Thread: If you could only buy one...

Originally Posted by unit

Please help me understand this term.

Sharper than comfortable when subjected only to a bare leather strop. A level of sharpness you will get only if you use a fine stone on clear water for a longer time than usual, and where the stone is hard enough to hold its abrasive without releasing any.

Are the good old oil stones a good choice for the vintage straights i have that are marked
blue steel. Cause they cut those good. but sometimes they cut other razors super super slow.

Originally Posted by DaveW

Sharper than comfortable when subjected only to a bare leather strop. A level of sharpness you will get only if you use a fine stone on clear water for a longer time than usual, and where the stone is hard enough to hold its abrasive without releasing any.

If you want a weeper on stainless with naturals get a charnley forest.

Yea i do need more cf i only have one.

Originally Posted by Martin103

If you want a weeper on stainless with naturals get a charnley forest.

I have a charnley. Charnley are novaculite hones, aren't they? If you get a weeper on stainless from one, I think it might be a different reason than pure sharpness.

I've never been impressed with charnleys, slates or arkansas stones on stainless razors.

Look up the mohs hardness for novaculite compared to the mohs hardness for chromium carbides. None of the above can actually abrade the carbides.

Originally Posted by Suile

Are the good old oil stones a good choice for the vintage straights i have that are marked
blue steel. Cause they cut those good. but sometimes they cut other razors super super slow.

The novaculite hones with no pores should have almost unlimited potential with old carbon steel razors (including anything called blue steel), if you have the patience to allow the novaculite to become dulled, and the the subsequent patience to use the dulled novaculite.

I have a thuringian for my sheffields (softer metal razors) and a charnley forest for everything else. But my wallet is hurting because of it.

Originally Posted by unit

Please help me understand this term.

In addition to what Dave already said re; weepers, in the shaving parlance I believe it was the name given to those little pin head spots that might have a drop of blood come to the surface after shaving with a super sharp razor ..... or maybe a super dull one.

Originally Posted by DaveW

The novaculite hones with no pores should have almost unlimited potential with old carbon steel razors (including anything called blue steel), if you have the patience to allow the novaculite to become dulled, and the the subsequent patience to use the dulled novaculite.

dave

can you explain this part:
if you have the patience to allow the novaculite to become dulled, and the the subsequent patience to use the dulled novaculite.

further please?

The novaculite particles in a fine oilstone are fairly large, like 6 microns large. They are aggressive cutters in slurry or when the surface is fresh, but because they are soft, they can become dull or worn fairly quickly.

The stones that have novaculite are usually hard enough to hold the abrasive in place so that will happen. If they are not hard enough to do that, then they will never cut that fine. But hard arkansas stones and the charnleys I've used will definitely hold their particles on the surface and become worn, especially at the pressures you hone a razor.

When an abrasive is fairly dull, you get a polished surface on the steel because it is not cutting deep, or much at all. Tim Zowada's pictures of what an arkansas stone will do without slurry are instructive, I think they might be linked in the library/wiki here.

As far as I know, there are no natural particle sizes that are comparable to the submicron powders that we use (diamonds, chromium oxide, etc), so the natural abrasives have to be held in place and allowed to be burnished so that they in turn burnish or polish steel. Otherwise, they will be too large to achieve a nice super sharp finish. Light pressure on the dulled surface cuts or polishes slowly (thus the patience comment), but leaves a nice finish if you work it up to maximum potential.