@cudarunner honing.

[MajorEthanolic]

Cuda has done a few blades for me now. This last one, a 5/8 Friodur, is about the most amazing razor I've ever experienced. I never knew I could get my neck bbs in 2 passes. For anyone looking for honing, hit him up. If not for him and @razorfeld, I would have bailed on straight shaving months ago. The greatest thing about this website is the mentors - use them.

[cudarunner]

Major, I'm so very glad that you like the edge. I'm really looking forward to honing the 7/8 Friodur that should land here in a few days.

As a Vet, I thank you for your Service and as a Civilian, I thank you for the Friendship.

Roy

[Razorfeld]

Ian, as I've said before, "It's what we, the Mentors, do."

[Walterbowens]

Ian, as I've said before, "It's what we, the Mentors, do."

And we Thank you for what you do for us!!

[eKretz]

Out of curiosity, what was this razor finished on?

[MajorEthanolic]

Major, I'm so very glad that you like the edge. I'm really looking forward to honing the 7/8 Friodur that should land here in a few days.

As a Vet, I thank you for your Service and as a Civilian, I thank you for the Friendship.

Roy

I was glad to see that I could shave with that new Friodur without cutting myself! Between the sharpness of the blade and having been using that monster-sized Friodur for the last few months, took a shave to adjust! Second shave went perfect however. Pretty impressive that you got that 5/8 as sharp as my Feather shavette.

[tcrideshd]

that Roy guy is pretty nice isn't he? him and the many Mentors here will do their very best to help ,, way to go my friend tc

[cudarunner]

Out of curiosity, what was this razor finished on?

I've been an advocate of the Naniwa 12K as a finisher for quite some time as it's a real workhorse.

In fact I paid for and sent one to a good friend as he was being stubborn and didn't want to try it. Guess what, it's a regular part of his arsenal and he swears by it. He refused to accept it as a gift and paid me for my cost.

However a friend purchased and sent me a new hone to try. He said it didn't produce a sharper edge than the Naniwa but a smoother edge. It was a gift. :

I don't use pasted strops, while the have a use IF the bevel was properly set and then taken through the various hone, there is no magic in them that will fix a blade that wasn't properly honed, Plus I like the feel of the razor right off of the stone.

Back to the new hone. It's a very inexpensive Cnat. My friend had purchased it at FleaBay and I too found it. It was described as a 12K, but you can't grade naturals, you can only guess.

Ok, so I did my normal procession and I use slurry at ever step including on a finisher and then follow with clear water. I finished on the Naniwa with clear water of 20 nice light X-Strokes, then did 20 circles on slurry on the Cnat, followed by 40 X-Strokes on slurry, and finished with 20 very light X-Strokes on clear water.

25 laps on Illinois 827 linen followed by 50 laps on Neil Miller Linen, then 50 laps on the Illinois Russian leather and 100 on SRD English Bridle, then a full shave (that's my version of a 'test' shave) then 50 laps on the Miller linen and 100 on the Bridle, sanitizes, very well dried, oiled with Ballistol, packed and shipped home.

It worked well on this blade, I'm going to keep playing with the Cnat and see how it works on others.

I don't think that I could recommend it unless you've used the Naniwa 12K before it, but there again, I"m just starting to play with it.

[eKretz]

Thanks for the response, much longer than I expected, lol. So basically you prefinished on the Naniwa 12k then finished on the PHIG. And did a holy moly amount of laps on straight leather, lol. Sounds like you got a good PHIG.

[cudarunner]

Thanks for the response, much longer than I expected, lol. So basically you prefinished on the Naniwa 12k then finished on the PHIG. And did a holy moly amount of laps on straight leather, lol. Sounds like you got a good PHIG.

To add a little more detail, I went with synthetic hones for a good reason and that is 'Repeatability' naturals have so much variance/one friend has Thousands invested trying to find the Holy Grail of Natural Hones. By the way I set the bevel on a Norton 4K with slurry, then went to clear water and the same on the Norton 8K.

To confirm, yes I pre-finished on the Naniwa 12K, but if I didn't have the Cnat, that would have been a finished edge and one that would be an outstanding shave.

I don't know if (I got a good PHIG) perhaps so or perhaps this particular razor reacted well to it. I just finished another Friodur using the same method and liked the shave. Only the owner will be able to be the final judge of my work.

Oh, as far as (And did a holy moly amount of laps on straight leather) my normal routine for daily shaving is 25 laps on the linen and 60+ on the leather. It's not uncommon for my good friend pinklather to send a razor home with over 200 laps on leather.