Thread: Trouble honing ended with a simple solution.

So I pickup a hollow ground 17/16 el&co off the bay and it arrived with the edge in pretty good shape.
I started with the 4k norton, rolling x stroked until it felt right, then went into a 4/8 pyramid.
After the pyramid I could tell it wasn't sharp enough... So I put it down and went to bed.
Next day I pull out the 40X loupe and inspect the edge. It looked like a serrated edge.
Here is where I decide to start fresh, 2 layers of tape (its a wide blade with a narrow spine).. After about 20 laps I check it out under mag, the same serrated edge? After about 20 more laps It looks the same, but feels set.
I move to the 4k to hopefully smooth it out, and it is doing the same microchipping, just won't smooth out.

The solution, use the unicot method on my coti, problem is its only 1x5.
So I make heavy coti slurry on top of my 8k, after about 80 strokes diluting about every 20 strokes, fresh tape then 10 strokes on a clean wet 8k, then 20 on the baby coti. The razor shaved beautifully and edge looks excellent under magnification. Today I learned that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Anyone else have a razor act like this?

Thanks,
Eric

not so far...but congrats on working that solution out so fast! enjoy your fine looking razor!!! great job sir!

Interesting. So you used coticule slurry on an 8k synthetic? Never thought to try that...I've always been a "keep your slurry to it's intended stone" guy...never thought to try mixing it up like that...

Hey, the end justifies the means as they say, right?

I'm really not a slurry fan at all because of the markings it leaves (sometimes).
I'd like to conclude the razor is soft, thus taking the edge basically from a bevel with not much effort, OTOH I thought microchipping was caused by hard steel. Man I wish I had a big coti!

Regardless it feels good to have at least one trick in my bag!

Eric.

Yes, chippiness happens on old Sheffields for whatever reason, be it corrosion or a manufacturing fault. Sometimes you have to remove a bunch of steel off the edge to get to good metal, sometimes it just won't improve & you have to accept it for what it is.
If the steel is inherently faulty it will simply continue to chip but if you get to good steel then you get the legendary Sheffield shave.