Thread: Hone of the Day

This evenings shave was the culmination of a few weeks of trial and error with an Arkansas stone progression.

T to B:
Norton/Pike No. 1 Washita
Dans Soft/Hard combo stone (soft up)
Dans Surgical Black



Most of the time was spent on the Washita. I found refreshing the surface with a diamond plate and honing on mineral oil worked best for bevel setting. I messed around with burnishing it with a smaller piece of washita and that slowed it way down. I was able to set an intense bevel with this stone by burnishing it after the bevel was set, and doing a few hundred more laps, then burnishing again..

Some hard won swarf on the Hard arkie. About 1 hour on the soft, then 1 hour on the hard arkansas seemed to work. I lost count of laps.



Tried lather on the SB.. why not. Worked pretty well i guess. It definitely gave the honing a very cushiony feel.



The shave was better then expected. The TPT felt sticky but a.. 'dry' kinda sticky. While shaving the edge felt too keen like it would irritate my skin a bit but it didn't. No burn from alum or Osage rub. I was very surprised and quite pleased.

Im gonna keep the razor in the den and keep doing SB laps every week for about a month to see if i can push the edge any further.

Have a good night sirs.

MW76, I have a hard black Arkansas (SB). I have never spent an hour on it. Because of your recommendation I will dedicate one of my razors to it
and a lot of time to see how it comes out. I intend to use lather. Have you ever tried glycerin cut with a bit of alcohol? That's another option that
occurred to my strange mind.
Who is the "Dan" you refer To?

This is Dans..

http://www.danswhetstone.com

Im planning to grab some glycerin next time im in a store that has it, and i remember. I think i read you can cut it with kerosene.

The only other test ive done with the SB so far was to do a few hours a night for about a week, on a razor that had a decent coticle edge on it. I did thousands of laps with mineral oil. I thought that edge came out really nice. Smooth and keen.. almost felt mechanical, like a tiny weed wacker. It definitely changed the feel of the coticle edge.

My SB is very burnished on one side btw.. the other side is surfaced with 400 grit w/d. I started on the side i keep refreshed for a few hundred laps, then hit the burnished side for a few hundred more.

Arkenstones are fun and the edge is worth it! A blade from start to finish (washita to translucent) takes me about 20-50 minutes but it's not about how quick I can hone but about the final edge.

The fruits of tonight's labor:





New (to me) Wade & Butcher up and shaving again. I've been on a bit of a Welsh slate kick, and what better way to hone Sheffield steel than a set of Welsh slates? OK, I cheated a little and set the bevel with the Naniwa 800 I just got. In retrospect this is probably where I went wrong. Underestimated just how deep some of the stria was from that stone. It was a bit deceptive and I think some of the deeper stria is still left over despite a significant chunk of time with heavy slurry on the Dragon's tongue. Still, it shaved pretty well. Might need to drop back to the Dragon's tongue and run through the set again, but I'm not sure how concerned I am with that last little bit I can squeak out of these stones. I know the razor will get there eventually.

Left to right: Dragon's Tongue, Llyn Melyllyn (Purple slate), Black Welsh slate.

Yesterday afternoon finally got the chance to get some out of the road. Some I have had cleaned up for quite a while but still hadn't finished. From left to right. Wade and Butcher the celebrated, Torrey the artist, George Wostenholm ixl, HM Christensen, Engels wedge, Gold bug and Gold Dollar. All but the gd were bevel to finish. Chosera 1k then Naniwa ss 3, 5, 8, 12 and then different finishers. Used coti, Thuringian and Gok. 4 will be going to someone else so a variety of edges he can try to figure out what he likes. The gd just had a touch up with the 12k and crox.

Figured I'd do a couple of W&Bs today. The first one was a touchup, maybe a tad bit more than that. The second one I've cleaned and polished today, so I went from 1K. Used the Japanese nagura to create slurry, both on the coticule and the Escher. Dilution worked very well on both stones, hardness being very similar, I was getting a bit of a mix there. Both razors were finished on water, on the Escher.

Next up is my Saito, which I finally decided to polish a bit to get some of the stains out. Think this is an interesting image, shows exactly where the belly is on the hollow.

Dog tired from work I decided to squeeze in a quick sesh ..
I say quick but it was not

Honed up my Max Sprecher custom..

It passes all tests and looks good. I might not use it though, I always feel let down with 01 steel since discovering old Sheffield steel.

Late hone session tonight.
DD, Cape 2000 by Tanifuji, and Ribbon "Super G" honed on 1k Chosera/ unknown suita/ Koma and tomonagura on Nakayama Maruka. Test shaves to follow

Nice stones and beautyfull razor Stefan
I am more modest - Just touching my shorty , old faithfull SI- Gi Solingen for the morning shave , with a cup of cofee and a pipe
The edge from The Trans ark i veeery good I realy enjoy , this litle fellow
Lubed with a watter and dish washing soap.