Thread: Beginners, The 1k shave . . .

The idea was to use no pastes or sprays, but you got it done, and that counts for something!
Eric.

Well..I haven't read all the comments on this thread but I thought what the heck. I admit I have never gotten a good shave off an 8k ...I have tried but try as I might it never happened.

However, I had this old Union I need to work some chips out of so I tore into it. It had some pretty rough chips so I started out doing x's on my 325 diamond and soon went to my chosera 1K and the edge developed pretty quickly to my surprise. I went from there to my Neil miller cotton for 25 strokes and then to Tony Miller's new synthetic strop for 50 passes , oiled it and went inside.
Later in the evening I got out my Wool Fat soap and I shaved, thinking I would drop it after one stroke and pick up another razor I had already laied out,but,low and behold I did down ,cross and against the gain and was really surprised. It wasn't perfect but I am impressed with myself.

I started to think about it and realized I had never used a cotton that much after finishing the honeing...also I used more than the usual passes on the strop.
My next move is to go the 4K and see how that shaves and then the 8k using the cotton and strops the same way.

Maby I just learned about stropping a little more...maby the 8k shave is in my future after all...

something I left out...I tape everything!!

Stingray

See post number 92...
Well as expected the 4k shave went well and moved on to the 8k superstone and Tony miller canvas and on to the tony miler old number 2 for a finish...I am now celebrating my first 8k shave and I now know it is not only possible but fulfilling. ...Thanks guys

I have been reading a lot about honing and watching quite a few Glen and Lynn videos. One of the threads I was reading linked me to this thread. I had just received a Chosera 1k and had a Boker that needed the bevel set, and a Frederick Reynolds Columbian Exposition that had an edge that felt like a crosscut saw. The FR also had one chip that was about 3/4 of the bevel. I lapped the 1k with DMT D8C and got to work.

I started with the Boker, a 5/8 round point King Cutter. I did one round of 20 circles and 10 x strokes with a little bit of pressure. The second round was the same but with no pressure. I have never been able to treetop hair on my arm but it was shaving arm hair. The TPT felt like it could grab a little more, so I did another 10 circles and 10 x with just the weight of the razor. It felt pretty good so I set it aside and picked up the Reynolds a 6/8 square point.

It had a bit of a frown between the middle of the blade and the heel as well as a slight smile from the middle to the toe. I did some circles on just the heel to reshape it. It was a slight frown and I didn't have to remove much steel to get to where I could get it smiling like the front half. Next was a couple of sets of 20 circles and 10 x with quite a bit of pressure. That got most of the little saw teeth out, but about half of the largest chip was still there. Another set of 20 circles and 10 x with pressure and I had the big chip taken care of. There was still a few tiny saw teeth on the toe. 10 rolling x and those were gone. I then did a set of 20 circles and 10 x with no pressure and was able to shave arm hair. One more set with no pressure and it was grabbing my thumb pad all along the length. I was amazed at how easily I was able to get rid of all of the saw teeth on this razor with the Chosera.

That was all yesterday. This morning I took them both into the den and stropped 20 felt and 50 leather on both. After a hot towel and corn huskers, I lathered up with AOS Soap. The moment of truth, I picked up the Reynolds and shaved from my left sideburn to jaw. Fantastic, I can't beleive how good that felt. Yesterday I could have sawed a branch off a tree with it. I cleaned it off and set it aside.

Next up was the Boker. I started with the shave test from right sideburn to jaw line. It passed with flying colors and I finished up a 3 pass shave with it. A DFS it was too, no irritation either. I'm quite surprised at how well both of them shaved off the 1k. Today I have run them both over the Norton 4k/8k. I have discovered that if you get the edge right at the 1k level, it takes a lot less wok on the 4k/8k. Over the next couple days I will be using them off the 8k

I'm really glad I stumbled onto this thread.

Dragging this thread up from August because I just read on another forum a debate about whether or not one should shave off an 8k when other higher grit stones exist...bit comical IMHO when you take this thread into context.

Good stuff SRP!

Hey guys, just wanted to first-post my results of many firsts: first time honing, first time stropping, first time shaving with a straight!

I got an old Krusius Bros straight razor off ebay a couple months ago and have been slowly making new scales out of birdseye maple. I ran the blade in my brass tumber for a number of hours and it shined right up, but the edge was not even close to sharp. So i finally ordered a Naniwa 1K and proceeded to attempt to set the bevel on my scale-less blade (I just couldn't wait until i finished them!). After a long time on the stone, I finally saw a bevel appear, and after adequate "testing" resulting in large bald patches on my arms and legs, I decided it was about time to move to the strop. So on the "fuzzy" suede side of my home-made strop, I used some sort of strop paste sold in my local AOS store (unknown grit) and then to the smooth side maybe 50x.

I had about a 2-week beard by then which would have decimated any of my previous cartridge razors, so this was a great test to see how the straight would do. It cut the hair, but I could tell this was by no means as sharp as it should be for many of you more experienced straight shavers. I could cut hairs WTG and XTG, but could not go against. And it tugged at the hair like crazy. The end result was not a very close shave, but I think it was def. a lot faster than if I had to shave with the fusion and clean out the razor every single stroke.

My observations:
-I need to get something to flatten/refresh the hone (D8C?). There is quite a lot of metal deposit on the surface, most likely due to how much metal I had to remove to get a good bevel.
-the shave will get better with time/practice
-The bevel at the middle of the edge took forever to develop, possibly due to a slight frown. Wondering If I would need to straighten the edge on the side of the hone.
-There is significant wear on the sides of the spine. I might try some tape next time, might make a more consistent bevel.

Thanks so all the experienced guys especially in this thread for helping me realize that a 1K shave is def. possible, and any other advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be shaving off a 1K for a while since it's my only stone, so my results are definitely encouraging, with subsequent shaves yielding even better results.

how was the edge cutting armhair? was there any resistence?

The 1k stage is usually where i try to get everything i can get out of that hone it may be you just need to take a little further and your shaves will improve

alex

Originally Posted by rztmartini

Hey guys, just wanted to first-post my results of many firsts: first time honing, first time stropping, first time shaving with a straight! Congrats! it's a great feeling getting a razor to shave on your own!

So i finally ordered a Naniwa 1K and proceeded to attempt to set the bevel on my scale-less blade (I just couldn't wait until i finished them!). This may have affected your honing, were you using two hands to guide the razor? The handle also provides balance to the blade when honing/stropping, it is not solely for protecting the edge when not in use..

I could cut hairs WTG and XTG, but could not go against. And it tugged at the hair like crazy. The end result was not a very close shave.
If it is tugging at your WTG strokes, do not attempt ATG. Your first pass not taking hairs off easily is an indication that your bevel may not be at the point of shave ready from the Nani1K stage.

My observations:
-I need to get something to flatten/refresh the hone (D8C?). There is quite a lot of metal deposit on the surface, most likely due to how much metal I had to remove to get a good bevel. Did you lap the Naniwa before using it? If not, you definitely need to get it flat before attempting your bevel setting again. Did you use water with it? Water should clear away the majority of the metal deposits in the swarf.
-the shave will get better with time/practice. true story
-The bevel at the middle of the edge took forever to develop, possibly due to a slight frown. Wondering If I would need to straighten the edge on the side of the hone. No, do not do that. Honing a perfectly even edge your first time is enough of a chore, trying to fix a frowning edge takes more skill. Research methods for correcting frowns that don't involve "bread knifing".
-There is significant wear on the sides of the spine. I might try some tape next time, might make a more consistent bevel. do you have pictures of this blade somewhere on the forum? Krusius Bros make good shavers, but if it has been honed improperly for decades, you might want to chose another razor to start your bevel setting practice.

Thanks so all the experienced guys especially in this thread for helping me realize that a 1K shave is def. possible, and any other advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be shaving off a 1K for a while since it's my only stone, so my results are definitely encouraging, with subsequent shaves yielding even better results.

see my opinion in green

Originally Posted by justalex

how was the edge cutting armhair? was there any resistence?

The 1k stage is usually where i try to get everything i can get out of that hone it may be you just need to take a little further and your shaves will improve

alex

Well, it was cutting arm hairs way better than my pocket knife haha, I've never felt a shave-ready straight before. I could almost get it to cut a standing hair (tree-topping?) at the heel-end.

Originally Posted by TwistedOak

This may have affected your honing, were you using two hands to guide the razor? The handle also provides balance to the blade when honing/stropping, it is not solely for protecting the edge when not in use.. I was using a finger at the end to keep the edge consistent. I was noticing that I lack the technique/muscle-memory to keep the edge in contact with the stone. I even tried applying a lot of pressure at the middle to get a bevel at that location.

If it is tugging at your WTG strokes, do not attempt ATG. Your first pass not taking hairs off easily is an indication that your bevel may not be at the point of shave ready from the Nani1K stage. I tried ATG and it would not cut, so I didn't attempt that anymore.

Did you lap the Naniwa before using it? If not, you definitely need to get it flat before attempting your bevel setting again. Did you use water with it? Water should clear away the majority of the metal deposits in the swarf. I didn't lap it because I don't have anything to lap with, my goal for the entire project was to restore a blade and get a shave with the minimum amount of equipment (read $$$) necessary. I am ordering a DMT D8C now that I will use. I was using lots of water with the stone, soaking it first and pouring water on to keep a uniform water film on the entire surface. The swarf was clearing off with finger rubbing in the beginning, but after a while it started to accumulate no matter how much I rubbed it.

do you have pictures of this blade somewhere on the forum? Krusius Bros make good shavers, but if it has been honed improperly for decades, you might want to chose another razor to start your bevel setting practice. I haven't put pics of it yet, but instead of hijacking this thread, I will create another and link it here. Would taping it help very much? Or is that mainly used to protect a very nice blade...

Thanks for the comments everyone, keep 'em coming!

In my opinion, tape is primarily a cosmetic thing, it keeps the spine from getting wear. However, I could possibly see it being used to even out a severely uneven spine due to the slight amount of cushion it could provide.