The day I started using a scope,was the day honeing lost it's fun factor:(
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The day I started using a scope,was the day honeing lost it's fun factor:(
We do not know what kinds of edges did the old barbers achieve with the stones available, chances are they were good edges but not quite like what we are talking about on this forum today. If I understand the history of SRP, in the beginning there was the Norton 4/8k, not this is considered a stepping stone to finer edges.
A scope can be useful tool, for me for example visual inspection of the edge tells me all I need to know about it. To each his own.
I theorize that the pro barbers of bygone days did not want 'scary sharp' edges. They wanted a smooth and comfortable edge that was unlikely to nick a customer. As much as I like the edges I get from my eschers, I believe the edges obtained (by me) on a coticule approximate the aforementioned ideal barber's edge. Edges that are HHT 5 or whatever the current state of that art might be were probably the last thing in the world they would have wanted, shaving someone else's face one after another. :shrug:
As far as magnification, I check them at the start for chips or other anomalies. I may check at some point during the honing, or after I think I'm done ..... or I might not. I found my honing improved when I went from 100x to 30 and 40x ...... :p
Stefan,for pros like you,the scope can be a great tool,Now you have honed alot of my blades.I look at every one you send me under an 80 power scope,your edges are my benchmarks,something I strive to replicate from a visual.
I have been shaving with straights for almost 20 years,back in the not to distant past I had old guys that worked at williams cutlery that could hone,Cheap,but they are all dead:( so I am having to learn this frustrating, seemingly impossible task,i have been at it for two years, some days are diamonds,some days are dirt:( I have all the proper stones,I have read everything to be read,I have seen all the videos, i have worked my butt off.
I have been honing for only two years,when i look thru the scope at my edges,I get tottaly pissed most of the time,but every once in a blue moon I can make a perfect edge happen:) Why I have no clue.
Scope for Me, A novice is not a good tool I think,I see far to many things in an edge I than try to correct,than the entire edge falls apart:( in ten strokes. Am 64 yrs old,My intention is to live to 87,If I do not learn this art by than,i will kill myself:)
Those high and super high magnifications are interesting to look at but for rubber meets the road honing, I agree that my 30x jeweler's loupe is a very efficient tool. More helpful within the honing progression than super high scopes. OTOH, I'm not interested in simonizing the edge. I just want a good shave.
I have a microscope I use on occasion if I get a recalcitrant razor, but other than that it sits around doing not a lot. I personally do not see the need to check for microchips along the way, only at the end and only then if the shave test tells me something is up.
I know at least one retired barber who used a coti on all his old cut throats. I imagine they were very workman like edges that straddled the boundary between customer comfort and barber effort. They were businessmen after all.
James.
Today's the big day, we'll find out of my old escher was "good" or "too soft".
I think in the end, you guys will be able to say "we know it was the arrow and not the indian", or maybe "the indian was too impatient".
So, the escher that I had sold boomeranged. The person who bought it correctly noted there was some light cracking along the sides of the stone, which presents (obvious) risks to a future user in case the cracking would get worse and release a chunk of stone. Being an escher newbie, didn't notice them even in my pictures until he pointed them out. Definitely different than the glaring japanese natural delaminations and other such sidewalk-sized flaws that are impossible to miss.
The upside is that the stone came back to me, it looks like I jumped the gun about its fineness and between going and coming back (and the use) it has settled down and doesn't release a slurry at all. And now it works exactly like I expected it would work, and I wonder why I didn't keep it long enough to get settled with it - I never would've sold it.
So this is a foot in mouth post, impatience almost cost me the proper experience. It works like a dream now cracks and all, and though I unintentionally wasted a lot of the buyer's time with it, I did find out independently that it is not unusually soft or anything).
I did get it from a book seller, so they'd probably have no clue what the cracks were if they were there already, but if I didn't put them in lapping it, they go a long way toward explaining why it has a random little bit delaminated in one corner. I am the kind of person who buys stones *after* their stamps have been lapped off, though (so I can get them cheaper), so I'll live with it happily as long as I can still use the stone.
Please post pics of the "crack". My thoughts are that if the stone is in danger it might be best to epoxy it to a nice piece of hardwood. I would hate for you to sit it down wrong on the countertop and end up with slurry stones....
Take pics of the label for reference of course...
Well, it's not that kind of crack. It's a crack that runs from the top of the stone likely to the side if it makes it all the way there. If you've ever chipped slate or shale rocks, you know what I mean. It's more a threat of having a piece that looks like a big corn flake come off the top. As time moves on here, there's just a tiny tab at the one end that's a little loose, and it is consistent with that, very thin and lateral in terms of the stone surface rather than vertical through the thickness of the stone. There is also a small chip off of one of the other corners that is of the shallow and wide variety (though it's less than a quarter inch wide), versus the narrow and vertical or just plain vertical type.
I may end up attaching it to a board at some point, anyway, just because I'd rather have it on a board like that. The buyer had the same thought (that affixing it to a base won't help) because my reaction was that I would take it back and just glue it to a board.
I was thinking of putting it in something quartersawn (which would make it stable), like maybe cocobolo, and leaving enough of a cutout in the middle of the back so that you could still read the label.
You could lacquer or epoxy the sides so no moist can come into the crack.
It's lacquered. The buyer lacquered it before noticing the cracks. Moisture can make it under the crack from the top, though, but the stone itself is still pretty static right now (i.e., nothing is going to flake off in the next day or month or anything).
The cracks aren't an issue with function, more something that's offputting to a buyer because if the stone decides to leaf off a shard in a year or 2, you're stuck with it at that point as a buyer.