Thread: Honing a Filarmonica

Folks, I am really stuck. I have two Filarmonica Doble Temple 7/8 razors that I got a while back from CS. To this date I can't remember if I ever got them shave ready. I have attempted every way I know or every way I have read about to get them ready but just can't get there.

Before I send them off to Lynn, has anyone else had difficulty in getting these razors sharp enough to not pluck every hair out individually. If so I would like to know how. I am at the point of reworking the bevel and start from there, but don't know if that will work.

I have all the equipment (Norton 4/8 and yellow connicle, pasted strops and leather)

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been having the same issue, but I believe I've been making progress by treating the blade as very hard steel, perhaps stainless steel and giving it more gentle work on the 8k than usual. I'm not there with mine yet either, but I've gotten closer.

X

X, do you also have the 7/8 from CS?

I remember a while back reading about yet another SRP member having a hard time with one of these.

I have about a half-dozen of the vintage 14s (8/8). I love them. Two of them have been honed by Chandler and the others by me. One of the reasons I like them so much is because I've found them easy to hone – and I'll freely admit that I'm a pretty mediocre honer. The ones honed by Joe just seem to keep their edge indefinitely. In that respect they're a world apart from my other razors (a TI wedge, a Wacker 1/4 hollow, a W/B 1/4 hollow) – which need refreshes every 5 shaves or so (I have a very wiry beard).

So this is pretty puzzling to me. I wonder if there's a difference between the vintage Fillies and the newer ones sold by CS.

Originally Posted by dylandog

X, do you also have the 7/8 from CS?
So this is pretty puzzling to me. I wonder if there's a difference between the vintage Fillies and the newer ones sold by CS.

I don't know. The 7/8's are the only ones I own from that line. The edge is bowed toward the middle and though it sometimes feels great on my thumb, clips some hairs on my arm. When I go to shave with it misses half of what it goes over. Most of my other razors work fine--some I hone and some others honed for me. I have tried 45 degree honing, X pattern, pressure, no pressure, straight down and straight back, norton, connicle, japanese water stone, pastes 06, 05, 1. Shucks, I have thrown the kitchen sink at these razors and still get a minimal cut.

Originally Posted by xman

I've been having the same issue, but I believe I've been making progress by treating the blade as very hard steel, perhaps stainless steel and giving it more gentle work on the 8k than usual. I'm not there with mine yet either, but I've gotten closer.

X

You mention gentle work on the 8k. That is a new concept. My logic would say that a harder steel would need a bit more pressure than something that might be less hard. Am I wrong? If so maybe that is what I am doing wrong. I might be using too much pressure.

Too much pressure, especially with hard steel will cause micro-chipping.

Originally Posted by jmsbcknr

You mention gentle work on the 8k. That is a new concept. My logic would say that a harder steel would need a bit more pressure than something that might be less hard. Am I wrong? If so maybe that is what I am doing wrong. I might be using too much pressure.

You may have gotten the pressure idea from the Friodur honing discussions.

I don't have a filly, but hard steel can be kind of counterintuitive - it's slower going so you need to use pressure to make progress, but steel that hard is more brittle so the pressure is more likely to microchip the edge.

One of the nice things about the Friodurs is they get the high hardness levels without the brittleness, so you can use pressure on them without too much risk of microchipping. I've found Friodurs to be pretty easy to hone; the razors that give me fits are the really hard carbon steel razors, and for those it can take awhile to get them dialed in that first time. Lots of light laps, and frequent checks under the microscope to see how it's coming. A lot of times I'll switch to either a translucent arkansas or a tam o shanter hone as it starts getting close. Sometimes that's enough, but sometimes I'll go to the 15k shapton for the final polishing.

I figured I was up against hard metal, so I took mine to the 4k aggressively. I put a small chip in my 7/8 that was a pain in the butt to get past. I decided I didn't wanna mess with 4k on that blade.
I ended up going from 8k to a barber hone once I got the chip out (mostly) and it took a while to get the thing near shave-ready.
My version of shave ready would probably qualify as unacceptable, at that.

Originally Posted by dylandog

X, do you also have the 7/8 from CS?

That's the one.

I go lightly because I don't want to smooth out the striations and overhone it. Like I say. I haven't quite gotten it yet, but the extra work on the 8k seems to have helped.

X

If u have tried many times and still no luck then I would go back to the 4K and rework the bevel very carefully. That has been a problem for me in the past also and by assuming that the bevel is "off" and reworking it then that has almost always worked.

To me the establishment of the bevel is the single most important step of honing.

Just my two cents,