long-winded intro, first honing, first shave
ahem :soapbox:
I first came to SRP from much googling for info on extremely fine grit natural hones. I wanted to find out about these for my main hobby, knives. I've been sharpening my knives to unnecessary levels for a few years now-splitting hairs, cutting arm hair above the skin, slicing TP and rolling papers, acquiring loupes, pocket scopes, and a microscope with digital camera to inspect edges, etc. Anyway, once I had accumulated what I felt was enough info on the hone, I kept looking through this place.
That led to an interest in getting some old razors off ebay and trying to clean/sharpen them up. So, I did, buying 7 of them. The first, a Black King/G De Rosa came in, and without even polishing the patina off, I started to grind on the edge. I had to 'breadknife' it because it was uneven and chipped, but after that, a run through all my stones, and then again with two layers of electrical tape on the spine with my King 4K, 8K, chinese 12K, leather strop block with chromium oxide, and 0.3 micron alox lapping film over smooth leather. It was tree topping arm hair and performing the hanging hair test with my girlfriend's fine follicles fairly well, in my uneducated estimation.
But, was it actually shaving sharp, and what was I going to do with the other five razors that showed up today? (still waiting on one) After taking a break from sanding on the Genco that appears to have more pitting in the hollow than I think I should try to remove, I went ahead and decided to have a go at my 36 hour old stubble. It was unceremonious, a few dozen laps against a plain home made strop block, and canned shave gel on the face. Oh, and a bit of sweat and apprehension.
Anywho, it was an interesting experience. I mainly stick to a Mach 3, though did pick up a couple Feather travels and a Weishi DE last year. I find with a little attention, I can get a relatively smooth shave with the overpriced cartridge in 3 passes with touch ups. I did a WTG and ATG with the straight, and a lot of touching up after. I went veeeeery slowly, and the gel couldn't hang, so it ended up a rather irritating experience, which I expected anyway from it being the first time my face met a straight razor. Still, I only bled in 3 spots, barely a drop each, and where I sometimes end up with it from the DEs anyway (corners of mouth and on the neck). Did a lot of touch up work, since my technique was extremely sloppy, and that's really when the burn started. The alum block of course helped that along, then a glob of Corn Huskers to quiet things down.
I still don't know how to evaluate the edge. It cut hair, and not all too painfully; it may have been as much my sloppiness as any issue with the honing. It was a bit noisy plowing trough the hair, but only somewhat grabby. I will try it again, and with some of the other razors I now have, in between cleaning them up and putting on new scales. I'll give a little more time for the hair to come in, as I find 2-3 days to be the most comfortable time frame, and I will use my boar bristle brush and shave soap as well.
So yeah, hi there:fim:
