Thursday evening, I had the opportunity to hone two straight razors— two Red Imps; 5/8 & 6/8—using the same progression on both blades:
Chosera 1k > Norton 4k > Norton 8k > ...and then used a different finisher on each: an Escher Dk Blue (6/8 Imp) & the Apache Strata (5/8 Imp).
On both finishers, I used a very light slurry then diluted to just water with a comparable amount of laps (30/30) on each.
I'm happy to report that I got delightfully smooth and comfortable shave from
both razors as I alternated during a 3-pass shave with 2-day growth. Still more razor testing to do, but I was encouraged after this initial test-run.
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Yesterday, I took to the honing table a razor that was a bit more of a pain to hone, a restored Joseph Rodgers & Sons (heel hook (reduced), thick spine and shoulder, smiley blade). Same procedure I used on the Imps above, but finished with the Apache. Used a very thin slurry (generated with the DMT) 30 laps with gradual dilution with water until the final 30 was pure water. A half dozen on a CHrOx pasted strop followed by linen/leather laps (50/100). Very keen edge (
quite sticky on the TPT). The resulting shave was
one of the smoothest I've ever had with this challenging razor. Not a hint of tugging nor resistance…all & all, a very pleasurable experience so far using this stone. More to come…..
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