Thread: Hone of the Day

That is a beautiful hone!

Some cool stuff.Thornhill razor with nice ivory from a set and a hone from way back.You don't see hones with silver handles too often.I am guessing the stone came from that time?The razor and hone are from different sets.

This CH Laurent will be my August razor. A few laps on the Cretan, 100 on the Vermio, 100 on leather. I'm trying to expand my horizons and see if the Vermio yields as satisfying an edge as my coticule... Got mixed results with the HHT; 3 to 5 depending on the hair. We'll find out on Monday.

George Butler Shakespeare razor refreshed on an 8"x3" Surgical Black Arkansas:

Okay, time to start contributing again on SRP again now that I have some control of my life-haha (always dangerous to believe in that illusion, no?)! Anyway, someone (sorry, can't recall who) recently posted about a different/better way to hone on an Arkie that sparked something in me, and I started experimenting, which has evolved to the following progression (still learning and tweaking it of course):
1. Take a decent, more or less shave-ready edge (Norton 8, Nani 12, etc.). Maybe it's not optimal, maybe it's a bit "tuggy."
2. Do 50-ish back and forths per side on your clean, well-burnished DRY Arkie with mild pressure-you will feel it start to smooth out a little.
3. On a sink bridge under a water drip, do 50-ish more back and forths per side, again with a little torque on the edge. You will feel it start to stick as on a JNAT-be very careful at this stage on such an uber-hard stone. You're going by feel more than lap counts. as with any natural.
4. Now add a drop of dish soap and repeat #3, lightening pressure/torque as you really feel that edge smoothing out. That microscopic amount of slip afforded by the soap really allows for fine tweaking here-I have been finishing up with lightening sets of 10 followed up by some x-strokes.
5. After washing the soap off your stone under hot water, dry it thoroughly. Add a few drops of whatever honing oil you use: Smith's, Ballistol, whatever-I like WD-40. This gives even more slip and cushion than the dish soap (at least in my hands). You're really just burnishing and smoothing at this stage, so just go to town with the lighter back and forths, finishing finally with the usual X-strokes. This final step really gives me that "magical" edge.

If you haven't tried a multi-stage, single Arkie finishing regimen like this, give it a whirl; I'm sure some of you serious Arkie gurus can improve on my still-evolving technique (maybe I could throw my translucent into the mix, for instance). I'm getting some of the sharpest/smoothest edges I've ever had with this technique (but still crispy and precise as one would expect from any Ark) . And it's actually pretty simple if you just line up a few and do it assembly-line style for each stage.

Aaron

Aaron Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try.

Al

The Kamijo had some rust so sanded and polished. Bevel reset on 1K Chosera. I thought it deserved the whole progression so went from left to right, Botan, Tenjyou and Mejiro. Followed by mizu asagi with koma and tomo. All I can say is that Kamijo-San made some badass razors

Don't ever seem to get the best shaves from these smaller razors,but I had a great one today honed on this natural combo.There is new hope for my smaller Swede's.Razor is a F.W.Soderen.

Old George W. on the Narutaki Nakayama

Oldies but goodies.Pike coticule combo with fancy silver plated metal box dated Pat. April 2,1895.Gilchrist razor maybe older?

Originally Posted by caccia

Oldies but goodies.Pike coticule combo with fancy silver plated metal box dated Pat. April 2,1895.Gilchrist razor maybe older?

I once saw a pike coticule with similar box but sadly the other person with it wasn't willing to sell. Very cool!