Thread: Comparing 2 finishers

The contestants.

On the left is a Kiita Najishi finisher. On the right is a Kiita Karasu.

The 2 razors used are Geo. Wostenholm Peerless Sheffield blades.

The first micrograph are "before" pics of the blades side by side. They were previously finished with DMT's up to 8000 grit and then taken to the finishing stones. The blade on the left will be finished on the Karasu and the one on the right will go to the Najishi.

First the progress of the Kiita Najishi.

I took it back to my Aoto to reestablish the edge and start the progression with natural stones. The theory is that with a progression using natural stones, the scratches would not be as deep and would allow me to hone to a finer edge and achieve a better polish.

The first pic shows the edge taken back to the Aoto.

The second is the blade after using a Ohira Tomae and finishing on the Najishi.

The third shows the Najishi finished razor on the left and the original Karasu on the right.

Finally, I took the second razor through the same progression and finished on the Kiita Karasu.

The first pic shows the razor after a progression using the naturals and finishing on the karasu.

The second pic shows the Karasu finished blade on the left and the Najishi finished blade on the right.


All pics have the same magnification.

Thank you for this experiment. would you please let us know what magnification you have used and in last picture which blade sharpened with which hone ? left blade and right blade? it seems like pictures are mixed? Karasu in the right in last picture?
thank you

Pics are always nice, but how are the shaves? At least IMO, that's the really important part.

Is it possible to get higher mag pics for more detail?

all the pics are the same magnification - about 200-300x. Things get pretty poor if I try to go much higher- even though it is supposed to go to 400X

In the last picture I could have gotten mixed up, but my notes say the left blade was sharpened on the Karasu. The right is the Najishi. But, I see your point.

So, I re-shot it with the Karasu on the left and the Najishi finished blade on the right.

I am sending the razors to Rayman for shave testing. He won't know which razor was honed on which stone.

*this* is supposed to be 300x magnification?!?!
I would say it is 30x ...

could someone please verify this?

he is right about mag 200-300. I have always tried to explain in regular microscope etc the best images you will get until 100x after that magnification image is so large that it is hard to say anything about the quality of the edge.the reasons for it
1 we are seeing bevel not actual edge. Bevel will show how it has been polished .i think norton 8k is the best among stones i have seen so far to do polishing job(clean). To see what quality stone has we need to see edge's picture or shave test.magnifications are 30x.60x or 100xmaximum.lastly lighting is very important part of the pic.

Originally Posted by Lesslemming

*this* is supposed to be 300x magnification?!?!
I would say it is 30x ...

could someone please verify this?

my 100x scope magnifies more than what the pics show.
It looks like the both edges were shot at the same time which changes the light on one of them (the left one),due to the bevel angles with respect to the light, and we are not seeing any scratch pattern. I asked for higher mag pics, I wanted to see more detail and make sure that the edge on the left blade indeed looks so much smoother.