Honing a Bartmann 7-16-09

[JimmyHAD]

I picked up this 15/16 Bartmann Manganese Steel off of the bay recently. To the naked eye the edge was flawless. Under the 30x micro chipping could be seen the worst of which went approximately half way into the narrow bevel. It didn't look like a hacksaw blade but there were a few areas from point to heel.

When I was new at honing I would have resorted to breadknifing to remove the chips but with experience I've found that unless they are really bad, as in going up above the bevel flat honing will suffice and be less work in the long run. So after doing the marker test to ascertain what stroke I needed to use I went to work on my 1200 continuous diamond plate doing circles and back and forth strokes alternately. Every ten or so of one or the other I would check the bevel with my 30X eye loupe.

What I found was that the razor could pass the TNT and still have micro chips that were not visible to the naked eye. Another point for having magnification of some sort. Before I routinely used magnification I once honed a Cattaraugus Green Lizard and got a good shave out of it. Subsequently I checked it under a 30x stereoscope and found that it had micro chipping that I hadn't noticed with the naked eye or felt in the shave.

Once the micro chips were nearly gone I went to honing with the x pattern on the 1200 and with the razor beginning to grab arm hair moved to the 4/8 Norton. I used the method described here and followed those numbers. I did one aggressive pyramid and he was popping arm hair. I followed with a conservative pyramid and went to the strop.

The razor was very keen according the the arm hair and the TPT but would not HHT. I resisted the temptation to strop on fabric and went right to the SRD Premium 1 leather. I like to strop on fabric first and do 50 and 50 but the barber manual and other sources recommend going to the leather only after the hone and only the fabric/leather after you've shaved subsequent to the honing. So that said, 50 round trips and it still wouldn't HHT but undeterred I shaved.

When I first started honing my own I would sharpen on the 4/8 and then move to a higher grit hone before shaving. Randy suggested to me that to accurately assess my honing I should shave directly off of the 4/8. This would let me know if the razor was as sharp as it was going to get before polishing and refining the edge or if I needed to go back to the 4/8 to dial it in. So I have incorporated that practice into the routine.

This Bartmann shaved comfortably and I am happy to say as close as any razor I've shaved with bar none. My chin and the nooks and crannies on either side of my skinny neck are where the true test is for me. If those areas are smooth following my two pass shave I know I've gotten the razor truly sharp. Anyhow, this was my latest effort. I will post on others every now and again if anyone is interested in one guy's honing adventures.