Thread: thiers issard ebony

Honestly dejay, I would suggest that you have it honed by a pro or a fellow member if one is nearby. That way you will have a shave ready reference point for future comparison.

Later, when you feel that the edge is beginning to lose a little, you can touch it up with that 12K SS. Now if you really want to dive into honing, the bevel on a factory edge is usually sound so you can start with the touch up. I'd try 10 or 15 X strokes on plain water with little or no pressure - just the weight of the razor - then strop carefully & shave test. If it seems to pull/shaves poorly, you can try the touch up again.. if it's still not up to snuff the bevel needs to be reset and, once again, you really should send it out. I know that you want to jump right in with both feet, we all do but trust me, you'll be better served by sneaking up on the shave. Baby steps!

BTW, if you do send it out to be honed, shave with it the first time without stropping. Then strop for the second shave. That way you will know if your stropping technique is good (it's easy to ruin a good edge while stropping if your technique is way off.)


rs,
Tack

I have a couple of TI's, and while I had them honed before they were shipped to me, I'm told that of many razor companies, TI comes the closest to selling factory edges that are the closest to shave ready.

If I were you, I might try a shave first and see how it is.

If it's not, I would ship it out to have honed by a pro unless you are confident in your honing skills. A nice TI is not a blade I would use to learn on.

good idea! i have a razor i can learn on, i have a question. i need to put a bevel, and i only have a 400 stone, what would the method be if i set my bevel on that then do the big jump to the 4000? how many strokes with pressure or without should i do extra because of that huge jump

Originally Posted by deejaykamoe

good idea! i have a razor i can learn on, i have a question. i need to put a bevel, and i only have a 400 stone, what would the method be if i set my bevel on that then do the big jump to the 4000? how many strokes with pressure or without should i do extra because of that huge jump

You're asking the wrong guy that...even though I've got just over a dozen nice razors, I haven't started honing, and haven't decided if I even will. Like anything worth while, it takes a lot of practice and patience to learn.

I've got the linen side of another strop pasted with DOVO white / grey paste, and a CroX balsa board. So far, that's about as far as I'll go with my own blades.

Tomorrow, heading to a class with a honemeister to learn how to use the coticule I have in order to take refreshing my blades to the next step. With the amount of razors I have, all professionally honed, and learning to refresh, it should be quite some time before I have to send one out for honing.

The investment for stones, the time to get proficient at honing, may not be worth it to me, when I can keep my blades refreshed, and periodically send one out for, what I know will be, a professional honing.

As the saying goes, whatever works...

If a razor is near shave ready, or just needs an edge in good shape to be reset, I would not go near a 400 grit stone. The 400 grit stone is for blade restoration (removing large chips, uneven wear from bad honing) where a lot of steel needs to be removed. To avoid unnecessarily creating difficult to remove deep scratches in the steel, a 1K stone is what is used for most edge resetting rather than a 400 grit before progressing to the higher grits. Even the 4K stone can work for edge setting, if the edge is in relatively good shape. A lot of damage can be done with a 400 grit stone.

The 8K stone or higher grit is used for finishing after edge setting or for touching up previously shave ready edges. Pasted strops are inexpensive and also work for touching up razors. Jumping from 400 grit directly to 4K is a big jump and could be compared to jumping from a wood rasp directly to medium to fine sandpaper on a board to be used for making furniture. You will be sanding ("honing") for a very long time to remove rasp scratches if you skip 1st using course sandpaper before using medium and fine sandpaper after rasping.

HTH

+1 on what sheajohnw said. Put away the 400, the 12K, and the balsa strop and learn to use the 4k/8K first if you must hone. If it's not right coming off the 8K, that 12K SS won't help it.

Don't be too eager to take a blade to the stones. Remember that if you start with a shave ready razor you can keep the edge going forever with just light touch ups and proper stropping and never have to hone at all. Reread phrank's post above - the way he's set up he may never need to hone. Now.. want to hone is another thing entirely.

Beyond setting the factory edge in the first place, honing is for resurrecting a edge that has been physically damaged or let go too long between touch ups . Even in those cases, you should do as little as is needed; this game is a real case of less is more.


rs,
Tack

Originally Posted by deejaykamoe

im trying to understand the pyramid method, it shows as follows so i go back and forth from the 4000 to the 8000 for all the steps like 200 strokes in total? sorry its written a little vaguely

I am no expert on honing but what you just described sounds like it is for a complete bevel reset which you don't need right now if the razor is shaving. I would not touch that new TI with hones until you decide if you are going to send it back because of the uneven honing at the heel, any TI warranty is voided if you do it yourself IIRC. Secondly I would not recommend to you to practice honing on a brand new razor with no experience honing.

Bob

That razor doesn't look quite right to me. I wonder if it was sold to someone and they honed it and caused that issue. TI's may not be the best finished razors new but I've never seen an edge like that from the factory. Maybe one of our honemeisters will give an opinion. You might just want to send it back.

I am with the the others here that recommend you send it back because of what appears to be wonky honing from the factory. It is supposedly brand new and should be free of any possible defects. At least contact the seller and see what they say.

Bob

I have purchased seven new Thiers Issard this year. Several from Fendrihan, the balance from Invisible Edge in the UK. What the OP has is typical TI. It will probably be shave ready. Five of my seven were. He should shave with it first. It if is not satisfactory try a linen strop with a paste like Thiers a issard white. Fendrihan sells it and it works very well. If he must hone it one layer of tape will work well. On mine I worked up 2, 4, 8, 16K on Shaptons. The C135 hones well and will hold the edge. His TI will be a superb performer but with TI buy for the overall performance and features, not the detail in the workmanship. He could send it back but the replacement will probably have similar issues.