Thread: Honing a Gold Dollar is hard!

Originally Posted by mainaman

What are you trying to say here? Just because barbers have not used magnification it does not mean it is not going to help with results. In fact many have found that it does help a lot. For what is worth , those barbers may have not been able to get better than average edges due to methods and equipment.

Personally I use a scope and it has helped me allot in a very short amount of time.

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I love Hooke's description of the edge...

"There we may observe its very edge to be of all kinds of shapes, except what it should be."

Originally Posted by Utopian

I love Hooke's description of the edge...

"There we may observe its very edge to be of all kinds of shapes, except what it should be."

He concludes that the particular razor he was examining wasn't fit to cut wood, let alone a beard.

Charon would be a good name for a razor--the next stage after a Grim Reaper.

Originally Posted by mainaman

What are you trying to say here? Just because barbers have not used magnification it does not mean it is not going to help with results. In fact many have found that it does help a lot. For what is worth , those barbers may have not been able to get better than average edges due to methods and equipment.

Please read post 71, then post 74. I was commenting that a prior poster is not "silly" and wasting their time on this forum without the ownership of a microscope. There is also no post where anyone even claimed a microscope is disallowed technology. In Lynn's videos (he seems like a championship nice guy BTW) he would never tell anyone that if you don't have a microscope you are wasting everyone's time.

I get my images from the Hubble telescope, and if you don't use it your not honing right! Lighten up guys your making my bad side cone out. Tc

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I get my images from the Hubble telescope, and if you don't use it your not honing right! Lighten up guys your making my bad side cone out. Tc

I actually turn a telescope around and look through the opposite end, so it looks further away. It's just how I like to do it...... But only when I hone gold dollars.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I get my images from the Hubble telescope, and if you don't use it your not honing right! Lighten up guys your making my bad side cone out. Tc

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Originally Posted by Brent375HH

Please read post 71, then post 74. I was commenting that a prior poster is not "silly" and wasting their time on this forum without the ownership of a microscope. There is also no post where anyone even claimed a microscope is disallowed technology. In Lynn's videos (he seems like a championship nice guy BTW) he would never tell anyone that if you don't have a microscope you are wasting everyone's time.

What does Lynn have to do with using a scope to improve results is unclear to me. No one is telling people what they should use, however many can tell newbies what works well and what not so much, whether said newbies will choose to listen is a choice.

Originally Posted by mainaman

No one is telling people what they should use, however many can tell newbies what works well and what not so much, whether said newbies will choose to listen is a choice.

This. It's true magnification isn't necessary. You can get by with the thumb pad test, thumb nail test, checking how the razor pops arm hair at skin level, tree topping arm hair, and HHTs. But if you don't know how a set bevel should feel to your thumb pad, how a nick/wire free edge ought to feel gliding over your thumb nail, or how a properly set bevel will feel when it cuts arm hair at skin level we can talk about it all day. A new person will never truly understand until by divine providence, accident, or sheer luck they finally get the bevel to meet properly.

You also don't need King/Shapton/Naniwa/Norton hones. Some people are using Weiwei hones. I've set a bevel and honed up to shave ready with nothing but a Guangxi hone (PHIG/Chinese 12k) and a small piece of coticule to build slurry with. The reason we point people towards known quantity synthetics is because nearly everyone here has or has owned a Norton 4/8, and almost everyone has a Naniwa something or other in their progression if they haven't switched brands completely. These are made uniformly in a controlled environment, so if you have a Norton 4/8 or a Naniwa progression we already know the hones aren't the problem unless they aren't lapped right. They're straight forward and easy to use. We don't have to guess if your natural hone is a razor finisher or just a mid level pocket knife stone. There's no need to worry about slurry or dilutions or which nagura type stone to use for what and when. Just wet the hones and go to work until it's time to progress to the next hone.

Same applies to describing how a set bevel should feel, or how this test or that should feel when it's time to move on to the next hone. The feeling in the tip of my fingers is virtually non-existant. It won't feel the same to me as it would someone that has managed to avoid killing half the nerve endings in their finger tips. Without magnification, someone that's never put a set bevel to their thumb pad is just doing precision guess work based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge. I'm a mechanic by trade, I do enough of that at my day job. No need to bring it into my hobbies. Give me a loupe and a picture of a properly set magnified bevel so I can compare what I've got to what I should have. It removes the guess work. No more questionable hair tests, no more "Does that 'stick' to my thumb pad right?" or "Is that the right draw across my thumb nail...?" Just straight forward, "Yep that bevel is set," or "Nope, back to the hones!"

It's not an issue of wasting anyone's time, if we didn't have time to waste we surely wouldn't be here. It's about getting the new blood the results they're looking for as expediently as possible, rather than have them chase their tails for 2 years and get absolutely nowhere. A sub $5 30x or 60x loupe and a few magnified pictures of good edges can save you a lot of trial and error with subjective tests that require experiencing a known good edge to get a feel for in the first place.