Thread: YAHQ (yet another honing question)

Boy am I sorry about this post, but the forum is here so I guess it's OK.

Question, where do I go from here? My goal is to maintain, pretty much indefinitely, razors received "shave ready" from established honemeisters.

I have the following:

• DMT325 for lapping
• Ardennes yellow Coticule with slurry stone
• A Swaty hone from eBay that I have successfully, I think, lapped with the DMT. (lots of work! All the pencil lines are gone.)
• Tony Miller four-sided honing paddle strop with 3.0, 1.0, 0.5, and 0.25 paste as supplied by TM.
• RupRazor El Toro strop with added fabric strop. (Noting pasted)
• And, probably redundant, a two-sided TI paddle strop with TI "Paste A" (0.25?) on the rough side.

In what order should these be used? Do I need something else? like a Norton 4k/8k? Maybe a finer finishing stone?

I have a Dovo "Black Star" razor from SRD about two months ago. I never did get a good shave from this, but I am sure that was because of bad shaving technique in the beginning, then perhaps bad stropping technique, and now just from two months worth of (mis?)use. I would like to bring this back to shave ready. What do I do?

Additional note: I also have a Double Arrow from RupRazor that I have had better luck with and can get a pretty decent shave from, so my technique, although still primitive I'm sure, is at least good enough to get a decent shave from a decent blade. I had the DA before the Dovo but stopped using it almost immediately when I got the Dovo, figuring the Dovo cost more so it should be better. It wasn't until I basically gave up on the Dovo that I went back to the DA and started getting better shaves.

You could use the coticule indefinitely to keep the edge maintained or you could use the pasted strop but then eventually you will need to use the stone. Of course the pasted strop is very easy to use so a touch up on the stone every year or so isn't such a big deal.

It depends on how you want to do it. if it was me I would just use the coticule and I do. Yes there are exceptions depending on the particular razor.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You could use the coticule indefinitely to keep the edge maintained ...

Good to know.

Earlier today I used the Coticule on the blade as follows:

• With a slurry -- about 10 laps.
• With water only also about 10 laps.

Does that seem reasonable? I was able to shave off some arm hair keeping the blade 1/8 inch off the skin. But I am not sure how to interpret that -- the hair didn't drop off like grass from my mower, just 8 - 10 hairs out of the dozens the blade must have passed through. I will be trying it out later tonight so time will tell.

At this point, I think I may be more in the realm of restoring the edge than simply maintaining it. I am pretty much unable to go ATG with it and even WTG really pulls. I even got a couple of nicks last night -- something that doesn't happen any more (well, rarely) with the DA.

I would think that if you are just refreshing a blade on a coticule, you wouldn't need to use slurry. Then again, it depends on how long you go between trips to the stone and the characteristics of your coticule.

I would say the results of your arm hair test are good, but shaving is the ultimate test.

Why not sell all that stuff and get a barbers hone, it will keep a sharp blade sharp indefinately, without all of the expense.

he already has a barber's hone - the swaty.

you should play with the coticule w/ water, the swaty and the pasted strop and see what works best for you.
on the swaty 4-5 strokes
on the coticule 10-20 strokes
on the pasted strop probably 5-10 starting with the finest side, if there isn't an improvement add 5-10 of the next coarser side following by 5-10 on the finer sides.

after each of these attempts strop and shave.

Originally Posted by gugi

he already has a barber's hone - the swaty.

you should play with the coticule w/ water, the swaty and the pasted strop and see what works best for you.
on the swaty 4-5 strokes
on the coticule 10-20 strokes
on the pasted strop probably 5-10 starting with the finest side, if there isn't an improvement add 5-10 of the next coarser side following by 5-10 on the finer sides.

after each of these attempts strop and shave.

Are you implying that the swaty is coarser than the Coticule? Is that the Coticule with or without slurry?

Is the 3.0 paste finer than the Coticule?

Depending on your coticule and which Swaty you have, the Swaty will probably cut a bit faster than the coticule will with only water. Number of strokes also depends on size though.

Status Report!

With the honing mentioned in my earlier post I can report that the Dovo blade was moderately sharper and I actually got a decent shave but it required a great deal of care on the ATG pass. My passes were actually:

WTG
WTG
XTG (twice on trouble spots -- chin and moustache area)
ATG (required "buffing" action on chin and moustache areas)

And that's what I have had to do with the DA except the ATG is easier with the DA.

Bottom line, the Coticule improved the blade but I need to do it again. Oh yes, I used the .50 and .25 pastes before shaving.

Originally Posted by TexasBob

Are you implying that the swaty is coarser than the Coticule? Is that the Coticule with or without slurry?

Is the 3.0 paste finer than the Coticule?

Regarding the coticule--

-The coticule+water is (generally) a polishing step.
-The coticule + slurry is a more aggressive metal removing step, can be used to set a bevel.
-The barber hone is more aggressive than coticule + water. I am not sure how it compares to coticule + slurry

The advice I got is to start with the least aggressive method, and see if that works. If not, then step back to a more aggressive method. So, you could just start with coticle + water to polish the edge. If your bevel is in good shape, that should be it. If that doesn't work, then you can move to coticule + slurry which will strip away metal and reset the bevel (should not really be needed if bevel is in good shape and you are just touching up the edge).

If you are trying to maintain a razor that had a good bevel, I think using a swaty and then using a coticle + slurry would be kinda redundant... decide which one you want to use as the more "aggressive" step, and then use the coticule + water as a finisher.

A good test to check the bevel is to take a magic marker and mark up the edge, then do a few passes on the coticule + water-- if all of the marker gets removed, you have a good bevel, so you should not need to mess with it.

I don't use paste, but I have heard some folks use paste after the coticule+water to get an ever finer edge.

-Chief