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Honing an Henckels (carbon steel) razor.
Here's an interesting experience I made yesterday with a razor I bought (from the States) last January. I honed it at time on a King 1K -> Diamond Slurry on my Aiiwatani Karasu (base stone), followed by Shobudani's slurry. I shawed with it a couple of times, but the shaves were just "decent", nothing more. I was starting to use the Jnats, but in reality, I was groping in the dark, until Euclid440 literally took me by the hand and started guiding me in the fascinating and complex world of Japanese stones and sharpening in general.
Yesterday, when I put the razor under the microscope, I saw a strange aspect in one zone (toward the toe) of the bevel. Sincerely I don't know if I made it or if there was already a portion of enlarged bevel, as I saw there was a sort of "double bevel" that I could have created during the previous honing, on a pre-existing situation... The remaining bevel was normal.
Anyway, I took that portion as a reference point for yesterday honing session. Last microscopic image is a control sample of another portion of the bevel.
The Razor: Henckels (carbon steel) 401 Platinum - 5/8" FH
This Time I used (1 Kapton tape) my Ozuku (Asagi?) as a base stone, followed by slurry of Tshushima/Asano Mejiro/Ozuku Suita Naguras. I.e the same sequence I used on Gong Razor I posted some days ago, which had given excellent results.
Microscopic and test shave results were as expected... i.e. very satisfying. The shave was close, quite smooth and post shave excellent.
This shows that, although I still have a lot to learn, having adopted a systematic operational criterion (under the careful guidance of a skilled Master) begins to give repeatable results (and to get a narrow bevel ;) ).
I'm very Happy today! :)
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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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A tough challenge ... (almost) won.
Yesterday I had to face a tough challenge.
The Razor was a nice E.A.Berg, 5/8" 1/4H which, despite some problems, performed well in the past. As I banged it on the faucet last time I used it, the need was to correct the chips I caused.
The razor (as I said) had some problems:
1) it's a bit warped, so in one side the bevel was (too much) thinner in the centre of the blade than on the Heel & Toe .
2) it has pitting in the same zone, both on the bevel and just below it.
Of course, I decided to hone it from scratch and followed some of Euclid's suggestions regarding the bevel setting on my King 1K. I.e. I killed the edge (5/6 passes on a stone's edge) and made some cycles of full laps edge leading/circles/x-strokes etc. each followed by jointing (2 passes) the edge and stropping 10 laps on Canvas, until the full edge became chips free (apart from some very micro-ones) and passed treetop test.
Then I followed my (actual) progression: Ozuku Asagi Koppa (base stone) and slurry from Tsushima Black Nagura -> Asano Mejiro Nagura -> Asagi Tomo. Each followed by 10 laps on Canvas. The blade still passed the treetop test at this point.
This time, however, I adopted another suggestion from Euclid: I lightly jointed (1 pass on stone) the edge after the Asagi Tomo and then made 15 light laps on it's thinned slurry.
And it was in this last step that I must have made a mistake... as the treetop test was weaker after that. Anyway (I was a bit tired), I made the final stropping and today wanted to test it on shave, but I had to give up almost immediately, because the razor cut very little.
For what I can understand, I corrected the bevel (now its depth is quite homogeneous), eliminated the chips and made (also if not perfect) a discret finish with an at least acceptable edge. So, I should have made the mistake when jointing the edge or during the final 15 laps... :thinking:
If so... i think i will have to repeat the step with the Asagi Tomo's slurry. This time, however, without repeating the light edge jointing, so as not to further complicate things :) and see how it goes.
Note: First image is about the most damaged point of the blade, then I got another easier to find reference point.
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Second Comparative Nagura Test - Round Two
Hi to all!
Here we are again with the Nagura Test.
This Time I used the sequence Tsushima -> Kiita on my Ozuku Asagi Koppa.
As usual in these tests, I lightly jointed the edge before starting and then made a round each of slurry (Thick -> Thin) with the two Naguras.
For those who have not read the entire thread, the passage with the Tsushima provides a reliable and constant starting point for evaluating the effect of the last Nagura used in the different tests.
The Kiita Tomo, as in the previous test on Nakayama Kiita doesn't seems to be one of the finest, and this time, the edge too wasn't perfect (but quite corrected by the final stropping). Btw. I didn't made another pass to keep the procedures homogeneous in the different test rounds.
The blade passed the Treetop Test.
Today I shaved with it and got a close & quite smooth feeling, followed by a very good post-shave.
ERRATA CORRIGE: THE RAZOR IS LASSO SOLINGEN AND NOT W.POLTGEN
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Second Comparative Nagura Test - Round Three.
Precisely in relation to what Euclid said above, yesterday morning I too thought about the hypothesis of a defect in the base stone, and I had gone over my Ozuku Asagi flattening it with 400 & 800 G sandpaper, to eliminate any problems caused by surface imperfections. Of course, the other possibility, which is that pitting is the cause of a non-perfect edge, unfortunately remains.
Anyway, the third round of Nagura Test seemed to go better (also if still not perfect), either on the microscopic side, and on the shave test. Today, I really didn't felt the blade on my face (albeit very close) and got a top notch post shave.
I used Tsushima Nagura followed by Red Ohira Nagura. The second showed to be one of the less finer nagura (as in previous test on Nakayama Kiita base stone) but, despite that, confirmed to be one of the best performer while shaving.
Btw. I don't think I'm chasing my tail... I'm just collecting data & experience about Nagura's honing on Jnats. :) :)
Love this approach, which drives me to be more and more systematic, to understand my mistakes or limits and to try to overcome them. So far, so good! :)
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Took also a "control" shot of another part of the bevel
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Second Comparative Nagura Test - Round Four.
During another cloudy & grey Sunday I went on with my Nagura Comparative Test.
Round Four used (as usual) the Lasso (Solingen) razor, the Ozuku Asagi Koppa as base stone and the Tsushima as first Nagura, this time followed by the Nakayama Kiita (2) Nagura.
As we can see, the repeated sharpening sequences brought to light (already in round three) a small Pitting spot (not visible at the beginning of this series) which gradually reached the edge of the blade. As you can see, it is very limited in size (and will probably be eliminated by the next round of the test), while the current risk is that the largest Pitting spot, evident from the beginning, will reach the edge soon.
I've included some images with the Microscope's ruler, in order to assess the size of the defects/spots/chips etc. as Euclid suggested.
The Nakayama Kiita's slurry seems to have done a good job (mid-range as finesse in the whole lot of naguras) and the edge is very straight (IMHO), apart for the small chip.
Shave test is scheduled for tomorrow.
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