6) SR to experiment on (needed). The loupe will be useful even now.
My intention is to learn the honing process so as to become independent of the availability of honing services in the long run. This means that at some point, I will have to spend on 1, 2 and 6. But I am not even sure if this is a good move now or it is premature...
Concerning the choices I have and which ones could suit me, I will attempt an extrapolation here that might be completely wrong. In the DE world, I like the super sharp blades, e.g. Feather, Bic Platinum, Permasharp, Nacet, but my favorites are a notch bellow, the Personna Lab Blues. I also like a fresh blade, but I usually prefer them when they enter the buttery smooth phase, which is typically around the 5th shave. The quality of the shave doesn't suffer, as I can get a very close shave even at the 10th consecutive one or beyond. This leads me to believe that an extremely sharp and crisp SR edge will suit me, but won't be my favorite. That's the main reason I skipped the Method and got the Naniwa 12k as well as started looking at stones for the rest of the setup.
Your bevels are correctly set. A 5k or 8k would be more useful to you at this point.Check list, so as to rationalize things a bit: 1) Bevel setter (needed), 2) pre-finishing progression (needed), 3) finisher (solved, I got the Naniwa 12k for now), 4) lapping method (solved for now, thick piece of glass and sand papers), 5) loupe (needed), 6) SR to experiment on (needed). The loupe will be useful even now
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There is a major satisfaction in honing your blades. No reason not to. I use 1-3-8-12. Each stone removes previous scratches. 1k for bevel set. Blade corrections, smile or frown any edge imperfections have to be corrected with 1K. From 3k forward polishing. (Think of it in terms of a 3k will remove 1k scratches quicker than a 5k) 12k mirror finish no visible scratches at 10x loupe.My intention is to learn the honing process so as to become independent of the availability of honing services in the long run. This means that at some point, I will have to spend on 1, 2 and 6. But I am not even sure if this is a good move now or it is premature...
Early going in DE I could not use a Feather blade too sharp and too harsh post shave. I single use a Feather blade now. My three to five day growth DE shave is ATG single pass efficient, comfortable BBS every shave. Since I have adjusted to a weekly SR shave The Grande with a Feather cannot ATG single pass beyond a five day growth for my head shave. Two passes required not because of blade sharpness. The razor cannot handle more than five day whisker length, the BBS drops to a DFS+. My experience has been once your technique allows you to use the sharpest blade possible efficiently. The comfort is there.Concerning the choices I have and which ones could suit me, I will attempt an extrapolation here that might be completely wrong. In the DE world, I like the super sharp blades, e.g. Feather, Bic Platinum, Permasharp, Nacet, but my favorites are a notch bellow, the Personna Lab Blues. I also like a fresh blade, but I usually prefer them when they enter the buttery smooth phase,