Thread: Scratches on the bevel after natual finishier, too much pressure?

Hi all, I'm new here. Fairly new to straight razors, so not sure what was cause the bevel being scratched off natural finisher. The bevels are mirror finished just off synthetic stones, but I feel the edge is a little bit too harsh so moved onto naturals. I've 3 CNAT from different sources, all of which are actually very fine, the surfaces has been flattened correctly and smoothed with high grit synthetics(Shapton Pro 12k). After the CNAT, the edge is actually much better, except the bevels are now with minor scratches if I look closely. I feel it should be cause by pressing the center of the razor a bit so that I can sharpen it correctly. Note that the razor is a Dovo Astrale, the edge is warped by about 0.5mm in the center part. It came shave ready so I did not notice it until months later it need a touch up, would have returned it if I spotted it in time.

Originally Posted by mrjin

Hi all, I'm new here. Fairly new to straight razors, so not sure what was cause the bevel being scratched off natural finisher. The bevels are mirror finished just off synthetic stones, but I feel the edge is a little bit too harsh so moved onto naturals. I've 3 CNAT from different sources, all of which are actually very fine, the surfaces has been flattened correctly and smoothed with high grit synthetics(Shapton Pro 12k). After the CNAT, the edge is actually much better, except the bevels are now with minor scratches if I look closely. I feel it should be cause by pressing the center of the razor a bit so that I can sharpen it correctly. Note that the razor is a Dovo Astrale, the edge is warped by about 0.5mm in the center part. It came shave ready so I did not notice it until months later it need a touch up, would have returned it if I spotted it in time.

Synthetics will leave a more mirror finish typically.
Don't worry about the scratches. Some naturals will leave more visible scratches than others but really - everything leaves scratches so don't worry about them.
How it shaves is all that matters.

Originally Posted by stoneandstrop

Synthetics will leave a more mirror finish typically.
Don't worry about the scratches. Some naturals will leave more visible scratches than others but really - everything leaves scratches so don't worry about them.
How it shaves is all that matters.

Thanks for the clarification. Yep, I can get superb shave with it, it just doesn't look as good. You were absolutely right about the scratches, I don't look at the bevels all day after all.

Originally Posted by mrjin

Thanks for the clarification. Yep, I can get superb shave with it, it just doesn't look as good. You were absolutely right about the scratches, I don't look at the bevels all day after all.

A non-mirror finish does not necessarily equate to not shave ready. For example, coticules and JNats leave a kind of “cloudy” finish rather than a mirror finish, but the edges are still sharp.

Originally Posted by DZEC

A non-mirror finish does not necessarily equate to not shave ready. For example, coticules and JNats leave a kind of “cloudy” finish rather than a mirror finish, but the edges are still sharp.

You were absolutely right abut that. I was just not 100% happy with that the mirror finish scratched by the natural stones. It's a rabbit hole I'm not sure whether it worthy to get to the bottom...

Dovo is notorious for creating frowns from their insistence on using a ridicules technique/hone (Whole other topic)

I did a vid on how to fix them since it is a common issue

https://youtu.be/3d_ymq0TmVI

Originally Posted by DZEC

A non-mirror finish does not necessarily equate to not shave ready. For example, coticules and JNats leave a kind of “cloudy” finish rather than a mirror finish, but the edges are still sharp.

Yep, and Arks leave a frosted edge. A good one will look like it's been etched or soda blasted. However, that edge is very keen.

Thanks for the video. Checked and it wasn't the situation I have if I understood it correctly. My one is that if you look towards the edge, the edge warped to one side instead of looking like a straight line. If you put the edge vertically towards a flat surface, almost all of the edge can touch the flat surface. Tried to bend the spine a little bit to make the edge straight on bare hand, indeed managed to get it better but still not perfect and thus need a little extract press either in the center of edge or two tips of the edge depends on which side it touches the stone. Such defect perfectly matching what I saw from the video regarding how Dovo sharpening their razors. If I saw that earlier, I would have walked away.

Hmmm, mine was different. I really meant scratched. So the majority of the bevels are still mirror finish, but I can see some dashes across them. It has to be either really scratch stones, more polishing work needed on the surface or I pressed too hard and the bevel touched the stone more than it should.

Originally Posted by mrjin

Hi all, I'm new here. Fairly new to straight razors, so not sure what was cause the bevel being scratched off natural finisher. The bevels are mirror finished just off synthetic stones, but I feel the edge is a little bit too harsh so moved onto naturals. I've 3 CNAT from different sources, all of which are actually very fine, the surfaces has been flattened correctly and smoothed with high grit synthetics(Shapton Pro 12k). After the CNAT, the edge is actually much better, except the bevels are now with minor scratches if I look closely. I feel it should be cause by pressing the center of the razor a bit so that I can sharpen it correctly. Note that the razor is a Dovo Astrale, the edge is warped by about 0.5mm in the center part. It came shave ready so I did not notice it until months later it need a touch up, would have returned it if I spotted it in time.

Like you, I tend to prefer the edges off natural stones better than synthetics, which can be harsh.

1. Wnen a heat treated razor is quenched following heat treatment, the thin edge cools far more quickly than the spine. Thus, the edge is harder than the spine. If you apply too much pressure on the spine when honing, you will cause more wear than necessary. While you must always keep the spine on the hone, torque the razor slightly so the edge receives more pressure.

2. Shapton uses a different grit rating than some other makers of synthetic hones. The 30K Shapton is similar to a Suehiro Gokumyo 20K. The 16K Shapton is similar to a Naniwa 12K. The 12K Shapton is somewhere betweeen a Naniwa 8K and 10K. Thus, your Shapton 12K might not be quite as high in grit as you believe. If you have a good Chinese Guangxi stone, it should be close to a 12K Naniwa (16K Shapton) in scratch pattern, but provide a less harsh edge.

3. Dovo claims that all of their razors come "shave ready" from the factory. In fact, they state that having your razor honed by someone who is not factory certified will void the warranty. I only have one Dovo razor, but it was nowhere close to being shave ready by my standards.

4. It is not uncommon to have some degree of warpage in a razor. Generally, you can compensate for the warp by varying your honing strokes to insure all of the blade receives adequate attention.

5. Always strop your blade before testing it. If you like your blades super smooth, you might want to consider getting some pasted strops. Ultra fine abrasives like Chromium Oxide, Polycrystaline Diamond, and Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) can be used to polish the edge to a mirror finish. The wavelength of visible light averages 0.5 micron, so to achieve a true mirror polish, the blade has to be polished with abrasives finer than 0.5 micron. I polish my edges with 0.5, 0.25 and 0.1 micron CBN on microfiber strops. Due to the octahedral shape of diamond crystals, they can be rather abrasive. Thus, it is common to apply diamond pastes and sprays to lapped balsa. The soft grain of the balsa allows the diamond crystals to partially embed in the surface. This reduces the aggressiveness of the abrasive. CBN is not quite as harsh as diamond, so it can be used with other substrates. The 0.5 micron abrasive is equivalent to 60 K. Even using this level should improve your edge. You can often find green polishing compounds in your local hardware store. While they contain some Chromium Oxide, they also contain other abrasives such as silica and are not hearly as fine as 0.5 micron Chromium Oxide. Thus, if you want to use CrOx be sure to get it from a reputable source selling it for razor stropping.