Thread: Ready to throw a hone...

Originally Posted by Magpie

Ready to throw a hone....

And what, pray tell, makes YOU guys want to scream in frustration? Warps? Twists? Shouts? Tell me your woes!

I just got a coticule from Ardennes. That thing is driving me up a wall. I picked out a Torrey straight as the test subject. Started out by giving it a little Norton 4k/8K love, then on to the coticule - pure water then shave lather. Shave was awful, but in the coticule's defense the blade had burrs that hadn't been knocked away on the 4/8 or strop.

So I dulled the edge on the side of a soft Arkie to abrade away the burrs and get a good even edge. Slurried up the coticule, set the bevel on it, and diluted up to pure water. Slapped a little shave lather on it to slick things up and finished the razor. Shave was, again, terrible. Fair enough, you can't win them all right? Take the Mulligen and move along...

Set the blade aside, give it a few days (need beard hair to shave), and try again. Examined blade under a loupe. Nothing really stands out. No burrs, chips, pits, deep/uneven stria. Pulled out my Dovo which was honed on a barber's hone last for comparison - known good shaver, buttery smooth. Dovo (apparently) has chips that can be seen under a 30x loupe...so much for using that as a comparison blade. Shaves OK, but looks like hell. Coticule looks OK, but shaves like hell...

Whatever. Mulling that over isn't getting anywhere. Slurried up coticule. 100 very light passes on slurry to ensure bevel is meeting. Looks good under the loupe. Begin diluting. Polishing sequence going OK, clean stone go to pure water. Set blade and stone aside, work on another blade with Arkanstones. Once blade B is ready for final finishing as well, break out shave soap. 60 laps on shave lather for the coticule, 120 for the Arkie.

Torrey straight honed on the coticule - shave was terrible. Tugged and pulled. Stropped and checked under a loupe, nothing out of whack. Makes 0 sense.

Next test - swap the Torrey (it's old and very hone worn, probably 4/8 or less) with a more gently used 5/8 vintage. Hones both blades on Norton 4K/8K. See if Torrey can shave off the Norton 8K. Hone the 5/8 up to 8K, make sure it can shave. Then do water/lather on the coticule. If it degrades a shaving 8K edge and makes it tug, I may just throw a hone...