Thread: The C-Nat-athon

I don't know if it's my pressure of the tape but the water displacement is not even along the blade so I didn't know if it was the tape or not

Originally Posted by Tylerbrycen

I don't know if it's my pressure of the tape but the water displacement is not even along the blade so I didn't know if it was the tape or not

I am far from being a honemeister but when that wave is not even, the part that isn't "pushing" slurry or water is not getting honed. The blade may be warped or you may need to use an X stroke to hit all of the blade evenly, or you may need to apply pressure with your finger tip at that point to get the blade to lay flat on that part of the stone. Just my .02 cents. I hope someone with more experience will chime in.

If the blade has a smile, it won't be, if the blade has a warp or twist it won't be, if the tape is uneven, it won't be. I've tried the tape, and prefer without it, from beginning to end. On my special razors where spine wear is an issue for me, I use tape. If it's an old clunker that I just want to shave with, I don't. I have more clunkers than nice ones so I'm more used to not taping.

YMMV, but it's always opinion. As Glen has said: If I just finished restoring this razor, why would I want to hone it without tape and mess up a good finish? If you are not worried about it, do without. If it is an unwanted variable, do without.

Some swear by it and refuse to do a razor without it. Personal opinion has to prevail.

Mike

Originally Posted by Tylerbrycen

I don't know if it's my pressure of the tape but the water displacement is not even along the blade so I didn't know if it was the tape or not

You can try doing a rolling X stroke to even out where the edge is missing. Or you can put your finger where it is missing (very very little pressure) so the edge makes contact known as "pushing an edge". The rolling X stroke is your best bet as you're more likely to have even honing until you can perfect pushing an edge, so I would try that first.

Originally Posted by mjhammer

What do you think about using the 8k to put some slurry on it?

As hard as these rocks are, I'd be inclined to think that you'd wind up with 8k mud on top of your c-nat instead of raising a c-nat slurry. If you want slurry, just use the slurry stone but use one of the sharp edges instead of laying it flat on the stone. My slurry stone is worthless when laid flat on the stone. Turn it up on the edge and it'll slurry quite well.

I took the Gong that I finished on a light slurry and wasn't too pleased with back to the stone tonight, brought up a light slurry for 20 or so laps and finished on water. I felt a marked improvement in the shave. I will need to experiment a little more with slurry finishes as one attempt with slurry isn't much to go on.

The other factor I notice with these stones is that the shaves become more comfortable once you're a few shaves in as opposed to fresh off the stone, or perhaps more accurate to say I notice more of a jump in comfort after a few shaves off the Chinese hone than I see in my other stones. Proper use of a light slurry might be something I could use to remedy that.

Originally Posted by Proinsias

I took the Gong that I finished on a light slurry and wasn't too pleased with back to the stone tonight, brought up a light slurry for 20 or so laps and finished on water. I felt a marked improvement in the shave. I will need to experiment a little more with slurry finishes as one attempt with slurry isn't much to go on.

The other factor I notice with these stones is that the shaves become more comfortable once you're a few shaves in as opposed to fresh off the stone, or perhaps more accurate to say I notice more of a jump in comfort after a few shaves off the Chinese hone than I see in my other stones. Proper use of a light slurry might be something I could use to remedy that.

Are you stropping or shaving straight off of the stone... Believe it or not... for me... stropping on leather 50 or 100 or 200 strokes will smooth out the harshness immensely. It won't suddenly make it a coticule finish, but it will take it a long way. I have noticed the same thing with some razors starting harsh and really coming into their own after a few shaves. I believe stropping is what "brings them in". I also strop on webbing to increase keeness and strop on leather to increase smoothness. I don't make a habit of shaving straight from a stone. I also find that a finish that may be so-so off of a stone will really bump up in keeness with a bit of stropping.

Pinklather taught me that you can't strop too much.

How I raise a slurry to get the best edge:

I have had this stone for quite a while now and have tried about every way to raise a slurry and this method gives me a much better edge than others I have tried.

Since these are hard and slippery stones, the natural instinct is to use a lot of pressure to raise the slurry quicker but the more pressure you exert to raise the slurry the larger the particles will be and can scratch up your stone.

I take 6-1K sandpaper, in this instance I am using the 6K side of a nail file out of convenience. I score the slurry stone so that it has fine scratches all over the side that will meet the stone in use. I use light pressure (the lighter the finer the particles) and slowly polish those scored scratches off the slurry stone. You can also score the surface of the stone if you like a thick slurry or you can dry the slurry stone and re-score the surface. This is just what I do with my stone and thought it may help others and remember these are natural stones so yours may vary but this method gives me the best results. You can see in the picture that the scratches on the slurry stone have polished out, depending on how much slurry you want you can rescore and repeat the process until the desired thickness is achieved and it keeps the stones surface scratch free and polished. Oh and remember to wipe off the slurry stone after scoring it so there is no unwanted particles.

I just got done honing a beautiful little 4/8 salamandar with some pretty impressive results. I got hair popping clean 1/4" off my arm (or leg as the case may be) and I took it to the shave den and gave it 100 on the felt and 200 + on the leather (lost count somewhere around 180 so I just kept going for a while).

It has a friggin edge on it alright. I had to really work it on the 1k and 4k to get rid of a double bevel and some micro chips on the edge, but it all came out good.

I had to do a lot of circles and X's on the 8k to get it to feel just right, but I was pleased with it and could have shaved with it off the 8k.

So, I took it to my newly lapped/chamfered C12k and tried to work up a slurry. Barely got sh*t from my slurry stone. I hadn't read the other posts here before I tried, so never tried the edge. I'll do that next time. I did get a little milk on it after about 10 minutes of trying to work some up. Had to keep wetting it as the slurry stone would just stick to it.

I finally gave that up and started to do X's. I did 8 sets of 25 X's, and between each set I would have to rewet and then did 20 lite circles. After every set, I examined the edge with my lighted loupe (30X) and it showed continuous improvement in scratch pattern. It was starting to mirror up pretty nicely, the best I've ever seen yet from one of my hone jobs.

Keep in mind I've never successfully gotten a good edge off this thing yet, I've been shaving off the 8k for a couple of weeks. I tried to keep the pressure really light and consistent, and I think I did a pretty good job. After @ 200 X's and a final HHT (which popped that sucker before I even knew what happened) I took it to the felt and leather. 100 felt 200 leather and I tested the edge again. Hair literally fell to the floor in bunches. I was kind of shocked at the ease with which it caught hair and popped them off my leg.

So, in a couple of hours will be the real test. All indications are it will be the sharpest razor I ever honed. And I take back what I said about mine being closer to 8k than 12k. Using the other side of the stone that had never been lapped before, it was like silk and the razor just glided across it. I really could not feel any grit or grab to it. It just pushed the water off like it was ice.

I'm pretty pumped to give it a shot!! I'll update when I can!

M

I'm stropping on latigo before the shave but even with that it seems to take a few shaves to settle in.

I'll give roughing the stone up a little a shot, sounds like it will give me more control over the slurry.