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Introducing Xavier, honing a longshot
Hello everyone, I have finally got my workbench set back up so I decided to play with the hones a bit. As I was looking through my few project razors, I came across this pitted blade from a maker that I have never heard of. The blade is was (and in some cases still is) pitted significantly on the spine near the toe, all over the tang, and in some places down into the bevel. Also, there were chips all over the edge that ran through the bevel. I wanted to see if I could get an edge on this thing to see if it was even worth the trouble of trying to fix up.
So I got really aggressive (for me) with this one because I figured that it was going to be a toss up to see if I could even get a decent edge on this razor, so I wasn't worried about being too aggressive. I was really worried that the edge would be like swiss cheese.
Anyway, I went with 2 layers of tape on the spine (just been wanting to see how I liked that and never had the chance to try it).
-Started with 25 seconds per side doing circles with medium pressure on 600 grit Diamond plate (checked bevel with a loupe)
-repeated 3 times until the chips and pitting were basically eliminated
-gave about 5 laps with x strokes.. passed TNT easily over the entire length, looks good on the loupe.
-10 laps with x strokes with lighter pressure (was shaving arm hair easily at this stage)
- gave 20 seconds of circles on each side at 1200 grit diamond, then 10 x strokes
- Moved to coticule w/ pretty heavy slurry for about 40 laps -- by now the arm hairs are popping easily, bevel looks pretty good under magnification.
- BBW with water for another 40-50 laps-- hairs still popping
- Coticule w/ water for another 40 laps--- hairs are retreating before the blade shows up--- HHT isn't even fair, almost too easy
- CroOx pasted balsa for 15 laps-- just for good measure
- 40 laps on my TM latigo, that's it
I gave this poor little blade a shave, and oh my goodness it was sharp and smooth. I only wetted my face, threw some SRD patchouli on with a boar brush, and I got an irritation free BBS shave.
I am seriously considering putting this beat up blade into the rotation (which is actually pretty small right now, but who cares). Anyway, this was the progression I used, and I am really pleased with the results. I hope you enjoyed the read, here are some pics of Xavier, sorry they are not so good.
Cheers!
Dave
