Thread: Another New Henckels

I generally use a diminishing pressure approach no matter what honing style. This applies to a new razor or an Ebay/antique store razor. Not to a razor that was previously shaving sharp and simply needs refreshing.

Like Randy, I don't use pressure on refreshes, only for more major honing work.

My lovely and totally cool wife gave my the new production 6/8 Henckels Friodur tonight. Photo is here, for those who need to see it.

It seemed a bit harder than the Crowley Friodurs, more in line with the old henckels friodurs but a bit harder still. It took some serious time on the 4k to get a clean bevel (you can probably still see traces of the magic marker on the blade in the photo), and probably twice as many laps on the 8k as I've ever needed on any friodur. It came off the 8k shaving sharp, but because it was so hard I decided to go to the 8k shapton for 20 laps or so (8k shapton is finer than the 8k norton) before going to the 11k boron carbide persimmon paddle. Because it was so hard I decided to take it all the way to the chromium oxide paddle, I'm hopeful that it will hold up as well as the TI Pierre-forged LE.

Originally Posted by mparker762

My lovely and totally cool wife gave my the new production 6/8 Henckels Friodur tonight.
It seemed a bit harder than the Crowley Friodurs, more in line with the old henckels friodurs but a bit harder still. Because it was so hard I decided to take it all the way to the chromium oxide paddle, I'm hopeful that it will hold up as well as the TI Pierre-forged LE.

Sounds like they haven't forgotten how to make these, looking forward to the post-shave report.

I bought one of these in the eighties. I like the box, mine came with a horrible grey plastic box that was way to big, would fit one of Josh's 9/8 razors comfortably.

Shave report is in the SOTD forum. But I will say that the evident hardness during the hone was verified during the shave, this blade is extremely hard and maintained a hair-popping edge all the way through the shave. Most of my blades won't do that with a .5 micron edge, it's just too delicate. The only other blades I own that are in the ballpark are my Wacker Stippleback (b*tch to hone, and a singing blade so it's tricky to shave with) and my TI Pierre-forged LE (easy to hone, and a half hollow so it's stiff and easy to shave with).

I'll have to shave with it some more to get a better idea of how it fits in the rotation, but it's almost certainly towards the top.