Did your wife find your reciepts?
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New to honing and str8 shaving last summer.
Missed the Zulu sale at the end of the year sadly so took on a chance on a phig from a polish eBay seller.
Came unlapped as expected so I set to lapping it, and lapping it, and lapping it.
When I woke up the next day, I lapped it,, etc.......
Put 6 hrs in from a lapping block, up to a 1k, and finally on my norton 4k, but I can't seem to get past this fissure.
Attachment 154930
So, I will lap some more,,but am not optimistic i will get this flaw dressed out.
My first finishing stone has me weeping..it's a pretty rock, just flawed..sort of like Newfoundland.. Lol,,
Cheers..
I took my 1k into work one day to sharpen a chisel. Left it by our bench grinder and one of the other guys decided to use it, WITH OIL!!!!!! And not just a little, a lot. I cried like a kid who lost his blanky.
A couple of months ago I won this item: Antique German Escher Thuringian Razor Hone Sharpening Stone Belgian Coticule | eBay
In case ebay decides to delete the listing here's a pic:
Attachment 155721
As it came in from the USA 19% Value Added Tax would be charged on both the value of the item and shipping costs. Payable on receipt of the item. VAT is one of the blessings of the EU. Unlike the situation in the Netherlands where you pay the VAT to the postman delivering the parcel things are quite different in Germany where I live at the moment. Within 2 weeks of paying for the item I received a letter from the customs office that a parcel was waiting there for me and that I had to collect it myself and bring my passport with me within 6 weeks or it would be returned to sender. There was no way I could get the Deutsche Post to deliver it to my home so I took off to Lingen, an hour by car both ways from Laar. After waiting for a quarter of an hour at the door I was led into a room with a couple of sets of shelves filled with parcels, one of which was mine. In the room were 2 customs officers and people opening up parcels. I had to open the parcel in front of 2 customs officers who obviously wanted to be sure the parcel wasn't filled with controlled substaces. Both had never seen a razor hone before. Needless to say it took me a while before they understood the purpose of such a thing. After patiently answering all their questions I still could not pay for the VAT and leave. No, one of the 2 officers who sat behind a computer had to enter it into a customs file. This took him a quarter of hour. Not surprisingly a razor hone wasn't an item predefined in his files. Unfortunately the man wanted to do everything by the book and started to look really hard in his files for ways to categorize a razor hone. I suggested categories like antiques, antique tools, sharpening stones etc to no avail. After about a quarter of an hour he was mentally exhausted and put it somewhere. Then I was led to the cashier who wouldn't accept a credit card. The amount had to be paid cash: banknotes and coins. Only then could I leave the custums office, having suffered my share of petty bureaucracy for the day. Dutch bureacracy is bad but its German counterpart is worse.
But now I am the proud owner of a 7"x2 1/2" Hohenzollern razor hone. Immediately after coming home I lapped it with sandpaper and gave it a go. An awesome hone that I will cherish for as long as I am a straight razor shaver.
I thought you were going to say after all that you dropped it and broke it into 10 pieces.
Off topic but I have visited the castle pictured on the label of your hone. If only I would have picked of a rock when I was there...
I lapped a Translucent Black Arkansas.
It was a vintage model, Probably 5mm of dip in the middle..... It took a week, The bathroom was grey for a month, And the best bit... It still has a 1/2 mm dip on one of the edges.... Evil Evil Evil things to sort out.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3826/1...90fed5dd_o.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3774/1...f2c79370_o.jpg
Oh no, I'm sorry man, that's awful :cry:
A poem by the honeless shaver.
I am honeless!
I have no place to lay my blade, no sharpening tool or stone.
2000 grit paper, paste and strop, my best attempts at a makeshift hone.
I am honeless.
Budget restraints call the shots for now, so like most newbs I do my best.
'tis the reason I am so thankful for the free stuff in these contests.
I am honeless.
No norton no coticule no shapton have I, not even a slurry stone.
No wet no dry no synthetic piece that I can call my own.
I am honeless.
One of these days if the timing is right, a message from straight razor place,
will be in my box informing me that I have won first place.
What joy there will be, on that great day, as you can probably guess,
I will unwrap my gift and be able to say that I am No longer honless.
Seriously, thanks to all those who donate.
My son got me back to SR after a long hiatus, at least 14yrs! Long story shortened, I'm semi retired and due to an accident from an uninsured and illegal alien driver 4yrs ago and am limited on what I can spend. Well I found some second hand stones from a retired carpenter and tried to relearn my honing skills. They're getting better, I picked up a couple of those $5 Gold Dollars. I had some extra $$ and found a kid on EBAY selling some Chinese stones. Well...I guess I should of known better. The stone first had to finished let alone flattened, spent almost an hour and a half, then lapped it flat! After finishing on the 8k the new stone dulled my edge! Showed my son and he took the stone over to one of his coworkers father who hones blades and he said the stone is at BEST a 6 maybe a 7k, but wouldn't use it because of the bad quality. then I complain to the kid on EBAY who'll return my money less a 2% restocking fee!! WTF!..OK.. I go to get ready to package it up and drop it and pick up all 6 pieces! soo I just have to eat this one! I can still shave off a 8k edge! A hone will be at the top of my X-mas list this year!
thanks, AB
My son got me back to SR after a long hiatus, at least 14yrs! Long story shortened, I'm semi retired and due to an accident from an uninsured and illegal alien driver 4yrs ago and am limited on what I can spend. Well I found some second hand stones from a retired carpenter and tried to relearn my honing skills. They're getting better, I picked up a couple of those $5 Gold Dollars. I had some extra $$ and found a kid on EBAY selling some Chinese stones. Well...I guess I should of known better. The stone first had to finished let alone flattened, spent almost an hour and a half, then lapped it flat! After finishing on the 8k the new stone dulled my edge! Showed my son and he took the stone over to one of his coworkers father who hones blades and he said the stone is at BEST a 6 maybe a 7k, but wouldn't use it because of the bad quality. then I complain to the kid on EBAY who'll return my money less a 2% restocking fee!! WTF!..OK.. I go to get ready to package it up and drop it and pick up all 6 pieces! soo I just have to eat this one! I can still shave off a 8k edge! A hone will be at the top of my X-mas list this year!
thanks, AB
Sounds like a variation on the Humpty Dumpty story.
Har har.
If you're looking for a good Chinese 12k, Woodcraft carries them.
Buy Natural Water Stone 8 x 2-3 4 x 1-1 4 at Woodcraft
Thanks! It doesn't have to be Chinese but that was the cheapest I could find for any good natural finishing stone that I was trying to find. The one you linked is nice too but still more than that "fake" one I bought! My biggest problem is money gets tight sometimes, and that one is more than I can spend at the moment. I have another surgery coming up in 2 months and have to conserve $$
Since my accident I am off of work a lot from the back injuries I sustained. Since it was an uninsured and illegal that hit me I have to swallow some of the expense plus the time off work hurts.(my insurance covers the major med but not the medicine or time off of work!)
I think that one you posted will definetly be my next stone. Unless I find one on Ebay but now I'm leery,plus being new to this I'm not quite clear on what stones will suit what i need. i.e. some of the Arkansas stones are hard or soft without any grit rating. I've been away from this so long I've forgotten what's what for stones (good or bad)..plus back in my day I don't think I ever went over something as fine as a 6k or even maybe an 8k if you were exotic!
Thanks for the referral, I'm going to bookmark it.
Thanks for the info Pensacola Tiger! Have you actually used these stones yourself?
I have one, and a slurry stone cut from another. It's a pretty decent polisher, but it is really slow. I mean REALLY slow. The edge needs to be stropped on chromium oxide to refine it that last bit, but I've gotten a decent shave right off the stone with just a few passes on plain leather.
Just a few days left so anyone who wants to enter do it now.
The contest is now closed. The judges will retire to their chambers to make a decision. Check back early next week.
THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME#!!
So who won?
The hone has safely arrived and I've already put 5 razors to it with nice results. It will also be great to use for my chisels and plane irons. Thanks to thebigspendur! :)
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