Thread: Greetings from the Netherlands

Hello fellow enthusiasts!

Although I am new to all of you, not all of you are new to me. I started straight shaving in September after having mastered the basic techniques with a shavette and Merkur blades. Most every question (and there were quite a few) that popped into my mind has already been answered on this forum, but my thirst for answers has not yet been sated, hence I finally registered.

I am a 22-year-old master student Life Science & Technology (biotechnology/biochemistry) at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. I have a habit of making expensive hobbies out of generally regarded as ordinary day-to-day activities, such as listening to music and shaving. Furthermore, I'm an underpaid freelance webdeveloper (so being underpaid is a direct result of my lacking negotiating skills) and fix computer and telephone problems for my girlfriend's parents. And I write lenghty questions in the bookish sort of English which used to annoy my least favourite English teacher. Then again, he was rather unfit for teaching. The actual question is found near the bottom.

Straight shaving
When a friend of mine mentioned he had gotten a straight shaving set for his birthday, I knew I had to have one too. Finding the expenses a bit steep, I left the thought to simmer in my head for several years, until the cheap shavette option changed my mind. I still sometimes use it, to compare sharpness and shaving results of Merkur and Feather blades to my self-honed straight razors.

By now, I own two straight razors, a shabby razor that I use for testing hones for irregularities and a shiny razor shaped object. Those razors are a very nice 7/8 extra hollow ground The Crown & Sword Razor and a 5/8 magnetic Birko with a slight warp.

I wonder if this image is going to be the size I want it to be:


When I started out, I enthusiastically bode everyone to feel my silky smooth cheeks, yet I was unable to convince anyone to buy a straight razor. However, my girlfriend now shaves her legs with a cheap DE and loves the results.

Hones
I started out with a 4x10 cm coticule that the seller's website (Manandshaving.nl | scheren, scheerproducten, huidverzorging mannen, which is otherwise very helpful and nice) portrayed as all I would need, along with a canvas/leather strop, to hone razors.
No slurry stone and an inadequate instruction on honing resulted in predictably lousy results, it was only then that I started researching honing techniques. It took me over a week to get a passable edge on my razor and I never succeeded in getting an edge similar to any I saw in instruction videos.

HAD kicked in softly and I now have a slurry stone to match the coticule, a 5x10 cm Chinese 12K and a 6x20 cm BBW, as well as a paddle strop with green Dovo and red Puma paste and a nice self-made balsa paddle strop with CrOx and FerrOx.

Honing, this is the difficult part
Strikingly, the BBW gives me the best and fastest results, I cannot seem to match that with the coticule. I really like my BBW and want to learn how to use it properly. My edges are agreeable, but lack slightly in sharpness.

Robbin, who is also a member at SRP under a nickname unknown to me, has helped me greatly by sending one of his straights. I shaved with it and found it had that little extra sharpness that keeps eluding me. Next, I dulled it, sharpened it on my BBW as inspired by Bart's "Honing on the BBW" video and shaved once more prior to returning it to Robbin. Although I was quite pleased, his heavy beard experienced some tugging. He said he would take it back to his 8000 grit Naniwa SS and see if that would solve it. So far, he has not yet had the time to do so, but I will post his findings when he does.

Edge testing
I have found the HHT to be very reliable with my own as well as my girlfriend's hair and can start growing back my arm hair now that I mastered the TPT enough to tell if an edge will shave arm hair and when it gets close to shave-readiness, as well as the difference before and after stropping. Despite the HHT controversy, I will adopt Bart's HHT rating system here.

Robbin's edge popped hairs right upon touching with very little tug (HHT 4-5, I never get 5, even with Feather blades), my best try was pretty close to that with a little extra tug on the hair (HHT 4). Off the hone, my edges vary between HHT 1 and 2-3, while instruction videos show a solid HHT 3. Sometimes I get lucky with a small part of my warped edge and get that HHT 3, but the other parts of the edge stay behind. I could not tell how the good part of the edge became that good, whether it better contacted the hone or endured less pressure or something else entirely.

My honing technique
Honing is done with slowly diluting the slurry as soon as the razor will shave arm hair, although I found I could reach a near-shaveready edge on rather thick slurry. I should note that I use the C12K as a slurry stone, lacking a dedicated BBW slurry stone. On the HHT 1 level I switch to very dilute slurry, almost clear water, but find myself unable to improve the edge. Finishing on very dilute slurry on my BBW, water on my coticule or C12K does not seem to improve my edges, as far as I can tell.

The haziness of the bevel was a bit confusing on my last try. The part where the bevel was widest (nearly 2 mm) on my warped blade stayed hazy, while other parts became quite shiny. My logic tells me a shiny bevel indicates a more even edge, since the scratches on the bevel are also found on the edge. The TPT confirms that: I feel fine teeth with hazy bevels that turn intovery fine teeth on shiny bevels. Stropping removes the latter very fine teeth, but cannot compensate for the hazy bevel's fine teeth.

I solved the edge's unevenness by making wider X-strokes. At first I kept as much as possible of the razor on the hone, but I changed to wider strokes that ended with only the toe of the razor on the stone. While this solved the unevenness, it also resulted in a slightly duller edge.

The question
What would you advise me to focus on when improving my edges? In my unexperienced opinion, I do not dilute too quickly and I try to keep an even touch. I have great difficulty applying very light pressure and when I do, I slip up at times, keeping the razor at an angle which makes it touch the hone's (chamfered) edge. I read that can set me back a number of strokes, but I don't know how many.


Thank you very much for digesting the rather long text and for all the advice that you can give me!


Regards,

Laurens

Good evening Laurens, and welcome to Straight Razor Place!
Good to have you with us. I enjoyed reading your story.
I am unable to provide much of an answer to your questions though, save the one major one;
I'd advise you to focus on building your motoric skills, so that the honing becomes natural to you.
Don't forget the tricks of the trade; a magic marker is a cheap and efficient tool to visually check your honing strokes.
About honing progression: it is unclear to me if you one-stone hone your razor, or if you use the bbw first, then the coticule?
One thing you said: "Finishing on very dilute slurry on my BBW, water on my coticule or C12K does not seem to improve my edges". Usually when this is the case, something is amiss. It could be that the bevel is not properly set, the razor does not touch the hone, or even several other culprits. The other essential honing tool, a hand held microscope, can reveal more about this issue. Some use just a jewler's loupe, but a microscope is cheap and easier to see with, imho.

Anyways, these pointers shall fuel your further explorations for now I hope, and help you on the first steps to mastering the sharpness issue. It is not really such a small task, teaching yourself to hone, on natural stones that noone knows, alone from the internet and even without a tutor. Do be kind to yourself and allow for the needed time before you allow frustration to start tugging at ya

Enough for now, glad to have you with us. Do let us know how it goes.

PS! These are honing questions, they would get far more visibility in the honing thread. Don't be afraid to post there.

Thank you str8fencer for your quick reply!

Sorry about the vagueness. I am eager to master one stone honing with my BBW, but since I could not get the sharpness I am after, I tried finishing on the coticule and C12K. I am very patient, so don't worry about the frustration

I've been looking at microscopes for a while. When I just started out, I took my razor to the university and made several nice pictures, I could give that another try soon. Also, I will order a juweler's loupe straight away, and postpone buying a microscope until I can afford one that meets the standards I got used to at my university. I can make out a very thin line of shininess at the edge with the naked eye, magnification will definitely help me find out just how shiny it is.

I tried using a marker several times and have always found that the bevel makes good contact with the hone. Even so, I cannot tell how my edge is developing.


Do you suppose I should cut the honing question out of this post and move it to the honing thread?

Hehe

You know, natural stones are harder to learn to use, because they differ - one is not the same as another. One is hard, another soft, one is fast, another slow, and so forth. One-stone honing is a fairly advanced technique, I suppose. You are not making it very easy for yourself, but that was sort of obvious in your first post as well. Patience will serve you well

For a microscope, I use something like this: hand held cheap simple microscope. I got mine from a local store, but it's basically the same. It's just a quick-to-use tool to help determine what is going on at the edge. Taking some high end pics is helpful too, but won't allow you to see, from stroke to stroke, what is happening.
Disclaimer: I do not endorse this microscope, I have no idea about its quality. It was simply the first that came up on my ebay search and I used it as an example of the general type.

Essentially, if the bevel makes good contact, and your strokes are even, all you *should* need is more time on the hone. Mind tho, that your BBW might not be the best finisher around, so you might not get the greatest polish. It is more common to use a coti for one-stone honing, I think, but I myself do not go down that path so take this with a grain of salt.

Asking questions as detailed and specific as these in the honing forum makes perfect sense, the rockhounds hang there a lot and knowledgeable people will see your post quickly.

Best of luck!

I read about the differences between natural stones, although someone mentioned that BBWs are quite similar. You're right that I'm making it a tad hard on myself, but I think mastering my BBW will give me the greatest satisfaction.

Are you not worried to mess up the edge when it touches the microscope? It seems easy enough to slip up! Thanks though, I will look into it.

I spent quite a bit of time on the very dilute slurry last time, I intend to raise a bit more slurry on the next try. First have a shave tomorrow and see how I've done.


I copied the question to the honing topic: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...sharpness.html

Laurens, always nice to welcome a DD (Dutch Dude) to this forum.

On another topic: I'm in search for a web developer: send me a private message and maybe you can help me out with 1site that needs to be updated and 1 or 2 that needs to be developed from scratch.

Groeten,
Mark

Thank you, Mark! I'm always on the lookout for people from The Hague that can teach me a few tricks in person.

I sent you a PM about the websites.

P.S. Like the signature