Originally Posted by
Joed
Well, I've been getting consistently good results honing on 4k/8k Norton so I thought I would take the next step. This hone arrived this past Wednesday. I haven't had much time to play with it, much less to mention it here but the time has come. Thursday morning I took the next razor out of my rotation and ran it over the Escher. It was a 7/8 WB and I have to say I was very pleased with the results. As much as the str8's are a giant improvement over the Twin Blade Gillettes I had been using (I did try the 4 and 5 blades I received from Gillette for free) this WB was like taking the plunge all over again. My shave was silky smooth. I did get a couple of nicks and stopped myself just before I took my chin off (no blood here). Guess I have to change my shaving style again, but I am very pleased with the results.
I was reluctant to take this step because with all of my past metal working experience as a Tool and Die Maker the very fine stones clogged with metal very fast. The metal on the stones not only slowed the cutting action and required frequent cleaning of the hone, the metal on the hone scratched the metal being polished and reduces the finish. Metal lapps had a similar result. during my apprentice years one of my mentors taught me to go from a surface ground finish to paper (copy paper) charged with lapping or diamond compound. Not only did this method cut much faster but the finish obtained was greatly improved. In my later years I had some oiled stencil board available and a a lot of polishing on die edge. To make a long story short, I was able to go beyond a mirror finish and bring the flatness to .0002 in. very fast. I believe this was due to the Diamod chips being sharp cut the metal but the metal removed was not as sharp and was pushed below the surface of the stencil board.
Well anyway, I am impressed with my new Escher stone. It did arrive with some chips on the edge along the 2 inch side and one along the 5 inch side and only one side of the hone is finish but I am still pleased. If you have any tips on usiing this hone I'm all ears. Your tips will help me reduce my learing durve with this new hone.
