Thread: Shaved with Filarmonica 14. Result? IRRITATION

Hi there!

I finally managed to get my hands on a vintage Filarmonica Doble Temple #14. I had to do some little restoration on the blade due to its state, but I finally managed to get it nice and shiny.

I reset the bevel with a Naniwa 2K, then BBW with slurry and finally Coticule with water. After that, few passes on a strop and the blade was passing the HHT quite good.

Time to shave with it. Shaves OK I get some nickels on the mustache zone, and after that I get a high irritation sensation on my face. This is the first time I get this feeling when I hone my razors. I have a W&B that I honed with the exact same progression and it's amazing how it shaves and give no irritation at all.

I am starting to worry about it. Filarmonicas are supposed to be the very best of straight razors and nonetheless I get a bad sensation when I use it.

Could it be that I overhoned it? If so, how can I tell? Do Fillis have a special way to be honed/stropped?

Thanks for your advices!

Fillys can be a little more challenging to hone or at least I know mine is. The fact you are getting irritation means it's not truly shave ready. You might want to go back to the coticule or if you have some CrO use that. Have you looked at the bevel under mag? You might want to do that to make sure it's up to snuff too.

Filli's are so fine blades they will get sharper and sharper as much as you push it will go.
if you can shave only half of your face and to shave rest of your face you have to strop?
then your blade overhoned.
if you have course facial hair it may last less then half of your face.
there is no special ways as far as i know to hone ,strop etc.
Just when i hone them i don't go very high grit stones.
After coticule your edge should be fine.
try go back coticule again and make 20-30 passes strop and shave test. see what happens.
( i am afraid you don't have enough sharpness on that blade yet.)

Originally Posted by Hammett

Hi there!

I finally managed to get my hands on a vintage Filarmonica Doble Temple #14. I had to do some little restoration on the blade due to its state, but I finally managed to get it nice and shiny.

I reset the bevel with a Naniwa 2K, then BBW with slurry and finally Coticule with water. After that, few passes on a strop and the blade was passing the HHT quite good.

Time to shave with it. Shaves OK I get some nickels on the mustache zone, and after that I get a high irritation sensation on my face. This is the first time I get this feeling when I hone my razors. I have a W&B that I honed with the exact same progression and it's amazing how it shaves and give no irritation at all.

I am starting to worry about it. Filarmonicas are supposed to be the very best of straight razors and nonetheless I get a bad sensation when I use it.

Could it be that I overhoned it? If so, how can I tell? Do Fillis have a special way to be honed/stropped?

Thanks for your advices!

I have 3 Filis. All of them were very difficult to set the bevel on - took quite a while on my 1k. After that, it was smooth sailing on the 5k, 8k and 12k.

When you said restoration, did you buff the blade with either a Dremel or a Buffer...????

I did buff it with a dremel and some elbow grease. While on the dremel, I was taking care of the temperature of the blade not going very hot thought.

I just got a vintage un-honed Filli 14 - 8/8 blade and after honing it shaves like a dream. One of my best shaving razors. It’s like laying a spatula on your face and shaving with it. I did not use tape during the pyramid process. Beautiful Spanish steel.
MIke

Originally Posted by Hammett

Hi there!

I finally managed to get my hands on a vintage Filarmonica Doble Temple #14. I had to do some little restoration on the blade due to its state, but I finally managed to get it nice and shiny.

I reset the bevel with a Naniwa 2K, then BBW with slurry and finally Coticule with water. After that, few passes on a strop and the blade was passing the HHT quite good.

This is why we always say, "Shaving is the true test, don't worry about the HHT...

Time to shave with it. Shaves OK I get some nickels on the mustache zone, and after that I get a high irritation sensation on my face. This is the first time I get this feeling when I hone my razors. I have a W&B that I honed with the exact same progression and it's amazing how it shaves and give no irritation at all.

Not all razors will hone up the same. Your W&B was probably not in the exact same state as the Fily. There are also other factors to be considered.

I am starting to worry about it. Filarmonicas are supposed to be the very best of straight razors and nonetheless I get a bad sensation when I use it.

Fily's are great shavers, but most of what you probably read is about the NOS Fily's. They were purchased that way, and came incredibley shave ready out of the box. This is rare for any razor. When you bought a Fily, you could pull it out of the box, strop and shave, it was incredible...
They were honed quite well...
Could it be that I overhoned it? If so, how can I tell? Do Fillis have a special way to be honed/stropped?

No, not really. You should be checking the edge after each stone. Coticules are great finishing stones. What are doing on the Coti, exactly, how fast does the slurry darken, etc...When you get into more aggresive work, it's hard to give any advice not knowing your stone, Coti's can vary greatly from hone to hone, therefore, it can be hard to gauge results. Your's may a hard finisher, green or light yellow, Maybe it's a good cutter, pinkinsh, soft...etc...

Do you have a Norton 4/8 or Naniwa 5 and 8?

Thanks for your advices!

I hope this is helpful

I have three Filamonicas and have found great success using a balsa hone with green polish stick grated over it, then gently stropped 30 to 50 times. After that try going back to your leather. You might see some smoothing improvements, I know I did.

There is something about the heft of the blade in prime condition that makes it hard to use other razors with as much satisfaction!

Originally Posted by Hammett

I did buff it with a dremel and some elbow grease. While on the dremel, I was taking care of the temperature of the blade not going very hot thought.

Not the heat I was asking about, the problem sometimes with buffing the blade is that it can leave the very edge quite ragged if you touch it...
I know this sounds counter intuitive to getting the razor sharp, but if you look at the very edge under magnification I am going to guess that it has little tiny teeth...
To start smooth after buffing the blade I just set the edge straight down on a Arkansas stone or even just glass, and with no pressure draw the edge across a few times... You can test for these teeth now without wrecking the edge you have with a Kleenex... Hold the tissue out with one hand and very gently draw the edge across it... A nice clean draw and cut, yer fine, and have just some honing problems to adjust. If the cut is catchy then you need to start from square one...

When you do a lot of buffing you learn to stay away from the very edge to avoid this and worse problems...