Thread: Another Newbie Intro

Good evening to all,

I have been wet shaving with a pure badger brush and shaving soap for over 30 years. About 3 years ago I picked up a Col. Conk razor, strop, and hone. Needless to say, the razor was not "shave ready" & a lousy shave. The Col. Conk hone has not helped.

I bought a Shumate razor in an antique shop, honed it, stropped it, and it gives a close shave, but lots of razor burn. As I stumbled along on my own, I acquired more antiques; a no-name, a Henkel, a JA Torrey, and another Shumate.

Then I found SRP. I got Lynn Abram's DVD & I've been going through all the great info here. I bought a "shave ready" Dovo Special from Classic Shaving & can't believe the difference. An excellent shaver - smooth, comfortable, BBS, and no burn!

So I'm hooked now. My wife thinks it is peculiar that I look forward to my next shave, but she is pleased. She got me a Rooney Silver Tip brush for Christmas. Now I need to send out the Col. Conk razor to get it properly honed. My '09 resolution is to get a proper honing setup and learn to use it.

Does anyone know about the Col. Conk gear? The razor is etched "Solingen", so I figure it's good and just needs a proper hone. Does anyone know about the Col. Conk hones? I have no idea about its grit. It hasn't made any progress on the Col. Conk razor.

Dave

welcome!! sounds like you have made a good start into the hobby.

i may be wrong but the only Col Conk hones i have seen 1200 grit and if you do some reading you'll see you need a good progression behond that someting like 4k, to 8k and then some type of finishing hone. this is not to scare you, if i can do it then anyone can and the prices aren't bad either. the norton 4/8k combo stone is popular and well priced, i really like mine. do you have a strop? you will need one for sure. a finishing stone is not essential but my chinese 12k was well priced and works good.

Well don't know anything about your col. conk equipment but I will welcome you to the forum!!!!!!

I'm a month old into straight razor shaving and this is definatly the place to get up to speed.
Welcome and have fun.
dannyr

Originally Posted by chee16

welcome!! sounds like you have made a good start into the hobby.

i may be wrong but the only Col Conk hones i have seen 1200 grit and if you do some reading you'll see you need a good progression behond that someting like 4k, to 8k and then some type of finishing hone. this is not to scare you, if i can do it then anyone can and the prices aren't bad either. the norton 4/8k combo stone is popular and well priced, i really like mine. do you have a strop? you will need one for sure. a finishing stone is not essential but my chinese 12k was well priced and works good.

Thanks. I have a Col. Conk strop. It's Prima Rindleder on one side and canvas on the other.

I'm thinking about a Norton 4k/8k, but I haven't yet decided on the finishing hone.

Originally Posted by Tonsor

I'm thinking about a Norton 4k/8k, but I haven't yet decided on the finishing hone.

That would be the 8k side of the norton


if i'm not mistaken the col. conk is dovo made and the hone is very coarse.

Originally Posted by gugi

That would be the 8k side of the norton


if i'm not mistaken the col. conk is dovo made and the hone is very coarse.

So a 4k/8k Norton would be enough to hone my razors to "shave ready" status? Don't I need another finer stone to finish it off?

I wondered if Dovo made Col. Conk's gear. The razor looks like a Dovo and the strop is a dead ringer for Dovo's Prima Rindleder strop.

yes, the norton is more than enough. if you don't believe me, send a benchmark razor to one of the norton masters and see for yourself.
most people, me including, use finer stones just because we're not all that good with the norton, but that's well in the zone of diminishing returns. if you can't get a razor to shave well with just the norton a finer hone will make negligible difference if any.
i like my edges a bit better after a coticule/escher/nakayama, but i can get good shave off the 8k as well, and for that matter on some razors i prefer the finish of the belgian blue to that of the norton, even though the 8k is supposed to be finer.

Hello Dave. Welcome to the forum. I don't care for the shave I get off of the 8K Norton but maybe I don't know how to hone good enough yet. I like to have a polishing stone from 12K to 16K at least to make the shave acceptable. A good alternative to the finish hone would be a two sided paddle strop with 1.0 or .5 micron diamond paste on one side and .5 CrO on the other. There are many ways to get the final polish on your blade and the fun is trying different ways.

bj

Well I'll jump in and throw my 2 cents. I shave off the 8k all the time. Maybe my face is alittle rough............lol