I had a few razors that needed touching up, so in the spirit of the thread I did a little 'cheap honing' action. From left to right - Germania Cutleryworks Company on a Translucent Arkansas, Gold Dollar honed on a Guangxi Hone - the little rock up top is the Guangxi rubbing stone and yellow one is a bit of coticule from SRD, and a Dovo honed with a 3 line Swaty.
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If I were to rank the shaves best to worst - Gold Dollar, Dovo, then the GCW which tugged just a touch. Why did the Gold Dollar honed on a Guangxi hone come out best? Well, if I were to borrow a quote from Gssixgun's tagline:
The Guangxi was the first 'razor stone' I bought. I've probably spent the most time working with that stone trying to figure it out, and now I'll get it right 9 times out of 10. The shave with this is better than I can get off a Norton 8k. And that Gold Dollar had sat in a small razor box for a few months. The edge was starting to rust and pit, it was probably in about the condition of a really good find on Ebay. I took 2 swipes across the side of a soft Arkansas to knock some of that rust off, from there I'd say it took 30 minutes to hone up to final polish on that one hone with those 2 rubbing stones to build slurry. Coticule slurry nice and thick to set the bevel. Once bevel is set, dilute until there's barely any slurry left. Then make a light haze of Guangxi slurry with the little rubbing rock that comes with them, 50 strokes. Pure water for another 50, then the secret - 50 more with shave lather instead of water. 20 strokes linen, 50 leather (can you tell I like that number?) and the shave was buttery smooth.
The Dovo - shaved about as good as an edge from a Norton 8k. Gotta admit, I was a bit scared of this one. You'll hear often, "too many strokes on a barber's hone will leave an uncomfortable edge." Well, this was well and beyond the 5 to 10 max you'd usually see recommended. The wrench was used to burnish the hone a bit better first, since it was leaving a bit of a coarse edge. If you're smart and don't lap your barber hones, you probably won't have that issue. If you're a bonehead like me that can't leave well enough alone...remember that trick. It works. A few hundred passes of hardened tool steel mellowed that hone right out.
I took 1 light stroke across the corner of the Swaty to kill the edge - for science. Spent a good 25 to 30 minutes to bring the bevel back. Once I had that set heel to toe, it was minutes to final polish, and a final 10 strokes on shave lather. I cheated a bit with this one though, like I said I was a bit leery of a blade passed that many times over a barber hone. It got 10 strokes on CrOx paste, then 25 on linen, and 100 on leather. I think I may set this blade aside for further Swaty experimentation. No tugging, no discomfort, but wasn't quite up to par with the edge from the Guangxi hone.
The GCW - shave was actually sub-par. I don't think I got the bevel quite set using -just- the translucent Arkie even though this razor didn't get any dulling at all, just a basic touch up. The trick there is kinda simple, I left one side unburnished with a bit of a rough surface for faster cutting and tinkering with slurry. I gave the razor 100 licks on that side first, and it seemed to shave arm hair OK. So I flipped the stone over to the burnished side, gave the razor 100 laps on pure water, and another 100 with shave lather, stropped the same as the Gold Dollar. If I'd used slurry or listened to my gut and gave it another 100 or so on the unburnished side I probably would've gotten it in 1 shot. It's close to right, but off by just enough to tug a teeny bit. Might revisit this one before next shave...it's going to gnaw at me to no end until I get a proper Arkie edge on that razor.
I paid less than $15 for that Arkie, about $40 for the Guangxi & bit of Coticule, and $15 for the barber hone. I could be happy with the Arkie and a bit of coticule, Guanxi & rubbing stones, or the Swaty by itself indefinitely. I don't have a lot of rocks because I need them. I have them because they're fun to play with.