Thread: Aerodynamics

Occasionally, like when I studied aerodynamics, I wanted to ask a question but couldn't. I just didn't know where to begin. I'm sorta at that same point tonight. My blades are very sharp and getting sharper. I'd like them to shave smoothly. They don't do that at all. I trued my hone today for the first time and it made a difference that was nice. Now, also, for the last two weeks or so I have had dramatic inprovement by only back honing my blades, then some .5 paste. No forward honing at all. I've come to the conclusion that I just don't push a razor forward well, but I seem to drag it pretty well. Atleast more consistently. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but back honing works great, and only back honing. Every time I try honing, the blade gets worse.... :-( So I suppose I will keep trying to get my blades smoother and keep back honing for a while. I need a better strop maybe? I need to spend more time stropping I think...but overall I don't have any question I can think of except maybe...anything I can do to make a blade shave smoother?

I have a similar problem. I have tried Japanese stones, I have tried barber hones, I have and make pasted strops. I have great sucess with the strops but none with the Japanese stones. It's pretty much hit or miss with the barber hones but way better than the Japanese ones.
Bought myself a Norton yesterday but been busy making new strops today so sis not get to use it yet.
Somehow "draging" the blade works for me too. It is an easier movement to learn and mimics that of the plain leather strops so may be a good beginner step. If starting with an already sharp razor, dragging, or backhoning on a pasted strop or hone would surely keep your razor in god shape. It is unlikely to get a really dull eBay special in shave ready shape.
Tony

It seems like you may be overhoning your razors, especially since you're fixing the problem by backhoning.

I have always avoided that because Classic Shaving says when you back hone you need to start all over again. To me that says backhoning ruins an edge. Yet, you and Tony seem to be doing OK here.

I hope one of the honemeisters addresse this point.

Two things came to mind as I read your post.

1. Do you have a microscope? $10 at Radio Shack, 30X-60X, item # 63-1133. Get one to check out your edge.
You may have a wire edge or a bad bevel but I suspect that you have used different blade angles when you change from edge leading to edge trailing strokes on the hone. This would create a cross hatch scratch pattern on the bevel and the fin would be coarser. The solution would be to go back to a 4000 grit stone for 15-25 laps and get a consistent scratch pattern established then move back up to the 8000 stone for 5-15 laps then thumb test or shave test.

2. My shaves have improved a lot by using a preshave moisturizer. It adds oil back to your skin and that helps with the glide. In the shower I use a soap that removes a lot of oil from my skin. That has to be replaced before I shave. It has made a big difference.

Hope this helps,

Joe,
I should clarify what I meant by back honing. On a stone, Japanese, Barbers or otherwise I only hone in the normal, blade leading direction. I meant back honing as refering to the direction used on a pasted strop. On a pasted strop you are basically "honing" but with a stropping (back honing) movement.

I should have left it as I have better luck with pasted strops than stones <g>.

Hopefully I will have time to try my Norton and will surely need some tips on that.

Tony

Randy,

My gut tells me your on the right track. I'll head to RadioShack tonight, and get the 4,000 ready for some work. Could be when I started I was doing poorly and an untrued hone caused some of these issues. Thanx...I'll write back by the end of the week.

Hi,
While I hone in the standard edge leading method, Its interesting to note that in the honing video of Herr Schick at Nasrassur(?) he is honing a DOVO Bergischer Lowe (I think) but he is honing edge trailing, vice edge leading. I've always wondered about that one.).
Anybody else notice that one?
John P

Randy,

I tried your approach and shaved tonight. I have a microscope but its not as good as a radio shack. I'll head there soon. But your plan worked great. Best shave ever. And as you can imagine the blade is now WICKED sharp. I added some shave oil and lathered up after a quick wetting of my face. Shave took about 3 minutes and I was able to do some second pass stuff sans cream, it was that smooth. Very smooth. I did a few extra laps after your suggested sets and ran over a .5 micron paste as well. I only do shave testing (as I'm just not that good with other tests).

I was already pretty certain that the striations were all over the place. I was under the mistaken impression that they didn't matter or your objective was to hone them down into non-existence. Is the idea to leave them there and make them all parallel to each other?

It would have never occured to me to run a sharp razor over the 4000 for 20-25 passes, thanx

I'm going to go back to something easy now like teaching aero....

Originally Posted by JohnP

Hi,
While I hone in the standard edge leading method, Its interesting to note that in the honing video of Herr Schick at Nasrassur(?) he is honing a DOVO Bergischer Lowe (I think) but he is honing edge trailing, vice edge leading. I've always wondered about that one.).
Anybody else notice that one?
John P

I noticed that also, the back honing. I have done it in the past when I first started out but since then I use an edge leading stoke exclusively. The reason is that it is easier to do. Why he is using it I do not know.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Randy,

I tried your approach and shaved tonight. I have a microscope but its not as good as a radio shack. I'll head there soon. But your plan worked great. Best shave ever. And as you can imagine the blade is now WICKED sharp. I added some shave oil and lathered up after a quick wetting of my face. Shave took about 3 minutes and I was able to do some second pass stuff sans cream, it was that smooth. Very smooth. I did a few extra laps after your suggested sets and ran over a .5 micron paste as well. I only do shave testing (as I'm just not that good with other tests).

I was already pretty certain that the striations were all over the place. I was under the mistaken impression that they didn't matter or your objective was to hone them down into non-existence. Is the idea to leave them there and make them all parallel to each other?

It would have never occured to me to run a sharp razor over the 4000 for 20-25 passes, thanx

I'm going to go back to something easy now like teaching aero....

Good for you! Glad I could help! You were smart to use the 0.5 micron stuff to finish the edge off. I always do and sometimes I even use the 0.25 diamond paste.

Honing the striations out of existence is not possible. No matter what you use the scratch pattern will always be there.
You just want to make them all parallel and as fine and shallow as possible. So whats the limit on this? Well, some people have said that the 0.25 dimond makes their razor to sharp while others swear by it. Do what suits you.

The microscope I use the most is a 30X. It has better resolution than the Radio Shack and gives me all the info that I need.

Hope this helps,