Thread: Newbie honing journal

This makes grat reading Oscroft. Thanks for putting in the time to post this and share your honing journey.

Originally Posted by MattCB

This makes grat reading Oscroft. Thanks for putting in the time to post this and share your honing journey.

Thanks - it's fun sharing the learning experience.

I was going to continue with the Joseph Rodgers tonight, but I'm feeling quite tired - and one rule I arrived at many years ago is "Don't mess around with sharp things when you're tired"

Joseph Rodgers

Back to the Joseph Rodgers 1/4 hollow, and with it already close to passing the Sharpie test I felt it couldn't be far away from a good bevel.

Wrong!

It didn't take much work to get the sharpie test passing all along the blade, and the edge felt pretty good to my thumb. But when I tried to shave arm hairs it shaved well from one side of the blade, but wouldn't cut a single hair from the other.

My guess was that there might have been a micro-bevel on one side and not the other, and so the two bevels didn't meet. I thought I could see a fine reflection along the edge using the loupe, but I wasn't really sure.

If that was the right diagnosis, then I reckoned I needed to go for raising a burr by honing on the bad side. So I tried that, doing half-laps and counting, and it took ages for any sign of a burr to appear at all - and 150 laps before I had a burr all along the edge. I turned it over and did the other side, and then settled in for a few dozen standard x-strokes until burrs were no more and it was sucking to the stone on both sides.

Back to my arm, and takes hairs off just fine from both sides.

In this session I've put a noticeable amount of wear on the spine - but I've got a good bevel now, and I should never have to do it again. It also seems to be a pretty nice razor with good weight and balance.

It'll be on to the 3k/8k next, and I'll get another photo of it when it's finished.

Joseph Rodgers

On another forum, someone challenged me to try shaving after honing on 3k with lather (seeing as I've had good results from 8k with lather), and I couldn't resist...

Couple of dozen laps on 3k with water, then around 200 with lather. Towards the end I was managing to maintain a cushion of lather and keep the edge away from hard contact with the stone pretty well.

After a good stropping I checked on my arm, and it wasn't really tree-topping hairs - just a few coming off with the blade close to (but not quite touching) the skin. So I really didn't think it was going to shave.

But it did!

I only did a WTG pass on one cheek - but it shaved, and shaved pretty close. It obviously wasn't the best edge I've ever shaved with, but it was smoother than I'd expected and gave me no irritation - if 3k was all I had, then I could shave from it reasonably comfortably.

So I got an edge good enough to shave with from a 3k stone - I'm pleased with that

Alan

Thinking about what to do next...

I'm happy with what I've done with 8k and lather, and I don't really want to keep repeating the same thing with different razors - so it's approaching time to move one. A Naniwa 12k will have to wait a couple of weeks for next payday, but I do have my set of three AJ Welsh slates. So I could try Naniwa 3k, then on to the Dragon's Tongue and then the Llyn Melynllyn and see where that gets me. But that would get me away from my original plan of getting myself comfortable with Naniwa synthetics before I confused my head with too many other things. But, but... the slates are just there within easy reach, just <reaches out and touches them> there...

I think I'll put the decision off (and might even listen to any advice anyone wants to offer), and in the meantime I'll go back to the 1k with this...

Wade & Butcher



It's a little Wade & Butcher Special, which I got cheap on that famous auction site. It's about 4/8 left, though it clearly started a bit bigger than that. And it has a couple of chips...



The point is chipped, and there's damage just behind that too - but it's a lot smaller than the previous chip I dealt with, and this edge is otherwise quite straight and even. Given that it's a small blade, I think I might tape it (I've never tried that, so I'll learn something new) and work on the 1k until the damage behind the point is gone. And then I'll see what the point itself looks like - maybe just muting it then will suffice.

Opinions gratefully welcomed - I have a busy week, so I won't be working on it until the weekend.

Alan

Originally Posted by Oscroft

Joseph Rodgers

On another forum, someone challenged me to try shaving after honing on 3k with lather (seeing as I've had good results from 8k with lather), and I couldn't resist...

MmmmmmHmmmmmm

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-1k-shave.html

Originally Posted by gssixgun

MmmmmmHmmmmmm

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-1k-shave.html

Hah, wow, a 1k shave! I'll have to have a read of that, but a quick skim makes it sound like it would need some pretty expert stropping to make it work. I think I'll have to try it sooner or later - I'll have a think

Wade & Butcher

I went as far as the 1k and setting a bevel on the Wade & Butcher, leaving it like this...



It's a bit hard to see clearly with the glare on the edge, but the bevel seems fine all along and I'm quite pleased with the way the point came out. I haven't decided what to do now with this, so I'll leave it for a little longer. Another 8k/lather job, wait until I get a 12k, try the slates, or take on the 1k challenge? We'll see.

German Hollow Ground

While I was at it, I also set the bevel on the little thing shown here (before and after)...



The bevel looks a bit thin at the toe and heel, but it's there OK - the blade is a little warped, and the thin bit is along the middle on the other side. I'm not sure how useful one this small would be to me, as I don't keep any facial hair or do any shaping, but it was cheap and I thought it would be fun.

Alan

I haven't been honing or straight shaving for a couple of weeks (I've been off doing a DE blade test), but I was back today and had a lot to do. For one thing, my two razors sent off for honing by a kind volunteer are back from their trip, with their edges looking gleaming and needing a test. But first...

Joseph Rodgers

I haven't ordered my Naniwa 12k yet, but I wanted to try something new, so I decided to get the Welsh slates out. The Joseph Rogers 1/4 hollow is the one I'd honed with lather on 3k and was able to get a reasonable shave out of, so I started with that on the Dragon's Tongue (which I lightly lapped with the DMT, though it was very flat anyway).

The DT is a hard and slow stone, and it took me a couple of hundred laps before I could see the 3k scratches were gone and to get to the stage where the blade feels like it's sucking to the stone. But it got there, and I moved on to the purple Llyn Melynllyn slate (again lightly lapped on the DMT).

This took a long time too, though not as long as the DT, and I got to the point where it felt right. At this stage, I tried tree-topping hairs and it really wasn't doing it, so I was disappointed and thought I had a lot more learning to do on this stone.

After a good stropping on leather, it was treetopping a bit better, but nowhere near was well as my previous blades or the two expert-honed ones.

But on a test shave, it shaved really well, and probably close to my 8k/lather shaves - I'd have to do a side-by-side test to be sure. It just goes to show how various non-shave tests really aren't sufficient. So, I was a lot more pleased than I'd initially expected, and I'm quite impressed by the two slates.

Update: I should add that with both the slates, I started with slurry and progressively diluted it down to plain water.

As an aside, at the end I noticed that the slates were developing quite a gloss on their surfaces and feel very smooth. I don't know if there's any swarf buildup involved as I haven't cleaned them other than rinsing with water, but I might give them a bit of a rub to see if there is any.

But the big question - how did my edge compare with the expert's? ...

Kropp


(photo before honing)

Compared to the Kropp, my edge was not as good - the Kropp edge was definitely sharper. But what was nice is that the difference was really not that great, and the shave with the Rodgers wasn't far behind the Kropp. In smoothness terms, the two seemed quite close. The Kropp shaves much nicer now than it did back when stropping was all I had!

But on to the killer...

Green & Green "Celebrated"


(photo before honing)

This is a small smiling Sheffield blade, with no "Made in England" so I assume before 1891. And it is superb. I don't think there was really any difference in sharpness between it and the Kropp, but the Celebrated felt beautifully smooth on my skin. I think one of the two razors was honed on a JNAT (he hasn't told me which was done on which), and I've heard they give a smooth edge - so my guess is the Celebrated got the JNAT edge.

Whatever it was honed on, this razor is now my reference for comparing my own work.

As an aside, I love the shape of the Celebrated, especially the toe - it's really good for getting in all the awkward bits of my face (which increase in number with every year that passes!)

Alan

Originally Posted by Oscroft

I haven't ordered my Naniwa 12k yet

I have now

Originally Posted by Oscroft

As an aside, at the end I noticed that the slates were developing quite a gloss on their surfaces and feel very smooth. I don't know if there's any swarf buildup involved as I haven't cleaned them other than rinsing with water, but I might give them a bit of a rub to see if there is any.

I gave them a quick clean with a small lapping stone, and there was no sign of swarf - just clean slate slurry.