Thread: The C-Nat-athon

I used a 7/8" Korff & Honsberg Remscheid "Marco Angelito" razor that I bought recently. It arrived with a great deal of hone wear (as the seller had duly noted), so I started with one layer of tape and ended up finishing with two to get closer to the original blade geometry.

Hones:
- Naniwa Super Stone 1k
- unnamed natural from Sham that he rated at about 3k
- glued vintage combo coticule (no layer name available, but me likey)
- Guangxi "12k"

Dulled it on glass, then
1) Set the bevel using a layer of tape on my 1k SS.
2) Once it was shaving arm hair nicely along the whole edge, I moved to the ~3k mystery stone for about 100 laps.
3) Next, I did a slurry dilution progression on the BBW with 4 sets of 50, ending with water on the last set.
4) At this point, I added another layer of tape and did 100 passes on the coti, rinsing the stone every 20 passes to prevent any slurrification action. By the end, there was an easily visible secondary bevel.
5) I finished with 100 passes on the C12k with very little pressure.

At that point, the blade passed my ultimate non-shaving test: it would "ting" leg hairs right at the tip without me feeling it. Went straight to the shave -- no stropping -- and it was very nice. Maybe not *quite* as smooth as my best edges that I've really dialed in with chromium oxide, linen, and leather, but still pretty darn good.

Shave Report #2:

I was right when I thought the edge wasn't quite there on the Spike. I started to shave with it, and could tell instantly that it was going to shave, but it was also going to tear me a new one if I kept going with it like it is. I grabbed my Salamandar from yesterday and finished the shave with it. It was really nice after the start I had with the Spike. So, back to the hones for it tomorrow. Maybe 2 layers of tape will do better than the 1 I used today.

I'm surprised too, because the bevel looked good under mag. But I have a feeling that the bevel was just not quite right.

So, sadness at another failure. As I went to clean up after honing, I relapped everything again, maybe overkill, but I always try and put them away as clean as possible. Took both sides of the Cnat out to 8k again and made sure it was as polished as I could get it.

Preparing for another attempt tomorrow!!

Goodnight all!

M

I got serious with my PHIG tonight with some surprising results, at least to me. I took a Red Imp that I have previously took to the 8k Norton level and stroped etc. I didn't feel that I had to dull it to prove a point. I put it to the PHIG that I have polished to 1000 wet/dry etc. I built up a slurry and went to work. And worked and worked... I have a 50x scope and could see it wasn't right. I finally decided to go back to the 8K and give it a few strokes to start over again. The 8K cleaned up the scratches from the PHIG! I repeated the test a few times to confirm the results. MY PHIG is less than 8K equivelent. It is not a finisher. When I get a chance I am going to insert it in the progression between the 4K and 8K to see where it fits. I am not going to waste a good honing on this present razor for another experiment.

Tim

Thanks TIm for using what you have available for evidence to fit the PHIG in your progession.

I just realized there have been over 1,500 people that viewed this thread in 4 days, which makes me feel good that it may be helping some people. You guys are doing a great job so far, so keep it up and anyone else that wants to show their stones and how they hone step right up to the C-Nat-athon. Where everyone is a winner in this contest. lol

Originally Posted by xMackx

I just realized there have been over 1,500 people that viewed this thread in 4 days, which makes me feel good that it may be helping some people. You guys are doing a great job so far, so keep it up and anyone else that wants to show their stones and how they hone step right up to the C-Nat-athon. Where everyone is a winner in this contest. lol

42 of them have been me!

After reading posts from other members about how the "other side" of their PHIGs was quite different from the "top side", I decided to lap the other side of my PHIG flat. The side I had been using was just flat gray with nothing remarkable about its surface. The other side, after lapping, is a different beast altogether. The best way I can describe is this: it's as if the stone is has a semi-translucent layer sitting on top of opaque rock... kind of like quartz. The light plays off the differences in translucence, and it has kind of a ghost-flame effect that changes with the angle that the light hits it. I don't know if it's a good sign or a bad one, but its definitely different than how I've heard anyone else describe theirs. I'm going to try to photograph it in some way that will show the characteristics of the stone, but I'm afraid that a camera won't be able to catch what's going on. If I get a decent pic or video, I'll post it up.

A sample of tiger striping in the stone I received. This was from a single stone that was cut into 4 pieces.








The lighter stones are fresh cut from a diamond saw, a very good diamond saw. The single dark stone was wet sanded using automotive wet/dry sandpaper and a piece of marble tile.






Wet pics without slurry.

Those are very cool picture. Look diff than my hone. I will be honing some in a little bit. Been busy and have a tooth ache. UGH!

Yeah those look different than your average C-nat, very cool. Almost looks more like some J-nat oozuku's I've seen. I'd like to feel first hand how they perform.