How Teaching should always be!
Euclid,
Your previous two posts are two monuments to what teaching should always be. There are, condensed together, knoweldge sharing, support, guidance, and suggestions as well as concepts of a psychological approach on how to face a path of continuous improvement.
How else could I have correctly assessed what is with what "should" be, without having such a reference guide? As a beginner, I could not know if and how much a stone could/should be performing. As you yourself said: "I am always amazed at what people will shave with and accept". Here, I would have seriously run the risk of settling for little ... because I did not know that much more could be achieved.
And all this ... not only helps me to grow and improve always ... but it can also help the many who read now and will read this thread in the future!
Regarding Heljestrand, before putting your suggestions into action, I want to see how it behaves in the next two/three shaves, to realize how much/how the edge holds now, and how it will perform after the "treatment" you suggest.
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Honing for a friend. First Gujo Nagura test.
As in my last posts, I've got a Gujo, to be added to my already ample arsenal of Nagura. :)
After a quick test during the recent honing meeting, I decided to use it as a starter in my usual honing sequence and see what will happen.
Had to hone a Tridente (Solingen - 6/8" FH) razor for a friend. I refreshed it's edge on my Nakayama some months ago, but didn't had a microscope and don't remember if I used a shobudani tomo or diamond plate to raise the slurry. Being the owner an occasional user of straight razors, didn't heard from him after the first shave (he said it was good) so, when I met him @ the meeting, gave a look to the bevel with microscope because, according to him, the razor currently sticks and tears, especially on ATG pass.
You can see the bevel/edge conditions in first image: a veeeery narrow bevel, a not so straight edge and some micro-chips. Btw. the reference point showed in images IS NOT the narrower part of the bevel! :eek: Anyway, treetop test was positive.
As Euclid440 pointed out, the Gujo is a quite coarse nagura. However, working the slurry, the particulate gradually tends to refine itself (and therefore, it can reach a level of pre-finishing of the bevel). In short, it can act as a kind of Botan + Tenyou. On this occasion, I kept more on the "coarse" side and didn't work too much (neither diluted or thinned) the slurry. The rest of the sequence took place as usual: Tsushima, Asano Mejiro and Ozuku Suita. Used my Ozuku Asagi as a base stone. Used one layer of Kapton tape too.
Microscopic results seems quite good. Gujo immediately straightened and gave a better aspect to the edge/bevel, and the other naguras made, as usual, their homework. Its interesting to see how the bevel enlarged a bit, as the sequence progressed (expecially after the last nagura). I think it is due to the progressive decrease of the (torsional) pressure I used, moving towards the finishing phase.
However, these are very small differences, visible only thanks to the considerable magnification. In fact, the bevel remained very narrow during normal observation.
The razor easily passed the treetop test.
As for shaving results, I will have to wait about a week before I hear from my friend. Of course, I'll publish an update post.
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