Thread: Need Advice for My Stainless

[quote=Ryan82;352518]Well, I had a "day off" work today so I thought I'd use my time off to try my hand at honing up my Friodur. This is what I did:

My razor has a scalloped spine (or ridged, whatever you prefer) so I used one layer of tape for protection and better glide. Did the MMT and gave it a few laps on my 6x2 coticule with water only. The marker was removed along the entire edge, so I went straight to Bart's diluted slurry method.
Sounds good. If you started out with a complete bevel, there's no need for prolonged slurry honing. I would normally recommend doing a bit of slurry work anyway, in case the bevel wasn't fully extending all the way, but I don't think your particular Coticule is up to that job. So let's hope the bevel was good to start with.
I raised a slurry and did the prerequiste 100 laps, diluting after every 10. Shaved arm hair a bit better after that. So I did another 100 laps with water only (forgot to mention dish soap was added to my water during the entire process), then took it to the strop. 60 linen and 60 leather, then took it to my thick leg hairs.
What is it with you Canooks, that you have to shave leg hairs instead of arm hairs??? Now I have to imagine you sitting at the hones, with your pants down. I sure hope your wife doesn't catch you in the middle of the night in such a pose...
I will say there was a definite improvement from when I tried to shave with that razor last week. I even tried a small patch on my face (dry) and this time it even severed a whisker or two ; another improvement. I did have a few observations:

-During the MMT it seemed that, even though the marker honed off along the tip of the bevel on both sides, the marker seemed to remain on one side of the edge a lot longer than the other side. I do not know if this is an issue with the bevel itself, my honing stroke or both.
Be sure to use a permanent marker and let it dry a minute. Degrease the blade if you previously had oil on it. Otherwise the MMT can give false readings. DAMHiKT.

-While raising the slurry, my slurry stone seemed to stick occasionally. I don't know if this is normal.
Yes, this is normal.
But after a couple minutes of slurry raising all I got was a very thin inconsistent slurry, nothing like the thick milky type I see in Bart's pictures. I didn't really notice much greying of the slurry either. I suspect that my coticule is quite hard. I also do not know if this affected the performance.
You clearly have a slow Coticule. It'll be a great polisher, but not a very fast stone to do much bevel correction. You can produce more slurry if you use a good quality sandpaper or a DMT-C on the dry Cotcicule, to create a layer of Coticule dust. Next add a few drops of water and use the slurry stone to rubbingly mix it to the desired density. But still, the Coticule will be a slow performer, because the slurry isn't able to abrade the hard binder and release fresh garnets while honing. (For honing kitchen knifes and chisels, where you can apply more pressure, this is less of a problem and the hone will be faster for these purposes)

-After everything was said and done I also suspect that my blade is sharper in some sections than others. The middle is definitely the sharpest.

So, after all that my first true honing at least wasn't a complete failure. This razor is not a good type to learn honing with (the custom scales are 6 1/2"and are loose, the razor is 11" fully open; quite difficult to maintain flat on the hone at all times). What do you guys think I should do next? Start another cycle? Add more tape?
I recommend starting a new cycle. Maybe try the trick for a better slurry. Take your time diluting.
If the results don't improve, add a layer of tape and do 100 laps on water only. Test again. If the results max out and the razor shaves decent during a test shave, but just a tad below where you want it, try 10-15 laps on your new CrO strop.

Good Luck,
Bart.