Hone of the Day

[Pjotr]

@Mark, mate, your advice rang in my ears all morning, couldn't get back to sleep....so I went and hit the stones. Followed the Scallywag's instructions to the letter. The Puma's toe was in a bit of a mess but shaped it on the Shapton 5k and polished things up through the nagura set of threeFinishing on clear water. First ever early morning hone, weirdly addictive and I kind of felt guilty and a little naughty sneaking back into the house...though the wife didn't wake so she's none the wiser to my small lonely pleasures on the stones.

Never looked so forward to shave.

That all sounds just a little bit sad.

 

[stillshunter]

That all sounds just a little bit sad.

I don't know mate, was actually quite fun....and resulted in a great shave! Can get you a bakelite straight for Xmas mate...

 

[Pjotr]

I don't know mate, was actually quite fun....and resulted in a great shave! Can get you a bakelite straight for Xmas mate...

I'll try. Not sure how bakelite shaves but you never know. I can fully understand the attraction of stones and blades. Just gently pulling your leg. I was a full on traditional wood worker in a previous life. The problem is that you end up buying stones/strops and hence you have to buy blades so you can use the stones/strops and then the whole thing just spirals out of control. Sharpening stuff is great. Thankfully I've got at least four sets of knives owned by numerous family members who to a man treat them like crap so I get to indulge in sharpening quite a lot.

 

[stillshunter]

Scored a nice little Henkotsu on eBay recently...well what I thought was a nice score. Over four hours on the stones proved otherwise. Didn't matter what stroke I used on the Shapton 5k I could not get an edge on that toe. Curiosity got the better of me and so out came the sharpie to check out the bevel. What a mess. On the omote a ton of grind on the heel of the edge and the spine along the toe. This thing was seriously warped.

The short version - unless you got another four hours - was that it took several progressions of wet and dry to bring her back to a state enough to do laps on the 5k. Had to work both the omote AND ura (the heel was dragging badly so wasn't squaring an edge no matter the stroke either. So off the 5k to the barber's hone (Honyama Asagi Tomae) and progression through the botan, tenjyu and mejiro and so was born the "custom Stills grind Henkotsu".

SOTD is elsewhere. But the result? 'king fantastic! One of the most satisfying experiences of my shaving career.

 

[borked]

Honemeister porn

 

[stillshunter]

First time on the rocks for this eBay low ball win.

Also first time using the tomo nagura 'extra' Maksim (JNS) chose to marry with my '60s barber hone - Honyama Asagi Tomae (lvl. 5) - passed from the hands of our resident scallywag Mark. Spent the morning readying the stone with the Atoma 400. It makes such a nice easy slurry. Have no idea what Maksim got for me here but it's a nice piece.

Set the Gotta's bevel on my Chosera 1k which it took surprisingly well - once I bread-knifed the smile. Was tempted to simply go through the nagura progression but decided instead I should dust off my synthetics...I mean they've not really gotten an airing since the JNATs arrived. So then through the Shaptons 5, 8 and 12k. I'd forgotten just how nice esp. the 5 and 8k are. Set up nicely for the tomo nagura. I hadn't really thought what it might feel like, but it felt very different to the Mejiro I'm used to using before the water.

Anyway it's all in the shave, and that was good!

 

[khun_diddy]

I did a quick refresh of the Takemaru edge this arvo. There's really nothing to it. First thing I do is lap the hone with my coarsest nagura under some running water. I make sure no slurry remains. Then I prop up the hone on some folded towel. Really light pressure and plenty of water on the hone with a 7/1 ratio. It only needs about 3 or 4 sets of 7/1 and the edge is back to laser sharp.

It's an incredible hone.

 

[bald as]

I did a quick refresh of the Takemaru edge this arvo.

Great news. Fantastic the sense of being part of the whole process.

Steve

 

[stillshunter]

still getting familiar with my new tomo nagura. I worked through a Chosera 1k and then Shaptons 5, 8 and 12k progression, finishing off with the tomo nagura until fully diluted on my barber's hone, then CrOx on balsa, and kanayama linen and stop (50k).

The results were OK

chatting with @Mark and he recommended getting back to it more time on the tomo this time and to skip the CrOx. So this morning I spent a little (then a little more) time working from a slurry to clear water. Got me here...

Oddly shave was sharp but the pass I did yesterday to test the hone seemed a tad smoother. Hmmm...

 

[borked]

I suspect the sharper the edge, the lesser edge there is to roll, hence also losing some smoothness/comfort factor.

 

[khun_diddy]

I took the GD to the hone this evening for a touch up. In the subsequent shave it was apparent I'd made it worse so again I finished up with a Gem Jr. The edge was comfy enough but just wasn't cutting whiskers very well. Straight after the shave I went back to the hone and worked up from a light Mejiro slurry that I diluted as I went. The edge feels keener to the thumb pad so we'll see how she goes.

While I had the J-nat out I figured I may as well run the Takemaru over it. Doing so, it was striking how much more substational the Japanese steel felt in the hand. It also glided over the hone surface better. On one side of the GD there is a certain unevenness that makes it a little tricky to hone and strop.

I look forward to shaving with both of them.

 

[stillshunter]

I took the GD to the hone this evening for a touch up. In the subsequent shave it was apparent I'd made it worse so again I finished up with a Gem Jr. The edge was comfy enough but just wasn't cutting whiskers very well. Straight after the shave I went back to the hone and worked up from a light Mejiro slurry that I diluted as I went. The edge feels keener to the thumb pad so we'll see how she goes.

While I had the J-nat out I figured I may as well run the Takemaru over it. Doing so, it was striking how much more substational the Japanese steel felt in the hand. It also glided over the hone surface better. On one side of the GD there is a certain unevenness that makes it a little tricky to hone and strop.

I look forward to shaving with both of them.

How long / how many strokes you using during each progression?

 

[khun_diddy]

Not sure but the second attempt I did more.

 

[stillshunter]

Not sure but the second attempt I did more.

Yeah I'm finding that I was just not putting the effort in. Now I am super finicky about the bevel setting and then work really slow and steady through my progression.

Today I ran three blades over the coticule. Two came out really well, and another was a little lack-lustre in the centre. With all of them I worked the slurry in a count-down of 8 to 1 through half-strokes, circles and x-strokes, then a fingertip dilute, and maintained repetitions through to very thin slurry....I guess around 12-15 times....then weight-only x-strokes on clear water. The one rogue razor has a smile and I think I over-compensated with the swinging x-stroke and neglected the centre. Oh well, guess what I'm doing tomorrow morning?

 

[stillshunter]

Interesting Electric Hamburg Ring turned up in a recent bulk lot. Pretty shabby out of the box.

Worked it both sides of the recently restored coticule through a progression:
Chosera 1k (bevel set)
coticules:
red w/- slurry
beige w/- slurry
red w/- water
beige w/- water
firehose linen strop - x50
roo strop - x50
kanayama 50k - x50

Biggest surprise through the scope was the edge after the red w/- slurry. Worked a nice thick mud on the stone, felt sweet, and at x200 the edge very soft and smooth (almost 'cloudy'). Normal Chosera scratch marks before and usual coti random scratch pattern with the beige slurry after. Very odd. I wonder of it's nice to shave off. I'm going to give it a go tomorrow morning.

Anyway, the Electric Hamburg Ring looked good enough under the scope. But proof's in the shave.

Drum roll please...
So smoooooooooooth!
Happy chappy right here, right now!

 

[stillshunter]

This morning's hone touched two razors on the one stone.

First is Phil's straight. Well not his razor per se, but the razor I picked from my line-up to satiate his curiosity about coticule edges - as I'm certain he's getting over my banging on about how many other stones are sharper, but none being smoother. Test shaved the Bengall this morning and pretty confident it is representative of the coticule edge that I'm qualified enough to create.

The other razor is an old Invicta beater that I used to test out the Unicot method and bevel setting on a coticule for the first time. Very surprised by the results TBH. Gave a decent enough shave for that blade. Unicot does work, though not sure how much I like the idea of a double bevel. My yet-to-be-identified coticule did a great job with the bevel. I thought it was moderate-slow on slurry but add pressure and she eats metal like I demolish pistachios. What I did notice is less is more...not less strokes but a little less pressure. Back off too much and it's just about right. Made light work of it after I made that adjustment.

Next I'm keen to try a one-stone coticule hone...without the unicot.

 

[Mark]

The dilucot definitely works, if anything it's a way of rectifying mistakes if any and gives you a bit more slack to use pressure in early stages, I also don't like the idea of dual bevel but it works. Another thing that will result in a smoother edge is setting the bevel on the coticule, ie. kill the edge, and skip the chosera and start with fresh slurry on the coti which will result in less toothy edge but a little more rounded which boosts comfort but can lack keenness which can be fixed by spending more time on plain water strokes. Or you can cheat and set the bevel on the chosera, edge join and proceed to the coticule which will give you the same results. Works well with either unicot or dilucot.

 

[Mark]

All natural Jnat hone. Set the bevel with a botan koppa, I don't talk about it much but it's my fav natural bevel setter, even removed some nasty chips, midrange work on suita. Finish on very hard ozuku mizu asagi.

Getting fancy isn't my motto, but when you've got no where to go due to a storm this is the next best thing after my daily cigar. Enjoy folks!

 

[stillshunter]

Tried something a little different with this morning's hone.

Just use the vintage coticule as a combo - set the bevel with slurry on the red side (prob. La Lorraine), dilucot then water only on the coticule side and finished wet on the 'yet to be identified' green stone. Finished with strops over firehose linen, roo, then cordovan leathers.

Result wasn't too bad. The edge is a little crisper than straight off the coticule. Will try it on a 'real' razor next. Poor Kropp, she would have been a beauty in her day.

 

[stillshunter]

Razor fresh off my inaugural hone. This stone only arrived two days ago from a seller who reckons it is likely a La Grosse Blanche and I didn't experience anything to doubt him.

To put it through its paces I opted for a one stone hone (not counting the Chosera 1k bevel set). Worked slow through slurry dilutions, clear water, strops and finishing very light on lather. Nice audible stone. Medium to fast on slurry (though I used bugger all pressure this morning so reckon it would speed up real fast) and slooow on water.

Result: Beginners luck I reckon as the edge left behind my test shave is phenomenal - a nice blend of sharp and smooth.