Thread: C12k users

Tylerbrycen

If you were a doctor diagnosing a problem, you would test to see what is happening, X-ray or MRI, visual documentation.

For us that is Ink, tape & magnification.

Sharpie the bevel and put one layer of tape on the spine. The ink will quickly demonstrate hone/bevel contact and the tape will change the angle so the stone contacts more of just the edge not the whole bevel.

As you run the sharpie on the edge do so slowly and feel for grabbing. A sharp edge will feel smooth. The sharpie will detect the slightest defect on the edge. Do one lap on each side and look at the edge under magnification. Is the hone hitting the edge from heel to toe? As you look at the edge under magnification, roll the blade until you are looking straight down on the edge. Slide the magnifier up and down the length of the blade. Is the edge shinny or the color of the sharpie? What caused the problem, is it the hone, the blade or the pilot?

If you are not contacting the edge fully, drop back down to 4K or equivalent. Tape & Sharpie the edge and do laps until you are getting full contact at the edge of the bevel, re-ink as needed. Look at the razor on edge, looking down on the edge. Look for the shiny edge or ink on the edge. The ink and Shinny edge indicate a blunted edge.

If that is the case, I would start over and bevel set at 1K until the shiny/inked edge is gone. Don’t do 100 laps on the 12K, odds are you will make it worst. With the blade heel on your arm raise the edge ¼ to1/2 inch and cut a hair, test for sharpness at the toe, center & heel. Even a dull razor will sometimes shave hair at the skin. Only a sharp edge will cut an unsupported hair. You only have to cut 1 hair, not mow patches of hair.

Go through your progression, finish on the C12K keep testing for sharpness and looking at the ink for contact. It only takes a second of inattention to bugger an edge.

My C12K works best with a fresh diamond plate refreshed surface.

I'm not a honemiester, so I can only give you my experience, but I can tell you I get a very velvety sharp edge of a c12k. Each C12K is a little different and the one I use is a medium speed cutter, but the edges originally using slurry and diluting to water were not as smooth as they should have been.

So I lapped mine again all the way up to 1500 grit and started using Burts Bees shaving cream on it and diluting it slightly with water. The stone took on a slightly softer satiny feel and provides a great sharp smooth edge. Razors easily cut the tips of arm hairs, leg hairs you name it off the hone and the hairs just lay on the blade.

When the blade suctions in and feels like its cutting into the hone and doesn't want to move smoothly on the hone stop and strop the blade. Usually the last 15 to 20 laps are zero pressure for me, But as said above don't bring the razor to the hone until its truly ready.

Now on to the meat and potatoes, in order for the more experienced guys to help, what type of razor are you trying to hone and what hones have you previously used on the razor before the C12K and was the razor shaving arm hair or did it shave test good before you used the C12K?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but after this post Tyler went with some advice and just stayed honing up to 8k, leaving the finishers for later. From what I read he was doing quite well after that.

It's none of my business and I'd love it if Tyler would give us an update here but I think, three months after the OP, that he may be doing a lot better on the fundamentals

Miichael

+1 on all the above advice, but this is my 2 cent's, Practice, Practice, Practice, with get you there, ain't nothing but time, after all.

T.

C12K's are hard to master for newbies. I gave up using mine. All I did was dull my blade. Instead I bought a Naniwa 12K. Wow, what a difference! It's wide and easy to master. It leaves a smmoooottthhh edge. I love that Nani!

Practice, Practice

I have been fortunate to have mastered a couple fields in my lifetime, Mastery to the point where the tool becomes an extension of the body. Razor honing is not one, even though I have been at it for over 40 years, I have learned enough to keep me from looking like Ted Kaczynski these many years.

I have also been blessed to teach others these skills, which as it turns out is an excellent way to master a skill. Because you have to understand the skill in its most oblique nuisance in order to explain it to a novice.

It is Perfect Practice that makes, Perfect.

We can and I have, gone willy-nilly attempting a task and ingrained bad habits, only to have to unlearn them to master the skill or just progress to the next level. The other day on this site I watched a video of a master, where he confessed and displayed a bad habit he acquired early on and now is a part of his skill set. His mastery of this skill allows him to compensate for this flaw but, when he demonstrates, he teaches the flaw by example to others who do not have the luxury of compensation.

On almost every hour of any day we can drive past a driving range and see “golfers” smacking golf balls, hooking and slicing. Are they mastering the skill or re-enforcing bad habits, what exactly are they practicing? Interestingly in a game where they will only have to make 18 drives from the tee, they will spend 99% of their “practice time” driving the ball. You will almost never see anyone on the practice putting green, perfecting the shot where absolutely every game, is won or lost… And never see anyone, with a coach standing behind them, making minute corrections to their form.

Tiger Woods arguably the world greatest “natural” Golfer, has a coach analyzing his every move, every time he practices. Why?

So yes practice, but study, learn as much as you can from those that have mastered the skill. Learn from their mistakes. Don’t reinvent the wheel, do what works, then go teach someone else. You will be amazed how much you know… and how much you don’t know.

Fortunately this is not life and death… the learning curve wears only the spine of your razor… enjoy the journey.