Thread: What do you think of this honing process?

Originally Posted by conroygc

... I also asked him why he uses a buffer wheel instead of stones, and his response was basically "because I have a buffer." ...

I have a chainsaw.
I don't use it to cut out scales.

Salt lake (like most others) has been infected with the starbucks virus. Fortunately there are a few local brew houses that are really good, so we dont have to drink the seattle stuff if we dont want to.

Originally Posted by conroygc

Perhaps we could get a few SLC members together and do a mini meetup?

What are you fellows up to this Sunday (after church of course)?

I came late to this one. At first, I thought the idea of a black scotchbrite wheel was odd. 3M makes black scotchbrite but that's for extra-coarse work, like ripping off twenty years of floor surface stains and varnish. Eek! There wouldn't be much razor left after that.

Once, I tried to clean the sides of a Bros. Pak & Stan razor with a worn down gray scotchbrite wheel that fit the inside of the hollow grind. This wheel is listed as extra-fine, the heat generated discolored the blade quicker than I thought it would happen. Thin steel on a high speed wheel is not a good idea.

I'm caught up on the thread now. A buffing wheel with black rouge on it is still a pretty rough grit. Sometimes as low as 80 grit, it's considered a cutting compound, not even for polishing.

Up here, coffee IS a religion.

Originally Posted by Korben88

What are you fellows up to this Sunday (after church of course)?

I can't this Sunday, but I would be able to next weekend. Hopefully Connor's hones will be in by then too. So, if we get some people interested, we should start a seperate thread about it.

A grinding wheel takes away to much steel from the edge and shortens the life of the razor.

Originally Posted by chay2K

I can't this Sunday, but I would be able to next weekend. Hopefully Connor's hones will be in by then too. So, if we get some people interested, we should start a seperate thread about it.

Next Sunday might be a challenge for me, but if it's in the late afternoon I could probably make it work. If there's a forum where people post get togethers you should post it up.

Originally Posted by Korben88

Next Sunday might be a challenge for me, but if it's in the late afternoon I could probably make it work. If there's a forum where people post get togethers you should post it up.

I started a new thread about it here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/gener...tml#post875444

**The Results**

The Razor
The razor I sent to Lorenz to have sharpened is a Goldy Brothers ZOZ. I bought this razor off eBay. It looks as though someone ground off 1/2" of the nose, because the razor is too short for the scales, and there's a small gouge at the very front of the razor along the spine. When I received it it was (otherwise) in good condition, no rust or cracks and didn't require too much cleaning. The blade was quite sharp, though it did not seem shave ready.


So I took in in to Lorenz. It's $15 for razor sharpening and it usually takes a week. The razor looks exactly the same and is the blade is the same as before, just a hair under 5/8" as measured with a ruler.

Results of HHT
I performed the HHT exactly as described here but using a pure badger hair from my brush. The brush had been soaked in hot water before testing. I tested six points along the razor with six fresh hairs.
At all points on the razor, the hair either HHT-3 - catch&pop or HHT-4 - pop. This was encouraging enough to move on to a shave test.

Results of the Shave Test
I have extremely course facial hair and very sensitive skin. My shave routine is hot shower with beard condition, pre-shave oil, Pacific Shaving cream, WTG, hot water, pre-shave oil, shaving cream, XTG, hot water, cold water, toner, aftershave.
This was my first time using this razor to shave with, but I was pretty happy with the results. The razor provided a smooth shave with no dragging or catching. If my Lynn-Honed Dovo razor is a 10 out of 10 in terms of sharpness, I would rate the ZOZ as a 9, both providing excellent shaves.

FWIW, I wish I could compare the HHT results to an HHT test on the Lynn-Honed Dovo when I first received it, but I never did an HHT on it.

So I'll admit that I would probably send another razor to Lorenz since I was pretty happy with his service. But, perhaps the best thing that came out of this thread was my decision to just buy my own hones. They came in today, and I'll will be meeting up with the very generous Chay soon to get some instruction on how to use them. I'm pretty excited!


Thanks to all for reading, and I hope future Salt Lakers might find this helpful.

Well, that's pretty awesome! I'm happy he didn't mess it up with his "unorthodox" way of sharpening. If you got a good shave from him, go with it! Just because it isn't water stones doesn't mean your face is less shaved. Glad it worked out. Thanks for reporting back.