Thread: Wedge issues

I finally got my Joseph Elliots almost-wedge up to a decent shave last night. It was already popping arm hairs and did shave, though not comfortably. I already had a few razors under my belt that were shaving just fine, so I followed the same routine, namely;
1000 grit sandpaper wrapped around a stone to set bevel
ToS with thick slurry
Yellow belgian with thick slurry

OK - I was anticipating have to spend longer on the Near-wedge, given how much metal had to come off, and I was carefully watching progress all the time.

The breakthrough came when I went to shave with it the third time, after some time on a wet yellow with no slurry that I picked up on the forums here. The shave was still nothing special, though marginally better then it had been.

Still dissappointed, I had the dry stone next to me after the first rather scratchy pass, and thought "what the hell".

So I ran the blade up and down the dry yellow half a dozen times on each side, and noticed the bevel catch the light in a way it never had. So I carried on a while longer, until I could see light glinting off the edge all the way along the bevel.

Wow. It is perfect. Felt very different to a hollow blade somehow, but the hairs were just being wiped off my face.

Anyone have any insights as to why the near-wedge needed this final "dry" stage, when my hollower blades were perfectly happy coming straight off the wet Yellow?

Si

Si,

I read in the barber manual that Scott (honedright) posted that you can in fact use a coticule dry. I've been interested in trying it out, and your post reminded me.

One of my daily shavers was in need of a touchup, so I got out my small coticule and worked the blade on it dry for a few minutes. I didn't count laps; I did a bunch because this is such a tiny hone.

The edge it produced does much better on the hanging hair test than the same razor did when finished on a wet coticule without slurry. Finished on a wet coticule, my edges usually peel hanging hairs, although they seem to shave well. This edge actually snips the hairs about as cleanly as I've seen with any hone.

I'll shave-test it in the morning, but I'm expecting that it'll be a better edge than what I was getting on the wet coticule. I have no idea why this would be the case; the barber manuals say that using water and lather on hones makes them leave a finer edge. I've found the opposite to be true, which leads me to believe I just need more practice.

I'll let you know how the shave-test goes...

Josh

Thanks Josh I was beginning to think that everyone reading it was thinking I was mad or something. I just used my 7/8 weyersberg that has always shaved wonderfully, though a little uncomfortably in places. I gave it a going over dry on the yellow before shaving, lo and behold it shaves better. Still not there yet - could have done with longer maybe - but better.

I think we are on to something here...

Si

You write you used a coticule as a final hone with thick slurry.

Zowada found using no slurry gives a finer edge. I suppose using the Belgian dry is more or less equivalent to no slurry.

Here's the link: http://www.tzknives.com/razorhones.html