Bought a Charnley Forest

Continued from this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/aucti...ml#post1605418

I have lapped the primary working surface with sic as well as having cleaned up the sides. I ground the back to remove the big chip about 50%. Primary surface lapped to 3k and then slurried with bbw/coti. Polished the chamfers as well. I've never seen a cf in person and I am kind of surprised tbh by how different the feel is to an ark. It doesn't have that same cold, glassy thing going on, it feels dense and silky. Pics coming

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Really nice example!! Looking forward for your findings....

Initial run was just ok. shaved fine, went atg no problem. It wasn't irritating at all. I need to work the stone in a bit more and try different mediums on top of it.

I have a weakness for CF's, they leave a super sharp edge. Are you finishing on water or oil? I like smiths honing oil, but it's not a oil at all. I've tried it all from water, sewing machine/mineral oil, Kroil, different concoctions of mineral oil from cuts to blends with Kroil & found that the Smiths works about as good as you can get.

A harder razor will do it justice. CF's are slow, I am talking PHIG slow. I plan on 100x nice & slow strokes when I sit down to use mine.

Hey Scott I see your name now. Good show. Tc

Soapy water was the first go. I have a bottle of sewing machine oil so that is next.

I make a thin lather (usually with Pre de Provence, for reasons I can't explain) for final finishing on my coticules. I have a Simpson Wee Scot that is perfect for applying while honing. It really works well at bringing the edge up just that little bit extra - might be worth a try on the Charnley Forest.

Yep, when I got my Charnley Forest, Scott recommended I get the Smiths Honing Solution & it worked out very well!

Did you burnish the stone? When you put it up to your eye do you get a mirror reflection? I ask because if it is not you may not be getting the full potential form it yet, or it may just be a softer stone. I have two, one is a little harder than the other. Both work very nicely though. I don't like oil since I hone in the bathroom or kitchen. I use water and sometimes a little liquid soap. Haven't tried glycerin yet. I found on mine about 200 light laps gives me a nice smooth clean shave with no irritation. Now I generally go from a Coti or Thuri to the Charnley, but I can feel a significant difference in the shave between all of them. Now I may have lucked out as mine were all ready used for like 100 years and very flat and smooth. I just cleaned with simple green and used. My understanding is that as they are used and burnished over time they improve to a certain point I would think where they would max out at there potential. Each one having their own level or difference probably based on hardness, but maybe other factors.

Yes, I pretty much gave it my trans ark/apache black gila treatment. It wasn't terribly hard to lap fwiw.

I need to experiment with it a lot more and try out many approaches. I have no razor grade cf edge to go by from another as a benchmark, so I can only go by how the edge reacts to my beard and it shaves well, though not on the same level as my yellow trans ark. I have a feeling it may be me though because I've read there is little middle ground with these? You either get a hit or it's more of a tool stone with not much play in the middle? I will say this, the skin feel after the shave was very favorable. I still want to set the other side up coarsely and see how it fares for knives/chip removal

Yeah. I love the skin feel off a CF.That is what hooked me. I have heard the same thing about hit or miss on these but don't know. Either I got lucky or it is how they were treated before bringing them up to that level. I think it may be a middle ground here too. I think there are softer stones which just are more tool grade then there are the hard to really hard. With the hard and really hard I would think it could be how the finish is done to bring out it's max potential. I will say a hard razor grade is very slow. That may be why my best one was sold by a knife guy. It was too slow for knives. I do think running a bunch of knives over a stone will only help it though. As long as you don't scratch it.

When I look at yours it looks more of a matte finish for lack of a better term. The top of mine looks more satin finish where the sides and bottom look more matte finish. It could just be the photos though.

This is the surface I have been working with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58m7...ature=youtu.be

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The top looks good to me. I think it was just the photos before. What did you use to burnish with? Did you use only water or oil of some sort? Just curious. I am wondering if burnishing with an oil gets it smoother then once cleaned the oil is gone but the results stay. This is just me thinking out loud I do not know.
I did the BBW slurry on my labeled CF and it left a scratch. I got it out but took some work and a dab of wd40, which I then cleaned off with simple green and soap and water.

I went up to 3000 w/d followed by a coticule, followed by a really fine piece of vermont slate. Then I made a mix of dish soap and water and did several hundred halfstrokes all over the thing

Bought another cf. Been wanting one lately but they have been getting very expensive again. Lucked into this huge one. Need to prep it but it seems finer, denser, and more pingy than my others were. Attachment 257650Attachment 257647Attachment 257648Attachment 257649Attachment 257651

This one is razor grade. It delivered an excellent shave and atg everywhere was no issue. Most encouraging was the fact that it was the first run and I used a wiss that has hard finicky steel and it still delivered. I can definitely get more performance from it. From my buying experiences I would say avoid kahki colored ones, avoid overly red ones, and buy rectangles to up your chances of suitability for razors.

Now play with different versions of oils. Water is a bit thin, straight sewing machine oil is a bit thick, Smiths honing oil (not really an oil) is good, but sewing machine oil cut 50/50 with kroil is the cats meow for mine.

Yours looks like my first and best one. 9 x 2".
Glycerin water mix giving great results on this one and my barber size. Haven't tried on the big labeled one yet.

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Originally Posted by ScottGoodman

Now play with different versions of oils. Water is a bit thin, straight sewing machine oil is a bit thick, Smiths honing oil (not really an oil) is good, but sewing machine oil cut 50/50 with kroil is the cats meow for mine.

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Yeah I have sewing machine oil. I will probably try everything. That, glycerine mixes, soapy water... If it didn't take so many laps lather would be an option but controlling the consistency would be a drag.