Thread: Can you help me figure out a mystery?

Disclaimer - I am far from being a honemeister, this is only one opinion....

That said, Were your other razors professionally honed?
I'm thinking it might not be a finishing problem, but a bevel problem.
If the others were honed well initially and you have no problems touching them up, and the problem razor wasn't, you may be trying to polish a turd. If this is the case, resetting the bevel would/should fix the problem.

I could be wrong though.

I have a couple of quick questions????
In the original thread you mentioned a Honing Voucher from Mike (Rattliff ????)
it sounds as if you did not use that, and honed this razor, on small barbers hone from Tilly????

This is a Henckles they are generally known to be very straight forward on the hones, and very pleasant on the face

If my above assumption was right and you started with a "Dull as a Butterknife Razor" how did you hone it ?????

Hey Glen, I have that same barber hone set, Tilly's so-called "3-hone beginner set." It consists of 3 hones, coarse (about 4K) medium (about 6K) and fine (about 8K). That set, plus some 1K wet/dry, is capable of honing a razor from scratch.

Well...I started with a pyramid of 30 on my coarser stone then a set of 30 on the finer stone. I then worked my way down from the coarser by tens then fives (30-20-10-5) and worked my way down the fine by fives (30-25-20-15) and then did 10 on the fine stone and 20 on 1 micron paste followed by 20 on CrO and then 50 on leather. It shaved hairs effortlessly but left my face burning :-\

I did not however attempt to set a bevel on a lower grit stone, should I have done this?

I am going to try and help you here, but I'm not even sure of what stones you are using????

There are a few inherent problems using the small barbers hones, they are more prone to over honing, I don't know why, but they are, my theory (no basis) is that it might be the short strokes.....

I know most people that use them, recommend a forward and back-stoke when using them ....
Can you hone a razor with them??? obviously YES, people used them for years in the old days... (we see evidence of that on e-bay razors everyday)

Here is what I do know.....
Every single edge has to go through 3 stages to become shave ready.....
1. The bevel setting stage
2. The sharpening stage
3. The polishing stage
How you go through these stages determines the final outcome on your face....
If you are creating an over-honed condition more accurately a micro-serrated condition in any one of these stages you are going to get a sharp rough shave...
If you skip or skimp on the earlier stages your edge will either be dull or very, very, short lived....
That Henckels should be smooth as silk on your face when honed correctly...

Perhaps a pic of the stones, next to the razor would help....

I have an alternative theory. I honed a DD Dwarf to 8k and it shaves good and hardly any irritation, if any. I then used a professionally honed razor, not too different, and I had more burn than the 8k razor. It shaved fast and smooth, most likely because it was honed sharper than I could (lack of equipment). I don't blame the honer or the razor, I'm pretty sure it's my fault and have to adjust my technique (more careful and softer touch).

Perhaps Detach is using a blade that is sharper than he's accustomed to? He's got the microscope and can determine for himself if there are any jagged areas on the edge. Without edge imperfections.. I'd think this alternative theory is more than plausible.

I have nothing to add to what's been said about solving the problem as I'm in the camp that says, you're going to have to figure this out for yourself as only your face know what it likes. That said, I will say that when *I* run into such a razor and I do now and again..... I find that going back to a Coticule, maybe with a light milky slurry for 20 or so laps to round that extreme edge, then 20 or 30 more with clean water to bring it back up to near HHT sharp and then hit the strop and I generally find a harsh razor is back to smooth shaving and still passing my HHT. Some razors just get harshly sharp and the Coticule seems to tame them quite nicely.

Regards

Kaptain "Garnet" Zero