Hot Diggity Dog I did it

I took the pesky blade to shave ready with the coticule. I was close on my own. But, I needed some help. I got it and it got there.

She was popping hairs left and right. Kind of fun actually. My left leg is totally bare on the front. The missus is still laughing. That's okay though.

Well, I shaved with it and it just wasn't where I wanted it to be. Maybe I am wrong, but I felt it could get a little bit more. I don't know if it is the steel or can it get more??

I have on loan to me a set or Nortons. I crank those out and following the Wiki guide, do the pyramid method.

Then for poops and grins I do 25 coti and 15 Escher.

It's popping the leg hairs again (wasn't after the pyramid), but it seems to catch ever so slightly in the middle. I took it to the CrOx strop then leather and it seems to have smoothed it out some.

I will shave with it and see if it is better.

Getting that holy crap smooth feeling I take it is such an art that takes time. Now, I gotta find more razors to play with....

Ah the smell of another RAD inciedent budding :p

Ya it's a bit heady when you find a system that works, and the let down when you find out you have notheing else to hone... I get that way in the kitchen... I get in a zone and end up trying to sharpen all my knives and realize I don't have that kind of time this week :p

Yeah, it is a bit of fun. I feel like I've accomplished something. Albeit, a little something. I have a lonoooooooooooooooooooonggggggggggggg ways to go for sure. Tons to learn. But, to be able to take a blade, set the bevel and then actually shave with it. Woo hoo.

That is cool Rick. What you want to do is get to the point where it shaves well off the 4/8 pyramid. Then the coticule or Escher will really demonstrate their value in improving the feel of the edge. Sounds like you're on the right track.

Sounds good. I'll keep at it. I think I should lap the Norton. Does the 4K always sound really gritty and scraping like?

I got it shaveable off the 8K using the pyramid. Would I want to shave with it? No. Not smooth enough for me. It was first time on a Norton and doing pyramid.

I'm sure I'll mess up and hit a road block soon. Beginner's luck thus far, eh? And...damn good instructors. :)

IME the 4k shouldn't feel gritty. Lynn has said that with some of them you may need to lap 1/16 to an 1/8 off of them to get rid of the rougher surface. After some practice the shave off of an 8k norton will be just fine. I used to always go on to higher grits because I had them. Then a mentor suggested to me that I should shave test at the 8k level first to make sure I wasn't 'jumping the gun'. So I began to do the shave test at the 8k with every razor that I honed. I continued that for months and still do it sometimes but not 100% of the time anymore.

+1 on what Jimmy said! I mentioned in you other post that I had given up on the nortons, but after lapping the 4 K heavily it does become a different stone!

Congrats on the progress!! i also answered your Pm and I will mail a razor out to you tommorow

Enjoy

Dan

Can you use the Norton flattening stone to lap naturals? I take it you use the side with the grooves?

Is there a way to get email notification when you have a PM?

I would not recommned using the norton lapping stone on anything but the nortons, I think its way too course for naturals, and some naturals like the chinese stone will chew it up. for lapping my go to tool is a DMT 8C


for PM notification, go to user CP, Options, "receive email notification of PM's"

Congratulations, Rick. It's a nice feeling of accomplishment.

"What one man can do, another can do!" - a great scene appropriately from the movie "The Edge":

YouTube - Kill The Bear - scene from "The Edge" with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin

Quote:

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Originally Posted by currentman

I would not recommned using the norton lapping stone on anything but the nortons, I think its way too course for naturals, and some naturals like the chinese stone will chew it up. for lapping my go to tool is a DMT 8C


for PM notification, go to user CP, Options, "receive email notification of PM's"

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Got it. Thanks.

Good place to get the DMTs?

Those are the steel plates/ diamond hones, right? I take it those need lapping? Sorry...dumb ?

Why doesn't the lapping stone ever need lapping? Too low of grit and everythign that touches it is higher grit? So, nothing ever 'eats' it away?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rickboone

Good place to get the DMTs?

Those are the steel plates/ diamond hones, right? I take it those need lapping? Sorry...dumb ?

Why doesn't the lapping stone ever need lapping? Too low of grit and everythign that touches it is higher grit? So, nothing ever 'eats' it away?

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Try either Woodcraft or SRD. This is timely as I just ordered one myself yesterday! And no, I've never heard of a lapping stone needing lapping, at least not the DMT continuous diamond plates. But it is possible to eventually wear on out. Others can chime in with that specific info.

Good job! You can see now why this whole honing thang is so addictive..! :D Just wait until you start getting into other natural stones like Eschers and the Japanese Naturals lol..!

I got my 325 grit DMT from SRD and I use it to lap all my stones. It also doubles as a major edge repairer in the event that I need to get rid of any chips.

They are made of steel and have a bonded diamond coating so they dont need lapping. For occasional lapping and use on razors it'd take a pretty long while to wear one out I'd think..! If you were using one to sharpen chisels or plane blades you'd wear it out much faster, but they are pretty darn durable.

Just dont do what I did with my 16k Shapton and drop the hone while you're lapping it. The DMT is heavy and it smashed the glass on the Shapton.. :gaah: Thats one mistake I wont make again..! Now I rest the DMT in the bottom of the sink and rub the hone back and forth on top of it.

Good luck and keep us posted!

So here's what I did:


Took Genco. Honed it from dull using the unicot method. Test shaved. It was...not good. So I went and touched it up on the coticule and it was passing every test left and right. Went to shave...not so good. Used Nortons 4/8 pyramid to hone. Went through all that then used coti for touch up. Started with slight slurry, then plain water.

• When using the Nortons pyramid and you find it is not enough...where do you go back to? Just keep going on the 8K in most cases?

• Touching up on the coti, was slight slurry too abrasive perhaps?

Everything I've done (even finishing on pastes) it gets sharp in the sense that is passes tests. But, when I shave, it pulls. It practially melts away my leg hairs and pops hairs mid air really well.


It's evident to me the only true way to know is to lather up and shave. BTW, this edge looked great under the microscope too!


Take it one step further. I had 2 other razors. One (Wapi) last time I used it pulled ever so slightly. The other didn't pull and didn't have any problems.


Well, number 2 didn't slice through the leg hair like the very first Genco did. So a quick one or two swipes on the coti, then to pastes strops and voila. Slices through hairs on my leg like a hot knife in margarine. Onto the Wapi. Same thing. Puts all the others to shame on how efforlessly it glides through cutting hair.


But...on the test shave....they all are pulling. So, apparently I've messed up two that were fine (well, one at least Wapi was pulling a tad). They don't have the smoothness they once had.


I threw out a bunch of things and am not really sure where to start to ask help because it is so much. I did prove to myself that the tests are pretty much worthless. At least to me. TPT was used along the way with all of them too.