New stones. Almost a good experience.
So, on account of me getting older, my better half bought me a set of Nortons, a couple of stone holders, a new strop and some strop conditioner. Life is good indeed.
I haven't been posting much, but if I had I would have shared with y'all that a few weekends ago while riding with a friend I picked up a Genco hammered tail (blued) "Wedge" with green translucent scales for a wooping $3 at a flea market. Yep, less than lunch. Heck, less than a beer on Friday night.
Said Genco Wedge was a little dirty, so I cleaned to discover it had absolutely no hone wear... and no edge either. Seems it was never honed. So I figured this was a primo opportunity to break out the Nortons and figure out the whole honing thing.
I learned a few things.
1) Stones are not flat out of the box. While I have read here over and over that the first thing to do with a stone is to lap it flat, somewhere in the back of my head I kept thinking that the stoneheads are way to finicky about this stuff. They are not; they are dishing good free advise (like most do here.) Heed their warnings or risk feeling like a fool when you go from the 1k to the 4k and destroy the bevel.
2) The texture of the surface of the stones out of the box is nothing, but nothing at all, not even remotely similar to what's under the surface.
3) It takes about five minutes to get half of the stone flattened. The rest takes about one and a half hours. The last little corner takes up the majority of the ninety minutes.
4) The cheap HF diamond 4 in 1 sharpeners are awesome to clean the Norton lapping stone and bevel the edges of the Nortons.
5) It takes less time to follow the pyramid than to not follow it.
I did eventually get the razor sharp enough to shave (what a rough shave!) but it was a lot of hard work and a humbling experience. Foolishly I thought after trying the unicot method a few months back on a couple of blades (nice shaves!) somehow qualified me to do a progression.
All I can say is this: I'm an old fool.
My face is sore; time for a Johnny blue and a Partagas Culebra.
Maybe I'll try another blade tomorrow. Maybe not.
Good night, friends.