Thread: New stones, first attempt. Outstanding results.

[Warning: huge rambling new-experience-sharing type post below. Not much useful content]

Got my stones 2 days ago. DMT D8E (1200), Shapton glassStones 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K, and the Shapton set holder (this is not the Shapton stone holder although it does serve as a holder as well -- I suspect it's not as heavy as the stone holder but works great. made of glass and rubber coated something).

First thing was to lap all the shaptons with my DMT (haha, then I read that whole thing about using the finer DMTs for lapping... didn't seem to be a problem so far). Pencil pattern and lap under running water. Didn't take much. They pretty much came flat. One or two might have been slightly dished.

I have a KW that started to get dull some time ago and I took it out of the rotation. Figured I'd give that a shot first. I'm sure it only needed a touch up but I figured I'd start on the DMT and do the whole thing just to see how it went. Painted the edge with a sharpie and off I went. Haha, naturally the bevel was already set correctly and the sharpie disappeared on the first stroke. Did about 10 laps and moved on to the 2K. Huge difference in feel. The coarsness of the DMT felt very "gritty". The first impression when placing the blade on the shapton and taking the first stroke was "FLAT". They're both flat but the tactile feel of that was markedly different on the shapton. Spine on stone, roll the edge down onto the stone and you can feel the entire edge make contact at exactly the same time -- flat. The blade felt extremely stable during the stroke and I could feel if I was lifting or pressing on the heel without anything even coming close to lifting off the stone. The shaptons are white so about 10 laps you can see metal on the stone and the feel starts to get spotty (sort of sticks or stutters). 5 second scrub under the tap with a potatoe brush that happened to be on the kitchen counter and it looked and felt pristine again (the teflon pot scrubber pad worked great too). Didn't really know how long to stay on a stone so I just figured more laps as you get on finer grits... I developed a method on the second razor. Did 15 - 20 laps and moved to the 4K. 30-40 laps. About the same on the 8K and more on the 16K.

Surprisingly, as you move up in grits the blade seems to suction itself onto the stone. Roll the edge down onto the stone and as soon as you start the stroke it just sort of suction cups onto the stone. Doesn't impede the forward motion but you have to push/pull it just a tad harder than on the coarser stones. Noticeable on the 4K and rather pronounced on the 8K and 16K. Odd sensation. I was moving about 1 second for a stroke, straight down the stone with the blade square. Very slight x towards the end of the stroke.

All that took a long time cause I was doing it between doing other things. We only smoke under the kitchen exhaust hood and we have one of those glass top stoves so that's where I set up. Coffee, smoke, hone a while, do something else. Took hours. Then I did about 150 laps on the strop and shaved. Amazingly it was great! Shaved as well as it used to (it never was outstanding, good but not stellar). Note that I didn't do any sharpness tests along the way. Actually I did do the TPT a couple of times but not to determine when I should move up to the next stone. I'd say it sort of failed until getting into the 4K.

I was pumped! So today I figured I'd try the Kinfolks WEDGE I just got on ebay. This blade has what looks to be very significant hone wear on the spine and a bevel that's much larger than on my other razors. I really can't decide if it's all hone wear on the spine or if it was made sort of that way. If anyone has one let me know.

Painted the edge with the sharpie and started on the DMT. This bevel was not set very well at all. More so it appeared it was barely getting touched right at the very toe and not at the bottom edge of the bevel. both sides so this was going to require taking down the spine some. OK, fine, I was waffling between the D8C and the D8E... This took a long time. 100 laps? 200 laps? Who knows, I had to take breaks. Finally got it down to where it had a bevel at the toe. It wasn't as wide as the bevel elsewhere but heh, I figured it had an edge on it. Good enough.

Now I figured I needed some deterministic method of knowing when to move to the next stone so I came up with this brilliant idea... (don't try this at home folks, I have no idea if this is a good idea or if I just lucked out with this particular blade and/or the stones I have). I was doing the same straight down stroke with the blade square so the scratch marks were straight up and down on both the bevel and the (flattened) spine. I figured if I angled the razor at 45* and made the same stroke straight down the stone that the subsequent scratch marks would be angled. Voila! Now I could differentiate the angled scratch marks from the straight ones just by holding the blade under a light. Interesting, the straight scratches were visible at one angle and the angled ones at a slightly different angle. Now it was just a matter of honing until the previous stone's scratches were completely gone. Square blade on the next stone, angled on the one after, repeat.

The 2K took quite some time. The subsequent 4K, and 8K, went very quickly and then the 16K took a bit longer again. strange. In the mean time my CrOx from Chris L had arrived in my mail box! I pasted those balsa wood paddle strops I made a few days ago and did 7 laps on that for good measure.

The shave was simply OUTSTANDING! unbelievable. In fact it was rather disconcerting. I've been shaving for more than 20 years with a decent amount of resistance and the lack of it was ... well, unsettling at first. A good part of the tactile feedback I'm used to was gone. I think I'll adapt.

Nice read. Happy ending!

Sounds great! Where did you get the set holder? You like it?

Good post! Thanks for the insight.

Richard

Thanks for the review. Your description of the glass stones performance has my HAD kicking in. Got to wait for biz to get better though.

Excellent... I love reading about other's experiences.

GREAT WRITE UP !!!!

You already figured out a Shapton trick on your own, if you angle that heel just a tad forward you will notice a huge difference in the feel on the stone and the feel on yer face..

Only other hint I could give you is watch going over 20 laps on the 16k you are only smoothing up the shave at that point, so less is more....

Originally Posted by gssixgun

GREAT WRITE UP !!!!

You already figured out a Shapton trick on your own, if you angle that heel just a tad forward you will notice a huge difference in the feel on the stone and the feel on yer face..

Only other hint I could give you is watch going over 20 laps on the 16k you are only smoothing up the shave at that point, so less is more....

Well, crap. That might explain some of the problems I've had coming off of that stone. I've been doing... well.. let's just say *more* than 20 laps on the 16k.

Guess I'm too used to the slow cutting of the Chinese 12k. I always did 100 laps on that thing.

Originally Posted by KristofferBodvin

Sounds great! Where did you get the set holder? You like it?

I like it a lot. Enough weight to be plenty stable and holds the stone at a very nice height. The stones are not of the exact same length. A couple sort of "wedge" in there and the others just fit. The end pieces are rubberized so the stone doesn't move even if it's not squeezed by the ends. The DMT is shorter than the shaptons but long enough to comfortably sit on the "shelves" of the end caps. I suspect the end pieces are abs under the rubber. The cross member is two pieces of the plate glass so there's a decent amount of weight and it's very rigid. It's all glued together and doesn't come apart.

Craftsmanstudio had it. Included with the sets they had and $60 separate. I asked them if they would substitute stones in the sets and they rejected that. Then I asked if I ordered the DMT and 4 shaptons if they would throw in the holder for free and they rejected that. So I ordered and added the $15 DMT stone holder. Then in the comments I said (begged) I would really like it if they substituted the shapton set holder for no extra charge and they went for that!

PICS (Sorry, camera still unavailable so you'll have to deal with the phone pics. Labels are above each pic).

Set holder in position to accept stones for storage



Set holder flipped over in position to accept stone for work



Set holder with stone in position for work



Set holder flipped back over with 3 stones stacked in it for storage. There's just a bit of lip left so if you put a 4th stone on there it can't slide off the end but it doesn't actually fit in the holder.



Set holder "overloaded" with all 4 shaptons and DMT stacked on top. Shapton strap came with it but I don't think it's actually part of the set holder?



Pasted paddles. Half bag of CrOx with about a tablespoon of 3-in-one oil. Too much. Still some left in the bottom of the cup. Chris, it doesn't matter how many times you put "goes a long ways", "use sparingly" in the instructions. Everybody's going to use too much the first time. Haha.

I've been doing... well.. let's just say *more* than 20 laps on the 16k.

These stones to me are so fast cutting, I stick to 10 laps at a time
on most of them (including the 16k).

Quick, great post!

- Scott