Hone progression of a DA (magnification pics)

All the DA talk in the DA quality thread got me to want to try at my DA again. I had a lot of trouble grinding the shoulder and honing it when I was first getting into honing. I had shaved with it once but it was definitely nothing spectacular. One look under the scope and I could see why.. I did a terrible honing job the first time. It looked something like a 6k finish across the whole thing, yuck.

Anyway, I honed it up tonight and along the way snapped a few shots. Again, I'm just putting my digital camera up to the scope, so they certainly could be better pics, but you get the idea. The edge looks better with my eye in the scope than it seems to in the pics, but oh well. Also, just a note, none of the pics are of the exact same spot, but the bevel/edge was pretty uniform anyway. I'm far from an expert honer, and I still have a lot more to learn, but it came out pretty good IMO... I can't wait for the shave tomorrow. I think I could have spent a bit more time on it to get out some of the deeper scratches, but I got lazy. We'll see how she shaves.

Here are the pics, roughly 85x:

Set the bevel with a DMT 1200:
Attachment 25502

Sharpened with the Norton 4k:
Attachment 25505

Polished it up with the Norton 8k:
Attachment 25506

Went to a blue green escher just for kicks and pics, even though I normally skip it now that I have the nakayama... this one looks much better in the scope:
Attachment 25503

Finished it up with a dark kiita with nashiji nakayama... again looked better in the scope:
Attachment 25504

After 100x on TM smooth cotton:
Attachment 25501

After 80x on TM red latigo:
Attachment 25500

The shave this morning was great with this razor. It was plenty sharp enough and held it's edge easily throughout the shave. A nice close shave with no irritation.

The DA is OK in my book. It's a bear to hone due to the shoulder, but once it's finally honed up, I don't have a problem with the way it shaves. If you have the time and patience to deal with the shoulder (or maybe they don't all have this issue), then they are well worth the $14 IMHO.

Thanks for putting the time in to show us you DA honing, very nice job too by the looks of it. When you say shoulder, do you mean the stabilzer?
Any chance of a look at that Jap hone? It did a nice polish on the edge:)
thanks again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlesilverbladefromwale

Thanks for putting the time in to show us you DA honing, very nice job too by the looks of it. When you say shoulder, do you mean the stabilzer?
Any chance of a look at that Jap hone? It did a nice polish on the edge:)
thanks again.

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Sure, I can snap a pic of the hone when I get home. I do like it. The polishing it does is fantastic and really isn't entirely captured by the photos. From what I can tell using the scope, it's better/finer than my hand american chromium oxide pasted balsa paddle strop.

What I meant by the shoulder, Seraphim explains better than I can here, and also has a picture of what it looks like when it has it. It basically makes it so the heel doesn't contact the hone until you grind the shoulder down, and that can be a PITA especially for a newbie as I was when I did it.

I don't suppose you have a coticule in your collection? I'd love to see how it lookes moving from norton 8K to coticule. I've heard the pattern moves from striations to a "sandblast"...

-Chief

Thanks for the great pics. Just curious, was each photo of the exact same portion of the blade from the first to the last ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Thanks for the great pics. Just curious, was each photo of the exact same portion of the blade from the first to the last ?

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No, he said in the initial write-up that they were not.

Thanks Ron, I should have read the OP more carefully. Nice pics anyhow.

Yeah Jimmy, I couldn't think of a reasonable/good way for me to take a shot of the same spot every time. At that magnification, every tiny movement of the scope is a completely different image. I guess maybe I could look for a particular feature like a scratch or something and try to center it each time. That wouldn't be too hard, maybe I'll look into it for next time.

Chieftain... I don't have any shots of the 8k to coticule yet, but I could snap some next time I'm honing. I'll post them up if when I do.

Sorry it took so long to get the pics up of the nakayama, but they are here for anyone still interested.