Thread: yellow grits, blue grits, and other refreshment

With all the emphasis lately on how important low-grit honing is for a good cutting edge, I find myself second-guessing my usual techniques of refreshing a razor.

I have a Filarmonica that's never been honed by a master, only by me. It shaves well, but not great. The shave is close, even around the chin and mouth, and there's no tugging or anything; it just doesn't have that effortless whispering glide of a Crowley or Lynn-razor. My strategy has been to give it 15 passes on a coticule every other shave, in the hopes of not just maintaining the edge but sort of bumping up the sharpness little by little. But the edge seems pretty much to have plateaued; I'm not seeing any real improvement.

So with all the talk about low grits, I'm wondering if it would help to take it to the blue belgian for a good workout, then go back to the yellow for polishing.

At the other end of the spectrum, Scott (honedright) might say that what this blade needs is some expert stropping...

Perhaps the most useful phrase I have learned from the razor forums is "Use the least aggressive method first". If you apply that to your current situation then try the stropping advice from Scott first. Then if that does not improve the edge to your satisfaction the next stepwould be to use a little pressure for 15 laps on the yellow coticule followed by 15 lap with only the pressure necessary to keep the razor on the hone. Then strop and test shave.Repeat 2 times. If that does not do the trick then go to the dark side of the Belgian stone for 15 laps with pressure and 15 without then follow up with the yellow side. Etc.

Let us know how it goes,

Dylandog,

Randy has great advice, as usual.

Do you have a microscope? I have a $10 microscope that I got from Radioshack that is very helpful in this situation. The problem you're having is that you don't know exactly why the razor won't get any sharper. It could be that the steel is limiting you, or you could be trying to polish an edge that's still a little rough.

If you look at it under 60x magnification and it looks a little ragged, then you need to refine the edge on a coarser stone. Usually parts of the edge will be straight and parts look like they're craggy.

If the bevel still needs work, I usually give it 30 to 50 laps on the 4K Norton. Occasionally I'll go to my 1000-grit waterstone for 20 or 30 laps. But I sharpen a lot of eBay razors.

You could eventually get the edge straight and smooth with the higher grits, but by then you'd have quite a beard...

Josh

The things to remember about grits are that you need to add about a table spoon of baking soda to the water. Bring to a boil and slowly add the grits until the top of the grits are just barley above the water. Stir constantly while adding a stick of butter and about a half a cup of milk. Add about a cup of shredded cheese extra sharp. Sauté about a pound of shrimp in butter and garlic. Add about a teaspoon of bay oil and a bit of seafood seasoning to the grits. Then add the shrimp sauté into the grits. You may need to add just a little more milk to get the right consistency. Cook on the lowest setting if gas the lowest flame about 10 minutes. Top each serving with a slice of Provolone and enjoy.

pmays also has great advice. This is a really mouth-watering recipe.


As for the OP, randy is right - use the highest grit that does the job. The advice about low grits really applies to getting the bevel right, and there's no point doing this unless you know your bevel is off.

The best way I've found to do this is to take a magic marker and blacken the bevel on both sides. Take your finest dry hone (I use a barber's hone) and lightly stroke the razor a few times. Then put it under the microscope and see how the marker is coming off. you should see the marker coming off evenly all the way down the bevel - if you see any black areas near the fin then your bevel is off, and it's probably worth taking it back to 4k or so. If you see that it's only coming off near the top of the bevel then it's definitely worth going back to 4k.

What I've found is that any time I've got a razor that just isn't developing a proper edge, this test quickly tells me what my problem is, and it's usually some part of the razor with a lousy bevel.

Originally Posted by mparker762

The best way I've found to do this is to take a magic marker and blacken the bevel on both sides.

But on a full-hollow 5/8 like mine, the bevel is really thin.
The marker would cover part of the non-bevel blade as well. Would your technique still work then?

Sure, you'll just end up with some magic marker on the belly (which comes off with oil or lather). What you're interested in is whether the hone scrapes off the magic marker all the way to the fin - if it doesn't take it off at the upper part of the bevel (or the belly) then that's fine.

Code:

   |    |
   |    |
   ||   |||||||||    (bad - hone isn't affecting the fin yet)
   |    |
   |    |
   |  |||||||||||    (ok - hone is touching the fin, but the bevel is a bit shallow) 
   |    |
   |    |
   |    |||||||||     (best - hone is touching the entire bevel including the fin)
   |    |
   |    |
   | |  |||||||||     (meh - there's some flavor of slight pit in the bevel, but
   |    |                           it's not at the fin so it's not a problem yet)
   |    |

Wow, great advice all round, esp. regarding the provolone.

Josh, the microscope's a good idea and maybe I'll get one at some point. My wife already thinks I'm a razordork, however, and she's going to tease me no end when she catches me peering at these things through a microscope.

That is a great tip to know, mparker, and a solid piece of wisdom from Randy as usual.

I followed Randy's advice this morning before I saw any of the rest of your posts. I went minimal first and just stropped very carefully. I got a great shave - as far as closeness maybe the best I've ever gotten. I may just leave this razor be - it does the job. Though the magic marker trick will take care of any similar doubts that arise with this or other razors.

Actually I'm beginning to wonder about something. This Filly (an 8/8) is the only hollow grind I use. It's a good deal noisier than my other razors, and you feel it doing its work. I'm not saying you have to use pressure – you don't – it's just that there's feedback. Like stick and manual steering vs. automatic and power steering. I think maybe I've been reading this feedback as insufficient sharpness, esp. next to the smooth quiet strokes of my quarter hollows and wedges. Does this make sense?

I also notice I have no razor burn this morning at all; sometimes when I do a superclose ATG shave with my 1/4-hollows, I get minor razor burn. Here's my (very tentative) theory. Wedge grinds are more forgiving in terms of technique; they'll mow down the hairs. But because the technique can therefore afford to be a little sloppy, the result can be supersmooth skin with patches of razor burn. Hollow grinds give a lot of feedback, and in reacting to the road, so to speak, force you to adjust your technique with greater finesse.

Is this all just B.S.?

Looks like I've hijacked my own thread.

Originally Posted by dylandog

Actually I'm beginning to wonder about something. This Filly (an 8/8) is the only hollow grind I use. It's a good deal noisier than my other razors, and you feel it doing its work. I'm not saying you have to use pressure – you don't – it's just that there's feedback. Like stick and manual steering vs. automatic and power steering. I think maybe I've been reading this feedback as insufficient sharpness, esp. next to the smooth quiet strokes of my quarter hollows and wedges. Does this make sense?

I think your right on the money!