Blue Escher / BD Escher and Water of Ayr Similarities??

[Phrank]

So for some fun, I've been refreshing a few razors on the Escher Barber's Delight and decided to do some comparisons for the fun of it.

I'm certainly no expert in honing, I get by for my needs, but for this, we're talking some laps on the Nani 12k and then to the finishing stone...easy peasey.

So the reason the Water of Ayr stone is here, while I found the edge of the Blue Escher very nice, the edge I'm used to, the Barber's Delight was similar, except it felt much, "brighter", very "keen" edge, nothing to mellow about it at all, but it certainly didn't feel sharp, that scary sharp you end up with sometimes. In fact, what struck me was that this would be the edge I'd think a barber would want for his customers, very consistent, without feeling like a scalpel was being put on your face, but nice and sharp. So calling the stone, "The Barber's Delight" makes perfect sense...guess there's a reason they called the stone that....LOL!

Very smooth, but I certainly felt the edge had a very active feeling of "sharpness", something that usually doesn't stand out with the uber smooth Blue Escher...at least for me.

The edge from the Barber's Delight nagged at me until I figured out why.

The Barber's Delight is somewhat similar to the edge from the Water of Ayr, without the "too sharp" feeling the WOA stone seems to give me. With the WOA stone, it took a shave or two and some strop time to mellow the edge, and at that point, it felt much like the Escher Barber's Delight. Found that very interesting, as the first couple of times with the WOA, I noticed it was a scary sharp edge, too sharp almost, perhaps I did too many laps, something next time I use it I will do less of, but the similarities were striking, at least for me.

I'd read that the WOA stone had some comparison to the Escher, I'd agree, potentially minus the "mellow" part, at least right off the stones.

Anyhow, thought I'd share some observations.....