Thread: Question regarding C-MON Special Microtome

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Well just take your time, if you have an eye loupe or a microscope that is very handy in gauging progress. In the beginning a magic marker, sharpie, to blacken the edge so that you can see, by what color is removed, if your stroke is effective. Adjust the stroke as necessary until it is effective, then you no longer need the marker.

Thanks for all of your great advice regarding this Jimmy. I have probably honed my Dovo about 8 times, attempting to make it better at each stage. I have it shaving really well now where it appears to cut hair and not skin. It is very forgiving of my rookie mistakes where I think there will be highlights in red, but it does not cut the skin readily. However the shaves that I have been getting are the first 98% + BBS shaves that I've gotten with a straight. I finished this one on an Apache Strata stone. I have heard this description of "cuts hair, not skin" wrt Coticules, but never with the Strata. At any rate, I want to enjoy the Dovo for a while before I take it back to the stones, and I have two $10.00 Gold Dollars coming to serve as my practice razors.

I currently have three to four finishing options. A Naniwa 12K SS, a Black Surgical Ark and the Apache Strata. Not sure what I will ultimately end up liking the best, but right know the Strata has the nod.

Originally Posted by McVeyMac

Thanks for all of your great advice regarding this Jimmy. I have probably honed my Dovo about 8 times, attempting to make it better at each stage. I have it shaving really well now where it appears to cut hair and not skin. It is very forgiving of my rookie mistakes where I think there will be highlights in red, but it does not cut the skin readily. However the shaves that I have been getting are the first 98% + BBS shaves that I've gotten with a straight. I finished this one on an Apache Strata stone. I have heard this description of "cuts hair, not skin" wrt Coticules, bet never with the Strata. At any rate, I want to enjoy the Dovo for a while before I take it back to the stones, and I have two $10.00 Gold Dollars coming to serve as my practice razors.

I currently have three to four finishing options. A Naniwa 12K SS, a Black Surgical Ark and the Apache Strata. Not sure what I will ultimately end up liking the best, but right know the Strata has the nod.

I would suggest you practice on the GDs before attempting the C-Mon. Since I'm assuming the honing you've been doing on the Dovo has been touching up, rather than bringing it to shave ready from scratch ? (no pun)

Get your hand in at setting bevels, sharpening and finishing those two cheap ones and by the time you've got that down, the C-Mon will be easier, you'll know where you are going and will have learned to avoid pitfalls with the two lesser razors.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I would suggest you practice on the GDs before attempting the C-Mon. Since I'm assuming the honing you've been doing on the Dovo has been touching up, rather than bringing it to shave ready from scratch ? (no pun)

Get your hand in at setting bevels, sharpening and finishing those two cheap ones and by the time you've got that down, the C-Mon will be easier, you'll know where you are going and will have learned to avoid pitfalls with the two lesser razors.

Excellent advice. I did take the Dovo to the 1K level on several occasions (about 4), and I soon discovered a problem with the stabilizer on it on one side. On one side the stabilizer protruded further than the other, resulting in raising the razor on each stroke that came in contact with it. I ground down the stabilizer to where it no longer interfered, then re set the bevel. This is the bevel that I am currently shaving off of. But I need more experience of doing this before going to the C-MON for sure. The GDs are coming with a factory edge, it is not one that was honed shave ready. So, I will be starting from ground zero so to speak.

Thank you again for your excellent help.

My pleasure, let us know how it works out when all is said and done.

About the bevel on the back side of a microtome.

A microtome with a bevel on the backside is used to set a cutting height for controlled slide preparation.
With a flat backed (chisel) microtome you slice from the top layer to the bottom layer eye balling your thickness.
With a bevel backed (precision) microtome you slice from the bottom layer to the top layer getting layers that are as thick as the bottom bevel rise from the flat bottom.

Originally Posted by criswilson10

About the bevel on the back side of a microtome.

A microtome with a bevel on the backside is used to set a cutting height for controlled slide preparation.
With a flat backed (chisel) microtome you slice from the top layer to the bottom layer eye balling your thickness.
With a bevel backed (precision) microtome you slice from the bottom layer to the top layer getting layers that are as thick as the bottom bevel rise from the flat bottom.

That makes sense. Thank you for this valuable historic information. Regarding slide making for histopathology analysis, I will continue to use the rotary microtome (at least the technicians will) rather than this knife. All I really care about is the ability to shave with it. But clearly I appreciate the accurate back story on this tool as I was clearly confused as to why there were chisel ground and double beveled knives of apparently the same basic hollow/wedge ground configurations. The story I got for this item was that it was essentially NOS, but it had been displayed over the past decades. There are a few dings in the bevel that were probably obtained through handling, but I could not understand why JimmyHAD's example was chisel ground and this one had the double bevel. It is completely plausible that makers of microtome knives made them in both configurations, and it is also plausible that the subject knife was in fact NOS with a factory double bevel. This will certainly add to the back story of this unique item.