Thread: The C-Nat-athon

Originally Posted by cudarunner

I just feel that what I get off of my stones is really what I like!

While I do have a pasted strop, I really don't use it! Even when the mood strikes me and I shave off of the Norton 8k I don't use a pasted strop!

Bear with me I have about 4 different experiments going on at the same time. Today I lapped a new hone, a SDnat. It is a piece of what i think is shale from a road cut in the Black Hills that i picked up about 10 years ago because I thought it looked cool. I took my experimental razor the Prince to the stone. OK not much better than the 8K norton.

Here is where it relates to this thread. I took my C12K slurry stone to it. Nice milky slurry. the bevel turned to a frosty look for a scratch pattern, but it was "duller". 50 or so X strokes. I got rid of the slurry and did 50 or so more with plain water. the thumb pad and arm hair tests indicated much sharper. The frostiness disappeared . I don't know at this time if I was removing the frosty pattern and making the 8k pattern visible or making more 8k scratches.
I hope this makes sense. LOL

I then did 20 laps on the Crox lightly pasted leather strop, 40 on fire hose, 40 on graphite leather and 40 on plain leather. Good shave!

See now why I have to many things going on at once? Not very scientific!

I will post a thread with pics of my SDnat tomorrow with some more info.

Tim

Thanks Roy!

I find that I keep looking for that 'feel' and I only seem to find it in my own edges after the diamond and CrOx paddles. I look for that keeness that I just can't seem to get off the stones I have. I don't have a good finisher or I might have a different outlook.

Someday I'll have a stone of higher grit than my 8k or CNat, which I don't really think is much higher than 8k in itself. I can honestly get a better polish half the time off the 8k with less effort than I have to put into the CNat. But, the paddles seem to be a pretty good shortcut to getting that keen edge I keep lookiing for.

Sometimes too many laps on the paddles leads to some serious razor burn tho, so I've learned that less is more when it comes to pastes and sprays.

On that note!!! I finally managed to hone the Timor razor that the grind is kind of bowed on. It took quite a few tries and the poor razor, which I bought new last Nov., looks like it's been thru hell, but I got a good bevel using the rolling X's tonight, finally. 2 layers of tape and a lot of patience and it finally is shaving hair pretty good. I had to re-pin it, the cheapo's didn't even use internal washers and it was already discoloring and scratching the tang from opening and closing. Sheesh!!

I took it to my CNat for about 150 X's, but it still required the CrOx to get the feel I was after. I have never honed on a good finisher so I don't have any point of comparison except a few others, like yourself, Kelly and Larry have done for me, and the only way I seem to even get close to those edges is in using my paddles.

I guess I'll just have to keep on trying!!

M

Originally Posted by mjhammer

But, the paddles seem to be a pretty good shortcut to getting that keen edge I keep lookiing for.



M

Why are the paddles a shortcut?

tim

Originally Posted by mjhammer

Thanks Roy!

I find that I keep looking for that 'feel' and I only seem to find it in my own edges after the diamond and CrOx paddles. I look for that keeness that I just can't seem to get off the stones I have. I don't have a good finisher or I might have a different outlook.

Someday I'll have a stone of higher grit than my 8k or CNat, which I don't really think is much higher than 8k in itself. I can honestly get a better polish half the time off the 8k with less effort than I have to put into the CNat. But, the paddles seem to be a pretty good shortcut to getting that keen edge I keep lookiing for.

Mike:

A small hint came out of what you just wrote, dump the naturals and get yourself either a Naniwa SS 12k or the Shapton 16k and be done with the fun Coming off the Norton 8k either of these will give a superb edge that will have the Sharpness you want you can adjust from there...

g

Originally Posted by 32t

Why are the paddles a shortcut?

tim

Hi Tim!

I have managed to get that keen feeling off the CNat with about 150 extra X's whereas it took about 5 on the diamond and 10-20 on the CrOx to get the same feel without the extra 30 minutes of X's on the Nat.. That's all I meant about it being a shortcut. Saves my back some stress, hehehe!!

Mike

I was finally able to shave-test the razor that I honed on my CNAT a few nights ago. Since it's spring break and I haven't had to work (one of the perks for working for a school), I had about 5 days of growth. Not surprisingly, the razor literally wiped the whiskers away. 2 passes to a DFS. Got almost no feedback from my alum block except for a place on my neck that is super sensitive. All in all, I'm impressed with the qualities of my PHIG. It's super duper slow on water; all tolled, it took over 200 circles and 150 x strokes to "finish" the razor. With slurry from the slurry stone I have, it's much faster. I might have been able to save myself some time on this stone if I had figured that out sooner.

I put my phigs to one side as I just got my first coti a few weeks ago. I picked it up again today and tried it with a coticule slurry as mentioned upthread. Quite impressed. I've not had a shave yet but it reclaimed an edge killed on glass in no time, worked a treat on my kitchen knife too. Nice to have the size of the phig with the action of the garnets.

I was able to get my rolling X's working pretty good last night and managed to finally get a good bevel on the Timor razor that has been giving me fits for months.

I originally wasn't going to put it to the CNat and shave off the 8k and paddles only, but I couldn't resist and before bed did about 150 rolling X's on the CNat and polished it up just a bit more.

I shaved with it this morning (can be seen in the SOTD) and it did a fine job of it.

Just because I managed that one then, I tackled my Mandarin razor I have had since last April. It has a wicked smile, I believe it started life as a 6/8 round tip, but I think it had a chip or something in the toe and had been reduced down to a 9/16 half-round tip now. Due to the major toe smile upward, I was never able to get that part to take a bevel.

Well, this morning I succeeded in using the Rolling X's to get the toe to catch up with every other blades bevel and finished it up on the CNat just a few hours ago. It will be tomorrows shave for sure!

I find that using my CNat with clear water is much slower, but leaves a nicer finish to the edge. The slurry for sure works faster, but I agree that the finish at first gets 'duller' and takes on a satin finish. Using just clear water it also 'dulls' a little at first, but then recovers with continued polishing and ends up with a much clearer, shinier edge than with slurry.

I also discovered that the paddles don't work so well with the smiles either and require a form of a rolling X to get to the toe and heel or all you do is polish the middle, just like on the stones.

Just some observations, I don't have any idea if they are correct or not, but that is what I thought I observed. Sometimes making sense of what you see by yourself leads to incorrect conclusions.

Being unemployed at the moment has left me with a lot of honing practice time, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can before I am re-employed (hopefully soon). It has really paid off too.

THanks for all the sharing and input folks!

Glen, As soon as I have some money again, I will save my first 100$ just for a N12 or a S16. Top of my list brother!!

Mike

I have been letting the slurry dry on my stone and reuse it, which will be the seventh time I have reused the same slurry. I'm kind of surprised, but the scratch pattern is getting finer even under the loupe. I'm going to keep recycling the slurry for as long as i can, seems to be giving me good results.

Hopefully its not too late but Im in. I was going to do a couple more touch ups before re-honing, but I think I will skip that. My setup in use will be the DMT line-up, mostly likely starting from Fine or Extra fine. up to my CH12K w/slurry followed up by the CH12K dry. This will be my second honing ever, and on the first something was lacking with the CH12K w/slurry. I did a few passes on the CH12K dry as basically a lark and was pleasantly surprised. Since then I have just done a few dry passes on the CH12K when the edge has needed a boost.