Originally Posted by
mjhammer
Honing report #3:
Marathon honing session on the 5/8 Spike today. It took literally 3 hours for me to get it right. I seemed to have one heck of a time getting the bevel set. 2 layers of tape on it this time seemed to give about the same results as 1, but I didn't give up.
It was passing the TNT after the 1k, but then after the norton 4k it didn't feel quite right, almost like I had dulled it somehow. I worked it about an hour on the 4k until the TNT felt right again. I was switching tape between each stone. I finally got it so it was popping hair pretty well before I went to the 8k.
I was checking scratch patterns closely so I could tell if the Cnat was dulling it, but for the experience I checked it really closely all during the 4/8k process also. It had a pretty good scratch pattern after the 8k that I'm sure I could have shaved off.
I slurried up the Cnat with the edge of my Cnat slurry stone to a nice milky covering and did 20 circles and 25 X's. Re-wet the stone and repeated. I did this 5 times until the milk was completely gone. Then I did 2 sets on clear water. The razor was pushing the water evenly and a mag inspection showed it was changing the scratch pattern.
I lapped it 100 times on felt and 300 times on leather. I did the HHT and it popped it easily. I ran it thru my thick arm hair about 1/4" above the skin and it came away covered with hair with no effort.
So, now I'm waiting for the face to recover a little and get a good stubble built up before I attempt to shave with it, probably tomorrow.
This is the first with some really good milky slurry on it, and to be honest, I'm not sure it was needed. I have the feeling my stone might do better just on clear water. But it remains to be seen (or tested). The fact that I have very little idea what the hell i'm doing might play a part in things, but I'm learning as I go.
Anyway, the scratch pattern did shift to a higher angle (my stone is 2" wide so requires a greater toe forward angle during the X's, which shifts the scratch pattern to a greater angle than the 4/8 leaves), but it still was a scratch pattern. There was no 'mirror' edge, just a different scratch angle. But, it did completely remove the 8k pattern with it's own pattern, whatever that means.
It seems sharp, but as they say, the only real test is the shave test.
I'll report on the shave when I do it!!
Interesting that my Cnat just changed the pattern, and didn't really 'polish' like I kinda expected. Is that what others experience? or should it have removed the old scratches and left a higher 'mirror' finish? Opinions please??
Happy Shaving!!
M