Thread: Honing a Double Arrow

Hey, Everybody.

I just ordered a Double Arrow and was wondering what some of your experiences have been in getting them shave ready. What did it take for you?

-Andrew

Create a bevel with a DMT-E (1200 mesh)
Follow with a Yellow Coticule, with slurry first then only water.
Finally 1 micron 3M film
Great shavers for little money

good luck. I have tried everything with mine and no luck. passes all the tests just fine, and then when I put it on my face, it's like shaving with a rusty scythe.

mine was the opposite, didnt really pass the tests so well (i dont even bother anymore) but it shaved great in fact im gonna use it right now! thanks for reminding me.


EDIT: Toms of Maine mint and Mamma bears awakenings...My first super lather...cold and wonderful...good shave

I have only honed and shaved with two of them so far. They hone up quicker than most razors. Both of mine had bad factory bevels so I went with 1000 grit sandpaper until a new bevel is formed. Then on to the 4K-8K-etc. The shave was not the best. It was sharp enough but the edge felt kinda coarse compared to most of my vintage razors. An entry level Dovo feels better on my skin. BTW, I honed and shave tested both razors two times. YMMV.

Hope this helps,

I have 8 of them. First I honed up 3 of them, starting on a DMT 600, to build a proper bevel and then DMT1200, and a coticule. They all came with a smiling curved edge from the factory, which makes honing them a bit of an advanced job. Furthermore, the grind is not all that even. Looking at the spine, I found different thickness along the spines of the razors, and much variance in the way that presented itself between the 8 I bought.
In the end those 3 I honed shaved well enough, but they benefited much from chromium oxide, something I interpreted as evidence that they were not honed with consistency along the entire length of the edge. The HHT seemed to reveal that as well. In an almost erratic way the HHT passed very well on some parts of the blade and less well on other parts. Not just the usual lack of keenness on toe and heel, I sometimes have on smiling blades.
I pondered over it for a while, and decided to remove the smiling curves. Took me about 6 hours of work on all 8, starting with "sawhoning" on a DMT325 till the edges were straight. I also worked on the spines to even out the tickness issues. After that I reconstructed bevels from the 325 grit , over the 600, up tp the 1200. I didn't use tape at the spine, to allow the blade to even out, so that by the time I was finished, my 8 razors lay perfectly flat on the hone, and hone up very easily and straightforward. They shave definitely better and smoother now.

I still like a "smiling edge" on a razor, but I think you need a perfectly ground razor for it, or even better, one with a smiling (but even in thickness) spine.

Bart.

Bart...

I also found that on the 10 that I purchased the thickness of the spine was uneven on some and all had a "smile" shaped edge plus a host of other grinding and finishing flaws. Yes this does make for a bit of a honing challenge! But by using the rolling X pattern stroke and/or a narrow hone along with a slow honing stroke it can be done. It is not necessary to even out the spine or straighten the edge although that make it a lot easier to hone. I do admire your willingness to perform a lot of work that makes the razor better for the long term!I purchased mine so that guys in my area would have an inexpensive "beginners" razor. Two newbs have them so far. Now I don't have to sell my vintage razors!

Thanks a lot, guys. This is great info. I'm looking forward to the honing challenge. Now I've got a lot of ideas to get me started.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Bart...

I also found that on the 10 that I purchased the thickness of the spine was uneven on some and all had a "smile" shaped edge plus a host of other grinding and finishing flaws. Yes this does make for a bit of a honing challenge! But by using the rolling X pattern stroke and/or a narrow hone along with a slow honing stroke it can be done. It is not necessary to even out the spine or straighten the edge although that make it a lot easier to hone. I do admire your willingness to perform a lot of work that makes the razor better for the long term!I purchased mine so that guys in my area would have an inexpensive "beginners" razor. Two newbs have them so far. Now I don't have to sell my vintage razors!

I'm in total agreement with that, Randy. Normally, I wouldn't have gone through all the efforts for "straightening" them out. But I plan on using them for my upcoming series of hone experiments (see my thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...-pictures.html ) The razors shaved more than decent before I straightened them, but they showed more variance between them. After my treatment, they all shave and feel the same, if honed with the same set of hones, and they are much less prone to glitches in my honing. Which makes them more suitable for my experiments.
The fact that they also seem to shave just a tad better, made my experiences worth mentioning in this thread

Best regards,

Bart.

I don't mean to resurrect this thread from the dead, but I was about to start a new one with the same topic and searched and found this one first.

I'm having a hell of a time honing the DA I bought. I cannot get the bevel set to my liking for the life of me. I'm no where near a honemeister, but I've set the bevel and sharpened a dozen or so vintage ebay razors that I've found shave me very well, and I didn't have near as much trouble with any of them as I am having with this DA. And I don't see the reason for it?

Coming off of the 1200 grit DMT, I always get both the TNT and TPT to pass, and the razors are sharp already coming off the 1200. Not shaving sharp, but just about the sharpest things I've ever felt before this hobby. Definitely "don't run your finger along the blade with ANY pressure, for any distance" sharp.

Not so with the DA. No matter how many passes I do, I can't seem to get it to pass the TPT. It does pass the TNT, but not the TPT. The edge always feels a little dull and coarse. I actually got it very close once, to the point that I moved on to the 4k/8k, and I spent way more time on those than any other razor and just couldn't get this thing popping arm hairs like all the other razors I've tried. I ended up getting frustrated and breadknifing the thing on the 325 grit DMT and then trying to set the bevel again. After about 100 passes on the 325, including some heavy pressure back-and-forth and circular passes and then another 150 passes at least on the 1200 I couldn't even get the razor to pass the TNT along the full length, let alone back to where it was when I moved to the 4k the first time. After this hour or so, I ended up putting it away for the night. This thing has about 1/16" of hone wear already just from me trying to get it right. What a PITA.

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. It passes the magic marker test on the length of the blade no problem, and under magnification, again not that I really know what I'm looking for, it looks like a single smooth bevel and no microchipping or anything on the edge. It looks like what I would expect? (It looked OK/the same under 60x earlier when I moved it to the 4k/8k). Yet it won't pass the TNT or TPT at this point, and even if I do another 200 passes to get it back to passing both, it just doesn't seem to want to get all that sharp once I move to the 4k/8k. Is it just elusive to the traditional sharpness tests (popping arm hairs) and I should guess and shave? Is it super hard and requires more passes than anything else I've done? I'm really not sure? Anyone else have this experience? FWIW this is a DA I bought about a month ago from stamps222.