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Comparative Test of Naguras - The Ranking!
Yep,
after eight rounds of comparative tests of several Naguras it's time to draw some conclusions.
1) All the Naguras (with the same Razor, on the same base stone, used by the same guy, with the same procedures) gave more than accettable shaves. I dare say, very good ones!
2) The microscope (as discussed in many posts above) evidenced some differences in finesse between the naguras. But these differences weren't directly related with the outcome of the single shaves. E.g. an apparently coarser nagura, gave a better post shave.
3) I really wasn't able to notice any appreciable difference in closeness/keeness, and noticed only subtle differences on blade's smoothness while shaving and post shave skin's behavior.
4) Regarding the small differences I noticed, it is necessary to take into account the daily variability of the skin/beard conditions, in addition to the different conditioning/soothing effect of the different shaving soaps and after shaves that I used.
I apologize, but I didn't manage to use the same setup over and over again for many almost consecutive times. :)
5) The sensitivity of the skin and the hardness of the beard is obviously very dependent on the individual characteristics. For this reason, what I consider acceptable can, on the contrary, be considered unpleasant by others and ... vice versa.
Note: all shaves made on a two days growt.
Conclusions: I'm sure it's possible to get better shaves improving either my technique, or the base stone and/or getting other naguras but, I learned a lot of thinghs during this "marathon" to think about for the future, and the level of my sharpening skills/knowledge has certainly risen, and I'm happy about this!
A special thanks to Euclid440 and all the Guys who visited or commented this thread! Happy Easter to you all!
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Second Comparative Nagura Test - Round One.
As I said in my previous post, Yesterday I started a new series of Naguras comparative tests: this time I used an Ozuku (asagi?) Koppa as base stone.
I changed the razor for this series, but also this one is a 6/8" FH Solingen.
The razor was previously honed by myself on a sinth 3/8K followed by diamond slurry on my Italian Curgèle stone (see some pages above) and finished on it water only. It shaved nicely (considering it was my third or fourth honing attempt :) )
First of all I had to make a new bevel because of some edge chips caused by a bad scales centering.
I did it also to see (following Euclid's suggestion) how the base stone performed by itself. So, after a King 1K I made 2 rounds of thick diamond slurry (5 mins. each) to see how the 1K stria were managed by the Ozuku's abrasive power itself.
Btw. the Eze Lap 1200G diamond plate raised quickly (about 20 seonds) a good amount of slurry(see photo)
Then I used the Black Tsushima Nagura (to set the test conditions as the previous series on Nakayama) followed by Nakayama Kiita (1) Tomo's Slurry.
It seems to me that the diamond slurry made a good work regarding the 1K stria... but I'm waiting for more authoritative judgments. The Nakayama Kiita (1) Tomo also seems to confirm not being one of the finer in my possession. I bet the edge could be straighter too.
Today's shave (as usual, WTG/ATG passes on a two days growth) performed very well in closeness and gave an excellent post shave. As on previous test, the general feeling during shaving was instead slightly below average.
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About Diamond Slurry & Jointing the Edge
Wanting to see if I was able to replicate what Euclid said (i.e. pushing further the edge jointing it before final laps... expecially after diamond slurry), last evening I made a short test using Diamond Slurry only on my Ozuku asagi koppa.
Made 2 rounds with thick slurry (after the second round a small chip occurred on the edge... maybe some impurity from the stone :hmmm:, but I wasn't aware of it while honing ) then jointed the edge and made another round with medium to thin slurry.
At that point, I lightly jointed (1 pass) the edge again and stropped 10 laps on Canvas, before the final 15 laps with further thinned slurry.
Two points seems to need some thinking about.
The first one is: was the second round with thick slurry redundant or useless?
The second one: have i been able to reach the final result Euclid expected?
In both cases I'm tempted to answer "yes"... but (of course) I can't be sure... :)
Today's shave went quite well, with a good post shave.
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