Thread: The Famous/Infamous Norton 4/8 "JaNorton 2012"

Ben, I agree about the coti feel, the Norton sure finishes quite smooth.

My shave for today was using the Gotta, tried lapping the 8k side with a 8k Shapton until I had some good suction going on and the Norton were ultra smooth, but honestly I couldn't really feel any difference in the finished edge, felt like before...

"Every good dog knows to do three circles before they lay down."
So true! My theory is they are instinctively checking their surroundings while tamping down the grass. Thanks for another great vid Greg!

As some of you may know, I've been jumping through hoops trying to get my TI Le Canadien Snakewood to play nicely during JaNorton. For some reason, the edge I had on it from the 4k/8k prior to January has been impossible to reproduce. I decided to take it back to the stones on Wednesday evening, giving it a good 15 x-strokes on the 4k, testing the edge on arm hair (it seems to shave that well enough), then a further 5 light x-strokes on the 4k. Felt smoother. From there, I went to the 8k for about 25 x strokes, tested, a further 20, tested and it felt like it was going to work.

Then I shaved with it and it pulled like heck.

So on Thursday, I went back on the stones again, back to the 4k for about 20 x-strokes, light ones, but enough that I felt a difference on my arm hair. Then I moved to about 30 x-strokes on the 8k, followed by another arm-hair test. It seemed to be effortlessly popping them, so I applied 10 finishing x-strokes and took it to the strops. Then I tried to shave. The first two passes were ok, though not as comfortable as they could have been, but for the third pass, I had to pull out a different razor with a coticule edge. The difference was like night and day and that was my first ever coti honing job, too. At this point, I am just a bit frustrated with this razor and I think I might set it aside for a while to give myself a break. Maybe February will be Coticulary or something, because the edge on the W&B was so smooth it made me want to cry.

I wrote up the shaves here, as usual: http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...tml#post913445

Just another quick update: the last conservative pyramid seems to have done the trick on my W&B Bow Razor. I do think it could use a few more laps on the 8k, just to smooth it out a bit more, but it was all systems go for today's shave.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...tml#post914023

I almost missed this... I know it's late, but here I am; don't think poorly of me because the January shaves will amount to exactly one. I wish I had found this thread earlier.

So, here's the girls:



A "WWII Hoffritz" I got from the bay. My first pinning job, lost the gold leaf polishing it. A Genco Red Cross, also from the bay, that I only wiped down.

The stone, just in case there's someone left in the planet that hasn't seen one:


The 4K is Italian, the 8K American, at least according to the sticky on the case.

And some curious spots I had on the 4K side. It seems I put it away too wet and the rubber nibs on the case stained it. They came out rather easily during lapping:



I got to it yesterday afternoon. I decided to do assembly line work and set the bevel on both and then finish and polish them both so I wouldn't have to be turning the stone around. Here's the during thing:




I lapped the stone with a few circles in between razors. I felt very GSSixGun like lapping the stones a lot. If it's good enough for Glen, it sure is good enough for me.

I did the Hoffritz following Lynn's 20 circle method as shown in his video, and the Genco using Glen's Kamisori method the way he demonstrated on his video too.

Originally I tried to raise a slurry with the Norton lapping stone, but it felt like I was trying to hone on gravel, so I used my coticule slurry stone and it got a lot better. The Hoffritz had a small ding on the edge that took a long time to work out on the 4K; I did eight 20 circle sets before that thing went away. It was cutting arm hair after the second, but I certainly didn't want that dent about one inch from the toe. Five sets of the kamisori passes was good enough for the Genco. I checked progress with a 10x loupe and natural light. I noticed that in both blades the bevel seemed smaller on the reverse side. Given the consistency I assumed it to be my technique and paid more attention to form and eventually they became even, at least to my neophyte eyes.

This morning I shaved with the Hoffritz after stropping 100 times on linen and 100 times on leather on my Illinois strop and shaved. At risk of sounding a little bit conceited, It was an awesome shave. There was a little tugging at the heel, but overall it was very satisfying with very little sting with the alum block, and none with the witch hazel.

As you may or may not know, I shave twice a week due to this cruel roll of the genetic dice that allows me to shave only twice a week, so my next shave won't be until Wednesday at best. I will report then of the Genco shave, although I don't expect it to count towards my totals.

May all your shaves be smooth,



Marcos

Very interesting...I won't be participating but will watch with interest.

Well a bit of a non-conclusion for me, the Henckels after using the 1k chosera to smooth up the Norton 8k is a smoother shaver, but to my face the Henckels always was a smoother shaver I guess I could chase this down but in a way it doesn't really matter Both razors have given me perfectly good shaves all month, that is what I like...

Originally Posted by Snake

I almost missed this... I know it's late, but here I am; don't think poorly of me because the January shaves will amount to exactly one. I wish I had found this thread earlier.

So, here's the girls:



A "WWII Hoffritz" I got from the bay. My first pinning job, lost the gold leaf polishing it. A Genco Red Cross, also from the bay, that I only wiped down.

The stone, just in case there's someone left in the planet that hasn't seen one:


The 4K is Italian, the 8K American, at least according to the sticky on the case.

And some curious spots I had on the 4K side. It seems I put it away too wet and the rubber nibs on the case stained it. They came out rather easily during lapping:



I got to it yesterday afternoon. I decided to do assembly line work and set the bevel on both and then finish and polish them both so I wouldn't have to be turning the stone around. Here's the during thing:




I lapped the stone with a few circles in between razors. I felt very GSSixGun like lapping the stones a lot. If it's good enough for Glen, it sure is good enough for me.

I did the Hoffritz following Lynn's 20 circle method as shown in his video, and the Genco using Glen's Kamisori method the way he demonstrated on his video too.

Originally I tried to raise a slurry with the Norton lapping stone, but it felt like I was trying to hone on gravel, so I used my coticule slurry stone and it got a lot better. The Hoffritz had a small ding on the edge that took a long time to work out on the 4K; I did eight 20 circle sets before that thing went away. It was cutting arm hair after the second, but I certainly didn't want that dent about one inch from the toe. Five sets of the kamisori passes was good enough for the Genco. I checked progress with a 10x loupe and natural light. I noticed that in both blades the bevel seemed smaller on the reverse side. Given the consistency I assumed it to be my technique and paid more attention to form and eventually they became even, at least to my neophyte eyes.

This morning I shaved with the Hoffritz after stropping 100 times on linen and 100 times on leather on my Illinois strop and shaved. At risk of sounding a little bit conceited, It was an awesome shave. There was a little tugging at the heel, but overall it was very satisfying with very little sting with the alum block, and none with the witch hazel.

As you may or may not know, I shave twice a week due to this cruel roll of the genetic dice that allows me to shave only twice a week, so my next shave won't be until Wednesday at best. I will report then of the Genco shave, although I don't expect it to count towards my totals.

May all your shaves be smooth,



Marcos

YOu can't build a slurry with the nortons lapping stone. The reason it felt like you were honing on gravel was that you were. There were grains of the lapping plate left on the hone. I have been there many times with the same frustration you are going through. After you have hones a few hundred razors you will understand. It takes time and practice, learning to hone a razor, And... you will get there.
If there is any advice I can give you is that it is hard to use too little preasure on the blade against the hone. You think you are using very little, but you will find that the marks on the stone is the first give away. (for me) Try to hone without leaving any footprint on the stone and you will be amazed at the result.

Hang in there...
Stingray

My 7/8 W&B and my 5/8 Dovo Best are still kickin'.

Both are still shaving nicely off the initial hone (and for the W&B the touchups it underwent right after the initial hone).

What a great thread for this month.....I had a blast, and a had a really great time reading and watching other people's trials.

Definitely a pretty cool way to start 2012.

Yeah it's been really fun, and not only an eyeopener to how great an 8k edge can shave, but I've also gained a new and very useful hone.
Some of my straights responds very well to the Norton, so no need to break out the huge Shapton progression for those.
I'll now have some fun trying various finishers after the Norton.