WARNING: Honing content.
Honing story number 2. I got in a T. Hessen Bruch & Co perfection warranted 5/8 half hollow or so square point razor last night in pretty good shape.
The ebay ad stated that he had been shaving with it, and that it was recently honed by a professional. I always take these statements with a grain of salt, and generally I'll dull it and resharpen it myself anyway, but in any event, it wasn't very sharp by my standards. One of the sharper ebay razors I've bought, I guess, but it wouldn't really shave arm hair on half the blade, and the other half just barely did. A couple quick passes over the beer bottle bottom and it was no longer shaving much of anything :)
I went with the same progression as my last razor with this method. Milky slurry, 30 passes at a time. I did X strokes again, although I did try 15x each way with diagonal passes and again I'm just not comfortable with it. I think it took me on the order of 75-100 passes (I don't really count) to get it shaving arm hair throughout the edge. The toe needed a bit of work on one side.. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I ironed it out. One thing to note is that I used the same coticule I used on the dubl duck I did a couple days ago, and this time the slurry barely darkened at all, whereas last time it was darkening within 10 passes and very dark after 30. After 30x with this razor, it was probably as dark as 8-10 with that duck. I'm not sure if this razor is harder steel or what?
Anyway, after it was shaving arm hair reliably on the entire edge, I moved on to a lighter slurry for 30 light laps, added the tape, watered down the slurry, did 30 more light laps, rinsed and finished with 50 very light laps with water only. At this point, it was definitely sharp. Not passing HHT perfectly, but doing pretty well. It was also passing my other tests decently, but not perfectly. I was tempted to shave with it as it was, or at least strop and recheck it, but something came over me and I wanted to hit the pastes, knowing that the pastes had brought that duck to the next level. I left the tape on and hit 15x on the chromium oxide pasted balsa paddle, after which it was passing the HHT pretty nicely. I followed this with 10x on the < 0.5 micron red pasted balsa paddle. At this point, this razor was sharp.. one of the sharpest I've ever had. I hit 60 laps smooth cotton, and 60 laps leather, and WOW, it became THE sharpest razor I own. Passing HHT effortlessly on every point of the blade. I honestly thought I would never get a blade that would pass HHT so effortlessly. I was kind of excited. I mean, I've been honing all my own blades and having great shaves regardless of passing HHT, but this one was in another league.
Anyway, the shave this morning was outstanding. One of, if not my best shave to date. Probably the closest shave my neck has seen with a straight yet (without tearing it apart with several passes and too much pressure). It was very clear during the shave that this razor was super sharp, and also, I remembered how much I love the heavier grinds. This one is between a 1/4 and 1/2 hollow, which I was really digging.
At the risk of jacking up ebay prices on these relatively rare razors, I must say, this is my second T. Hessen Bruch and I'm floored with how great it shaves, just like it's cousin. Two of my very best shavers for sure.