Thread: caught a trout!

well-

to use lynns analogy about catching a trout with a fly that you have tied.
i received my dmt 1200 plate and coticule from howard yesterday and dove right in (another satisfied customer of howards). first up was a 7/8 thomas turner wedge. not a good first choice since the bevel is hugh (~2-3mm) might need a regrind on this one. after working out the few nicks on the dmt i took off the tape and spent a long time working the bevel on the belgian blue. terrible! i retaped and went back to the dmt and then the blue with the tape on and finished on the wet coticule (still with the tape on). finally popping the ends of my arm hairs. big bevel= a lot of metal to remove.
next up was a wapienica and a antique store $5 soligen razor (i spent 30 minutes cleaning it with a rotary tool) both took a matter of minutes hone up. 30-50 laps on the blue and 50 or so laps on the coticule and both were looking ready for the shave test.
so the bottom line here- all three razors shaved well! the wedge was very nice, first time using sheffield steel. it seemed very smooth on the face. the wapienica and the no-name might need a few more strokes but shaved quite well.

all in all i am very pleased with my first atempt with the belgians. i had tried honing with just a set of barber hones and could get a few razors to shave but not comfortably.

i have a number of inexpensive restoration razors coming in the mail soon and i will be ready for them!

cheers,
ryan

I started with a barber hone and an "Escher" hone.
I recently started using a Belgian and am quite happy with it!