Thread: Hone of the Day

Newly acquired grelot. Razor appeared already sharp, 30 passes on my 5”x2”x1” awesome coticule seems to have done the trick (bevel free of any rust/pitting, nice mirror polish). Will test shave tomorrow

A few more over the weekend back out Monday.

My honing abilities have gotten so much better sense I started that I pulled out the 7 day set and a couple that needed touched up. After honing 10 razors and a shower and test shave with all of them I found them all shave fine. 3 of them could use to go back to the hone as they were not perfect to my liking but still shaved very well. Anyway, 7 out of 10 aint too shabby if I say so myself.


The 3 on the right need a little more work.

I came across this coticule while buying a Jnat so picked both. First coticule I ever tried. While waiting for delivery I did some reading here and on the other shaving site. Decided to follow Gary Haywood's recs. The razor was shave ready. I raised some slurry with Atoma 1200, it darkened pretty quickly. Few dilutions to clear water. Then added a layer of tape and did 50 x strokes under running water. The shave was pretty comfy. I like it.

The above photo is of my Dovo 6/8 Flowing resting on a wet Shobu Asagi Tamamoku Japanese natural stone. I've shown this stone before and I thought its excellent results were more dumb luck in landing a really good example of a Shobu stone. it was also described as Karasu but you'd need a keen eye to see why. Traditionally I've gone to it from my Naniwa superstone 10k, and spent time on a misty slurry, then strop, shave. Well, I've found a different method, not much different, but a change. I have sensitive skin, but my whiskers are like iron, so I need a sharp blade to get a smooth result, so my synthetic method, was to go through the naniwas and finish on the Suehiro Gokumyo 20k. This of course got me a really sharp razor. But the trade off was I found I was getting too many weepers for me to be happy. I was careful with angle, and every fourth shave I'd get a weeper. I've had the Shobu for a while now, and it's just a terrific stone, bench sized I think 207 x 75 x 30mm 1104 gms. Of all the razors I like to shave with, I have some finished on the natural stones and some, basically equal finished on the 20k. Over the last fortnight I took two of my TI's 7/8 C 135 razors, and a Friodur 7/8 stainless and the pictured Dovo Flowing 6/8. All were honed without tape. They were all finished on one of three jnats I use, an Ozuku, and a Wakasa, they were fairly close shavers, but not quite what I wanted. (None gave weepers). I thought about it, and I don't have nagura, I use Atoma 1200 for slurry, and I took those four razors and I taped the spines of the four of them and went to the Naniwa 10k with slurry and honed till I felt I could shave with them, so the change was to add tape. But instead of testing I just went to the Shobu over a couple of days, and I followed the same method. That was to keep the razors taped, one layer, and I created a heavy slurry on the Shobu and I honed each of those razors for a good 40 minutes on a diminsihing slurry, stopping when light and misty. Nothing special really as far as method, but when I shaved with the first one, a TI 7/8 the shave was better than I'd managed previously. I had the sharpeness I needed to get through the iron beard, but the shave was super comfortable, and it just felt great going over the skin. I've now used all four of those razors done with tape two times each. All were sharp and comfortable, and the best thing, no irritation, no weepers. I really spent a lot of time on the Shobu, and used very little pressure, just a consistent stroke.
So I thought, 'Have I just created a micro bevel using the tape at the 10k level, and that is the reason for the jump up in sharpness, the comfort being a direct bi-product of the natural stone.' Well, I'm not sure myself. But these four razors are go to razors for me now, and I have two other 7/8 TI's C135's finished on the Gok 20, and I'm tossing up whether to give one a go and see how my skin handles it or convert it over to the Shobu. I don't know yet. I'd be interested in members opinions, is there anything wrong with the approach I've taken, ie; Tape to 10k to Shobu, or have I crossed an invisible line, making a mistake on my original razors done on any one of the three jnats I have. All I know is that I've written a note attached to the cases of the four I've done with the tape and Shobu noting the method and result. I'll see how long they last I guess. I do enjoy using the shobu, it's a nice stone to use, and the results are very consistent. Great fun.

The above photo is of my Dovo 6/8 Flowing resting on a wet Shobu Asagi Tamamoku Japanese natural stone. I've shown this stone before and I thought its excellent results were more dumb luck in landing a really good example of a Shobu stone. it was also described as Karasu but you'd need a keen eye to see why. Traditionally I've gone to it from my Naniwa superstone 10k, and spent time on a misty slurry, then strop, shave. Well, I've found a different method, not much different, but a change. I have sensitive skin, but my whiskers are like iron, so I need a sharp blade to get a smooth result, so my synthetic method, was to go through the naniwas and finish on the Suehiro Gokumyo 20k. This of course got me a really sharp razor. But the trade off was I found I was getting too many weepers for me to be happy. I was careful with angle, and every fourth shave I'd get a weeper. I've had the Shobu for a while now, and it's just a terrific stone, bench sized I think 207 x 75 x 30mm 1104 gms. Of all the razors I like to shave with, I have some finished on the natural stones and some, basically equal finished on the 20k. Over the last fortnight I took two of my TI's 7/8 C 135 razors, and a Friodur 7/8 stainless and the pictured Dovo Flowing 6/8. All were honed without tape. They were all finished on one of three jnats I use, an Ozuku, and a Wakasa, they were fairly close shavers, but not quite what I wanted. (None gave weepers). I thought about it, and I don't have nagura, I use Atoma 1200 for slurry, and I took those four razors and I taped the spines of the four of them and went to the Naniwa 10k with slurry and honed till I felt I could shave with them, so the change was to add tape. But instead of testing I just went to the Shobu over a couple of days, and I followed the same method. That was to keep the razors taped, one layer, and I created a heavy slurry on the Shobu and I honed each of those razors for a good 40 minutes on a diminsihing slurry, stopping when light and misty. Nothing special really as far as method, but when I shaved with the first one, a TI 7/8 the shave was better than I'd managed previously. I had the sharpeness I needed to get through the iron beard, but the shave was super comfortable, and it just felt great going over the skin. I've now used all four of those razors done with tape two times each. All were sharp and comfortable, and the best thing, no irritation, no weepers. I really spent a lot of time on the Shobu, and used very little pressure, just a consistent stroke.
So I thought, 'Have I just created a micro bevel using the tape at the 10k level, and that is the reason for the jump up in sharpness, the comfort being a direct bi-product of the natural stone.' Well, I'm not sure myself. But these four razors are go to razors for me now, and I have two other 7/8 TI's C135's finished on the Gok 20, and I'm tossing up whether to give one a go and see how my skin handles it or convert it over to the Shobu. I don't know yet. I'd be interested in members opinions, is there anything wrong with the approach I've taken, ie; Tape to 10k to Shobu, or have I crossed an invisible line, making a mistake on my original razors done on any one of the three jnats I have. All I know is that I've written a note attached to the cases of the four I've done with the tape and Shobu noting the method and result. I'll see how long they last I guess. I do enjoy using the shobu, it's a nice stone to use, and the results are very consistent. Great fun.[/QUOTE]

What you just described is one way to determine if a stone is a final finisher. While the shave test is important, 100 x magnification will show you much when practiced. (Sorry to say a 30-60x loop is not adequate for this level of finishing) Good job sir.
MIke


Glamour shot. Iwasaki Swedish steel on pre-finished vintage Kato Nakayama Mizu Asagi. (300 laps diluting to thin water consistency) Slurry raised w/ depleted DMT.


Final finish on unknown French or German hone w/oil to squeeze out the maximum for this blade which will hold the edge (20-25 laps stop). Iwasaki is most awesome steel. I love to look at the edge under 100X magnification.

Thanks Mike,
I've got the magnification available to have a look, and I will. But, I went through a stage a while back where I was looking at everything under 200x etc and adjusting this and that based on what my scope was telling me. Result ended up with a multitude of differing techniques and I started shaving based on what the scope was telling me. I shared this problem and some mighty eminent honers out there told me to go back to the loupe and hone for my skin and whiskers rather than the scope. Ever since I've gotten back to normal. This latest bit of good honing/shaving might have arrived sans planning, but I've arrived somehow at an edge on four different razors, using the same stone and method that rivals, equals the results you can get from a Suehiro Gokumyo 20k. That's no mean feat! I'm not sure I want to find out any thing that might lead me to tinker with it....lol
So, at the risk of admitting a degree of luck, I'll look at it under my scopes, but I have to say I'm not going to touch the four razors I mentioned, it's a case for me of look but don't touch. Thanks, Bob.

The old Sheppard on a lovely two sided kiita Iromono. The side with the blue edge gets it scary sharp and super smooth on the iromono.

Originally Posted by bobski

Thanks Mike,
I've got the magnification available to have a look, and I will. But, I went through a stage a while back where I was looking at everything under 200x etc and adjusting this and that based on what my scope was telling me. Result ended up with a multitude of differing techniques and I started shaving based on what the scope was telling me. I shared this problem and some mighty eminent honers out there told me to go back to the loupe and hone for my skin and whiskers rather than the scope. Ever since I've gotten back to normal. This latest bit of good honing/shaving might have arrived sans planning, but I've arrived somehow at an edge on four different razors, using the same stone and method that rivals, equals the results you can get from a Suehiro Gokumyo 20k. That's no mean feat! I'm not sure I want to find out any thing that might lead me to tinker with it....lol
So, at the risk of admitting a degree of luck, I'll look at it under my scopes, but I have to say I'm not going to touch the four razors I mentioned, it's a case for me of look but don't touch. Thanks, Bob.

Understood Bob, magnification is another tool that should help reduce variables not increase them. Using 200X mag makes it difficult to move the entire edge (both sides) under the scope, which is why I said 100X. When I started honing razors I did not use magnification and had a difficult time getting consistent results.
It was only after I forced myself to start using the scope at each stage of the progression did I learn what was occuring between steel and stone. With the added time involved in observing each stage of the process, I am not surprised most would abandon this appraoch. Youv'e done good, luck has nothing to do with it. The trick is to find out why and repeat it sir.
MIke

Re-finished a Le Jaguar last night on a bench size mizu asagi. The stone sold ultra cheap because it had visible flaking from layer cracks in two corners. It's not a safe buy, you can lose more than you get with these. But I offered what I would for nagura stock and got it.

It was 36mm thick, now it is 31mm thick and except for a tiny spiderweb surface crack near one end, I have a clear 'deck'. I could get the spiderweb crack out but it just doesn't make sense to lap the stone down for something that's not a problem. It's hard and fine a nice light blue color also. I gave the fence-post grey stand a scrubbing and a light sanding, some satin spray laquer followed by some 0000 steel wool and wax, and it has a lovely old tool patina to it.

The razor shaved like a dream.

Cheers, Steve