Thread: Hone of the Day

Todays honing was both a rewarding interesting learning curve and also experimental, this is my first foray into the world of Japanese naturals, well let us start at the beginning firstly I'm a big fan of synthetic stones Chosera Naniwa and my lovely Suehiro Gokumyo 20K, the Japanese stone in question was gifted to me by a good friend from Japan, he gave me the low down on the stone before he sent it, he said the Stone was a Nakayama +5 very hard and a very fine finisher, also included was matching Nagura rubbing stone, well here we go let's get the show on the road, firstly I had to choose the razor to test how good this stone is, razor chosen Hoshi Tombo 8000 quarter hollow 13/16, the razor as always been a top-quality shaver, so next thing to do was totally kill the edge on the corner of my Chosera 5K, next step reset the bevel on the 5K and finish on my Snow White 8K, firstly I lightly lapped the Nakayama splashed some water then proceded to create some slurry using the Nagura, I always tape my own razors this was no different, the first few passes I could instantly tell the stone was very fine, I put in about 100 passes then I started to dilute the slurry down, another 50 passes I now washed all slurry off the stone then checked the razors edge under the loupe, the polished bevel looks great, ownwards we go with a clean wet stone no slurry only water another 50 passes, finished edge looks very nice stropped the edge looks and feels great, the ultimate test is yet to come the shave, having said that I'm pretty confident I nailed it.

That’s a nice looking stone Jamie.

Slurry makes a smoother, less keen feeling edge, water only makes a sharper, keener edge. If the stone is 5+, you may not need the water-only strokes at all, but it’s a good thing to try. Some stones respond to water-only strokes and make a different edge, others don’t - you just have to try and see. Typically I’ll finish on thin slurry on the hard, fine finishers.

I think that you will be pleased!

Originally Posted by Steve56

That’s a nice looking stone Jamie.

Slurry makes a smoother, less keen feeling edge, water only makes a sharper, keener edge. If the stone is 5+, you may not need the water-only strokes at all, but it’s a good thing to try. Some stones respond to water-only strokes and make a different edge, others don’t - you just have to try and see. Typically I’ll finish on thin slurry on the hard, fine finishers.

I think that you will be pleased!

Thanks, Steve, yes I'll try a few different methods finishing with slurry and honing without I'm sure I'll find the edge that most pleases me.

Jamie, I have a limited experience with my Jnats because I just don't have the time but with my Nakayamas I find finishing with a thin DN slurry works best, I have finished with water only but any more than 10 or 15 laps ruins the edge.

So I bought another stubtail, Warburton Lisbon Cast Steel. Lummus’ comments would seem to date it to between 1772 (when they began marking ‘cast steel’) and around 1800 when ‘Lisbon’ changed to ‘Warburton’. Any comments on age would certainly be welcome!

This razor is not as cosmetically nice shape as my first one, a Shepherd, but like the Shepherd it has very little wear on it. It’s a candidate for a better restoration than I’m capable of, so I decided to hone it and give ‘er a shave (tomorrow most likely). I wanted to use tape on the spine because these old razors just don’t look right with shiny spines, so the first job was to measure the bevel angle at the heel and widest portion near the toe. It turned out that the angle is a very normal 17.7 degrees at the heel and 18.2 degrees at the toe, so I went with 1 layer of 1 mil Kapton (2.7 mil total) and added about 1/2 a degree to the existing angle.

The edge had 3 really small chips, some light devil’s spit, and there wasn’t any bevel so a Shapton Glass 500 did the honors of removing the chips and DS, and forming new bevels. The first thing that I noticed is that the steel is hard! Even the Glass Stones cut it fairly slowly, but progress was steady so I just used some slurry on the 500 and kept at it. And the steel is very good too, even at 500 grit the edge was straight and even, a sign of good things to come, and they did. Next was a 1k GS and a 2k GS. After the 2k, I did 10 canvas and 20 leather and did HHT to test for bevel set, and it passed very well with a little extra attention to the hollow area at the heel. A razor that will turn out good HHT at 2k is IMO, a really good one.

Next a 4k GS, a butterscotch Nakayama kiita for a pre-finisher though this stone is quite capable of finishing without another step, but I chose a small Nakayama iro from my trip to visit Alex Gilmore in Sonoma, using thin slurry and finishing with 20 clear water strokes. The HHT was silent root in or out, though the hollow area at the heel could be a little better but that’s a small job for another day. I’m looking forward to a nice shave tomorrow.

This lovely 7/8 honed itself.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s shave. thank you Robin!

Friodur 72 finished on this wonderful koppa I picked up from Gabe of roo strop fame:

ozuku touchup on a Henckels #415.

I won this razor on the bay a few years go. Contacted the seller about it's history. Apparently his father was a barber in the Midwest and used this razor professionally on a daily basis. It has quite a bit of hone wear but she still sings off of this stone.

In doing what we do, it is history and tradition that we keep alive. I love this stuff!

1k 3k 5k 8k oozuku on mk32 in ivory. Deciding yo yske her out of the drawer and put her to work

Originally Posted by Steve56

The edge had 3 really small chips, some light devil’s spit, and there wasn’t any bevel so a Shapton Glass 500 did the honors of removing the chips and DS, and forming new bevels.

Hi, what is devils spit? I've heard the term before but don't kow what it means.