What did you hone today?

[Herrenberg]

I'll bet barber supply houses never sold barbers magnifying tools for razor sharpening. What did they know that we didn't? Was it a case of ignorance is bliss?

(shrug) I only know my own path.

I can imagine, though, that the kind of experience a professional would accumulate would be a very reasonable substitute for magnification, eventually. I also have a vague impression that barbers did not routinely dish out the kind of awesome shaves we achieve through our obsessive geekiness.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Thanks for the explanation, @Matt O!

 

[Chandu]

(shrug) I only know my own path.

I can imagine, though, that the kind of experience a professional would accumulate would be a very reasonable substitute for magnification, eventually. I also have a vague impression that barbers did not routinely dish out the kind of awesome shaves we achieve through our obsessive geekiness.

I do tend to think we do get better shaves. It seemed they were probably in it to deliver a comfortable shave over the closest shave and comfort took precedence.

We do have a much more direct feedback loop so can improve and tell what worked better worse quicker or more directly. What I would actually love to see from a good microscope ala what "Science of Sharp" did was photos of honed razors, the best we could do vs photos of razors that delivered a great shave. And then a followup of razors honed to perfection via the photos and those that didn't look that great, shave with both and a user impression of each razor.

That to me would be eye opening. It's possible to measure sharpness and see how smooth we have made a cutting edge, but we can only assume that the sharpest most polished gives the best shave. We want to believe it does because "exact" is always best. But is it?

Full disclosure, I don't hone razors, but am somewhat of a sharpening nut. I sharpen and hone wood carving tools, chisels and gouges and a few knives. I've used oil, water, diamond, ceramic, sintered ruby, Ark, Coti and various other natural stones. Never used a Charnley Forest or Thuringen (sp).

 

[Timeclo]

Honing this Genco Straight

This razor was a stubborn one. It would not take a bevel and I guess that the steel is just real hard. I'm not sure if all Genco razors are like this but this one took me days to figure out.

After some grunt work at lower grits, I went through Shapton 1.5k, 5k, 8k, 12k and finished on the Black Ark. The Ark is only 6x2 but I am getting used to it. Nice feedback and uniform surface Ark from Dan's. Razors cuts hair easily and I'm excited to shave with it.

 

[Frank Shaves]

I have a Geneva that seems to have lost its temper. My best guess is that the seller put the razor on grinding wheel and allowed the blade to get to hot.

 

[Jakebullet]

Finally got this ELSINE shaving well off the jnat but I took it to the black Ark to bump it up which it did.

I’ve been fighting with this razor all week and not putting it down until I got the edge to the standard I like.
Finally got it right and this morning I got a beautiful shave. This black Ark edge takes some beating.

 

[Timeclo]

Honing session with this little Coticule + GD100.

This one wasn't quite working right. I never got the result I wanted and I contributed it to a little dip/ridge/mark on the stone towards right center. I couldn't visibly see it but I felt it with my fingers and definitely with my edge. I lapped it for a while with my 600 but it wouldn't come off.

Now that I have my Atoma 140, I tried it out. Took like 40 seconds on the 140 and I couldn't feel the dip anymore. To test out further, I took out my GD100 (Wasn't sure how the edge was.. it was finished on Black Ark though) and created skim milk slurry and dilucot my way to water. After about 25 min, the edge came out superb. It was cutting hair easily and it has that comforting coticule feel. After stropping, it just cut hair by looking at it. I'm glad to figure this one out and make it work.

 

[TSENG]

Use BBW.

 

[Tomo]

Welcomed a couple of new Bengalls into the den today. The bottom one came up well. I somehow missed the bevel set on the toe quarter of the top one. I’ll have to revisit it another day. That’s what happpens when you run out of cherry tomatoes... I thought I was there but clearly not.

 

[CarbonEdge]

Two NOS solingens
Gotta 120 7/8
Schulze 14 8/8

Had to make a set of scales for the Schulze also which was my first attempt at making scales. Happy enough but I think I can refine a bit.

Factory edges through a nagura progression and finished with a trace of tomo slurry on the Aiiwatani
Shave test tomorrow

 

[Tomo]

Welcomed a couple of new Bengalls into the den today. The bottom one came up well. I somehow missed the bevel set on the toe quarter of the top one. I’ll have to revisit it another day. That’s what happpens when you run out of cherry tomatoes... I thought I was there but clearly not.

View attachment 1595661

Well I couldn’t leave it alone. I had another crack at the bevel set and happy to say that I nailed it on the second attempt. I find that it helps to kill and bring back the edge a few times to make sure you’ve got it.

 

[Matt O]

 

[Tomo]

View attachment 1595782View attachment 1595783View attachment 1595784View attachment 1595785View attachment 1595786View attachment 1595787

That’s a good looking stone Matt.

 

[Matt O]

That’s a good looking stone Matt.

Thank-you Sir! The first edge I tried off of it was a sublime perfection! So fingers crossed for the two razors I honed today!

 

[Tomo]

Thank-you Sir! The first edge I tried off of it was a sublime perfection! So fingers crossed for the two razors I honed today!

It’s a nice thing when they hone as good as they look.

 

[2bit_collie]

Haven’t spent too much time with my razors the past few weeks (other than shaving). This morning I had some time and decided to hone up a W&B “Special” an 11/16“ hollow post 1891 razor, most likely with replacement scales. The blade was in really good condition for something that I had bought, in the 90% I would say. So I decided that it would be a good chance to play around with some things. Normally I would bevel set with a Shapton Pro 2k. But I decided to try initially with a Dalmore Blue, using slurry from a Belgium Blue. That didn’t seem to make a huge impression and I struggled to raise a burr.

So next I decided to try something that @cotedupy had done recently. I took out an SG = 2.5 butterscotch trans Ark. Not a perfect stone by any means, but a previous owner had left it workable. I took an old diamond plate to it and generated some slurry pretty quickly. This, as advertised, made the trans Ark quite fast and aggressive, churning up swarf noticeably. The below picture was taken after less than 1/2 minute of honing. This did allow me to generate a burr. Took a little longer to get it all the way up to the toe, but eventually got it.

Then I switched to my latest go-to finishing pair - an AC coticule using just water and then a Dan’s Black Ark with Norton honing oil. Then some stropping and a few hours later I shaved with it. It really wasn’t until I started the 2nd pass that I remembered that I was shaving with this razor for the first time - which is definitely a sign that I got it right.

 

[Legion]

Thomas Turner & Co,
Charnley Forest

 

[Tomo]

Keeping it local with a Water of Ayr finish on this Bengall. Looks promising.

 

[Mr Kooby Shemayrew]

Thomas Turner & Co,
Charnley Forest

View attachment 1596183

That is a sweet stone!
A little larger and it could double as a shoe horn.

I ended up doing this Rinnet and a Parker on my Nakayama 75k - unofficially one of the highest girt stones currently made in Japan. It doesn’t need to be said, but koma’s are awesome. Followed this with a tomo, not pictured. Stropped, did some experimenting with some pull strokes that’s been a hot topic recently, & stropped again. Real nice HHT. Looking forward to trying it out.

 

[Legion]

That is a sweet stone!
A little larger and it could double as a shoe horn.

I want to wrap it and wear it around my neck like a Māori pounamu toki pendant.