Thread: some new stuff

I now have 2 Top Flights, one 5/8" & a 6/8". I need to hone the 6/8" but the 5/8" is like velvet!

I cleaned the old slurry off the stone today and inspected it more closely. It has some interesting mottling. When I scratch it with my fingernail it feels super fine.

As you can see it's dished, but after flattening it I should have a little less than 1cm left, which should last the rest of my lifetime.

I flattened this new stone on Monday, and decided to hone my main practise razor, a Boker King Cutter. It had already been honed on Naniwa 1, 3 & 8, and then a coticule, but I wasn't crazy with the results. So I gently killed the edge, made a slurry and went to town. The stone was a joy to use, I love the size! I'd only had one honing session before where I had felt the sticky sensation that I've heard so much about, with my Hoshi Tombo 6000 on a coticule, and it was barely perceptible. But the King Cutter on this big stone got super sticky! So sticky that I had no choice but to stop at a certain point. After that, I took it to Chromium Oxide, then linen and then leather.

I shave tested it tonight, and the shave was fantastic. Very keen, very smooth. With my honing to date, I've had trouble getting what I consider to be a truly shave ready edge. Usually it's pretty good up until the AGT pass, where it becomes obvious that the edge needs to be more keen. There have been a few instances where I've achieved the keenness I've wanted but the edge was super harsh. But this razor/stone combo gave me a beautiful BBS 3-pass shave with zero irritation.

When I was visiting VintageSmurf I really hesitated a lot over buying this stone, but now I'm very happy I bought it!