More Tests with a Dragon's Tongue - no slurry

[holli4pirating]

So I've finally got a Dragon's Tongue of my own. Previously, I had been using one on loan from McWolf which was shortened a bit (in order to make a slurry stone). As of last night, I'm using a full sized (8 x 2.5) Dragon's Tongue of my own.

These things to arrive with a rough surface, so I lapped mine with my DMT-C and then smoothed her out with a Spyderco Medium pocket hone that I still have around. When I'd opened the box, I noticed that only one face of the hone had the edges ... what's the word when you take off harsh edges? Well anyway, I decided to lap that face. It was a quick process, and caused no trouble.

So on with the testing. I was honing six blades: A 5/8 Wostenholm wedge, a Wostenholm frameback, a W&B Bow, a full hollow Joseph Allen, a 3/4ish hollow Ontario Cutlery Barber's Special, and a 3/4ish hollow Worchester Razor Co. Each razor had her bevel set on my King 1k.

I took the six razors straight off the King 1k and used the same method for each on the Dragon's Tongue. Each razor got three sets of 50 passes with just water. In between each set, I rinsed the hone off and wiped off the bevel and spine of the razor (to remove the metal buildup). After each set, there was some blackening on the toilet paper I was using to wipe down the blades. So that's a total of 150 passes per blade, no slurry, just water. I know that sounds like a lot, but my idea is that I'll start high and work my way down instead of starting low and working my way up.

This time around, I did not shave straight off the Dragon's Tongue, but I did take each blade straight off the DT and shave just a small bit of my cheek, just to see what they would do. Mind you, this was totally dry shaving in the midst of honing, not a prepped, lathered shave. Each blade pulled a fair bit (by no means comfortable), but it wasn't painful either. Oh, and they all cut hairs too. I'm not really sure why I did this test, but I did.

Anyway, I wanted to finish the razors before shaving, so next I pullet out my PHIG (People's Hone of Indeterminate Grit - or C12k, if you prefer) and gave the Sheffield razors (Wosty's, the Allen, and the Bow) 100 passes (two sets of 50 with a rinse in between). For the American razors (Ontario and Worchester), I did 75 passes each on my Asagi (these were being honed for another member, so I thought I'd show him what the Asagi can do).

And on to the shave test. I want to preface by saying that I was trying a shave stick for the first time, so I didn't have great lather. I tried the two American blades first and they shaved just as smooth as anything else that I've ever run over my Asagi. Next up was the Wosty frameback, and she cut totally effortlessly. The Joseph Allen also gave a fantastic shave. The W&B Bow... well something must have gone wrong somewhere, because she was not quite ready (I might not have totally removed the little frown she'd started with). And I did not test the Wosty wedge yet.

So here are, in my opinion, the results of the test. This new progression of setting the bevel on my King 1K, 150 passes on the DT, 100 on the PHIG/75 on the Asagi seems to work quite nicely. The PHIG and the Asagi both leave fantastic edges, but I still find the edges off the Asagi to be a bit smoother. And this Wosty frameback - I've sort of been looking for a frameback to add to my rotation, and this might be the one. She shaved so well that I choose her for all my touchup work. I am very, very impressed.

So in the future, I'll be playing with dropping the number of strokes on the DT, but, I have to say, I'm very impressed with her too. On Sheffield and American steel, she worked wonders. And, what I'm happiest with, is that I didn't need to use a slurry. Not needing a slurry makes the honing process much more straightforward, in my opinion, as does using only three stones. So, if you're looking for a very cheap honing progression, the King 1k, DT, PHIG might be something to look into. I don't know what shipping on the DT is like, but IIRC it's around $20 for the hone, and the King 1K and PHIG are $20 each.