What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Gents, I have two set bevels at 4k and a finished edge is just minutes off if that’s what I want.

Just a note on the Shapton Glass HR series that I’m using, these are fast stones and the 2k is my normal bevel setter in this series where it might be a 1k or a 1.5k with a different stone. I can get away with using a finer stone in the Glass HR series because of the speed. The steel in these 666 Monkeys seems to be about normal hardness. The 777s I did not long ago seemed harder, the Glass stone water didn’t darken up as quickly as these new ones. I suspect that harder than normal steel would get complaints from their main market, people trying to get these into shape with the natural Guanxi (?) river stones.

After the 500 Shapton Glass with King 1k slurry, was a Shapton Glass 1k. Went through the routine, the bevel looked good under the loupe so off to the 2k. Went through the routine, stropped 10 canvas 20 leather and tested HHT. One razor was a little weak at the toe, the HHT wasn’t what it was in the middle. Looked with the loupe, and I did not have the bevel pushed all the way to the apex on this razor. Back to the 1k, then the 2k. This kind of back and forth is normal when you’re bringing up an edge the first time on a wonky razor, and although these are very nice Gold Monkeys, if they were any other razor the workmanship would be questionable. And the price a lot higher.

An obvious question is why I didn’t see this at 1k. The answer is that as the bevel pickes up polish, you can see things that you couldn’t at coarser grits. It’s also a reason why I strop a little between grits especially the first time I bring up an edge, stropping brings up a little more polish. You’re also using more pressure at coarser grits if you’re fixing something, and the edges do flex, even on a GD. As you go to finer grits, you lighten up and the finer hone may not hit the edge exactly the same and it may take a little more time with lighter pressure to get what you want out at the apex of the bevels.

The next razor is better but a little weak at the heel off 2k. It cuts hair but the HHT isn't as good as the center. Under the loupe, I can tell that the edge isn’t perfectly straight in that area, it’s kind of like rolling hills. I’m staying on the 2k this time, and just using a little pressure biasing the pressure to the heel on both sides. That seemed to work, the edge is much straighter. It’s not perfect, but I think that it’s going to be OK after the finishing process as along as I mind my Ps and Qs while finishing. If not, no big deal, back to the Glass stones, I’ve done the back and forth many times, it’s normal.

Finishing post next.

 

Let’s finish and go on to other things besides test razors. I have two identical razors with set bevels at 4k. They’re test razors, so let’s do some testing. The white naguras are Odori from Alex Gilmore, a botan/tenjou grade on the left and a mejiro grade second from left. These are big, pure blocks of stone with a lot of grit in them. Third from left is a koma also sourced by Alex from a gentleman in Japan selling his remaining stock. It’s also fast, harder, and quite fine. On the right is a tomo nagura. The other thing that I want to do is test the Shobu (foreground) against the ‘boulder’ (background. The Shobu won the last comparison, so let’s keep going. The white nagura were all used on the boulder, it won’t matter.

As I’m honing, I now have slurry and I’m watching for the undercut, the edge sliding under the slurry so that the slurry is riding up the side of the blade. That means the apex of the edge is in full contact with the stone, and both the stones and the nagura are fast so I’m liking what I see. If I was not seeing undercut, I’d stop, clean the blade and try to figure out why not. I’m keeping the slurry wet and thinning it out as I go, it will thicken from evaporation, absorption, and swarf buildup. Checking as I go, I’m seeing very uniform bevel finish and no coarse scratches with any of the nagura. The hazy finish jnats make on slurry is called kasumi, and it means ‘foggy’, it isn’t a mirror finish. Everything is routine and I’m stropping a little and checking HHT as I go, everything was peachy at every stage and should be. This is exactly what you should be seeing at this stage IF the bevel is completely set end to end, and all the coarser striae removed as you go up the grits.

Conclusion: they both test splendidly and I can tell no difference by HHT, so the shave test will be the conclusive test. That won’t be until day after tomorrow but the results should be interesting.

 

Spinning up the last two Gold Monkeys from the last batch, and testing two of the new stones from the ‘bulk lot’. This will be the first real test of these two stones.

Bevels were cut and spines smoothed with a mellow 325 DMT, and a Shapton Glass HR 500 followed. I then jumped onto a set of Shapton Glass G7, 11.5 micron (about 1.5k), a 4 micron (about 4k), and a 2 micron (about 8k). I didn’t use a pre finisher this time as the 2 micron should do well. The ‘orange’ karasu on the left is pretty, pretty hard, and left an edge that tested really well. The ‘tan’ karasu was softer and I was not expecting it to be as good, but it tested the same as the other. Usually softer stones are not as fine as harder ones, but the\at’s not always the case and a very pleasant surprise when you find one.

Test shave tomorrow.

 

Refreshing the edge of my Filarmonica DT#13 on this great finisher which I'm using to evaluate the pictured nagura. I still struggle a bit to get those velvety edges, so I see lots of testing and practice in my near future.

 

Well, thanks to @alex1921 encouraging me to really work the slurry while continuously thinning it down led me to a fantastic edge on the DT#13.

A second test with a different blade, hone and slightly harder nagura failed miserably. I will redo some tests with a variation of that setup (harder nagura) tomorrow. These Japanese razors with their extra hard steel can really make you struggle for success on the hones:

 

I honed my first razor yesterday. Killed the edge and set the bevel on a Chosera 1k and then took through a progression on Naniwa SuperStones up through 12k. For a first attempt it went completely OK... the bevel set passed the TNT but wouldn’t shave arm hair. I decided to take it all the way up through 12k anyway. At the end, it failed HHT (though I’m not even sure I used the right kind of hair?). 50 laps on Canvas and 50 on leather and then I did a quick shave test this morning and it shaved. So that’s something. It wasn’t the most comfortable (1 pass WTG on my cheek), but it removed hair.

I think I’m going to kill the edge and start again. I feel like there’s plenty more in this razor and I want to see if I can coax it out.

All in all, I’m not too disappointed. I didn’t have very high hopes for my first attempt and this actually went ok. If I didn’t have a dozen other razors, I could have happily finished shaving with this one.


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If it’s shaving and the edge looks OK (no chips, etc) there’s no real point in killing the edge.

Beginning honers usually make mistakes in common:

1. Too much pressure, so lighten up

2. Not hitting all the edge - look to see if all the scratches appear the same at the toe and heel as the middle, you could also Sharpie the bevel

If the pressure is right and you’re hitting all the edge, then it’s difficult not to get a nice shaving edge.

You’ll get there, it’s just practice and repetition, wax on, wax off as Mr. Miyagi said.

 

Thanks @Steve56, I will not kill the edge then. Good to know.

If I had to guess, I'd say I probably did both of the things you mention above. As I went up in grit, I got more comfortable and definitely used less pressure, so I might have been using too much on the early stones. I also noticed at one point on the 5k that water wasn't undercutting the heel. It looked ok on the 1K and 3k, but I'll pay extra attention there. I've got a 10X loop that I was using to view the edge, but, honestly, I found that harder to use than the stones! The field of view is so short that I couldn't keep the freaking edge in focus .

That's ok, learning is at least half the fun of all this, so back to the stones I go! Thanks for your tips!

 

Thanks @atbat82 try a lower power loupe, 10x is about maximum for me for the reasons that you’ve stated. It’s also easier to actually hit the edge of the razor with the loupe at 10+ power. One of my favorites is a Hastings 7x triplet. I’ve also tried a 20x from CKTG, the one with the metal body, and it’s fine, but if it’s 20x I’m an astronaut. Beolomo also has a good rep and I want to try one.

Shave report on those last 2 Monkeys, they felt very sharp and ‘grabby’, and I got a tiny nick. This is almost unheard of from a good SR edge, nicks are a DE/SE thing. What feeling very sharp and bitey means is that it isn’t sharp enough, so maybe I do need that jnat prefinisher vs a 2 micron Shapton G7! Knowing that a SR edge that feels sharp and agressive is too dull is is a good thing to know. Synths and pastes can make aggressive edges, but properly done they feel smooth.

 

+1

 

Gotta love Heirlooms a
Hess 99
Cleaned up and the edge brought back on some Chosera 1-5-10 with a sweet Blue Green Escher finish

Just love Hess razors




Hone On !!!

 

Filarmonica 13
Doble Temple
13/16th
Spain

This one was a pleasure to hone. It is one of the straightest razors I have seen. Beautifully built. It was very sharp, to begin with, so, off to the 1k. Well Filly blades are very hard, and it was taking a long time. So, I dropped down to the 320 stone, and set a quick pre-bevel. Then off to the 1k again. It went smooth from there. It was taken to a synthetic 3k stone, then off to the finishers. I used a very hard JNAT, I bought from @Steve56 , along with various Nagura stones. On the left, I used a "Mud Stone', then a soft Nagura, Medium Nagura, and a very hard and fine Nagura.
Off to the linen and leather. The end result was that wherever a hair touched the edge, root in or out, the hair instantly gave up, and snapped in half.

 

Cutlery World 7802
"First Class"
11/16th
Solingen Germany

Same as above, except it took a little longer. This steel feels, and looks of Swedish Silver Steel. Hard. I had to put a brand new bevel on it. After the bevel was set, it was easy going.
In the end, it took on the HHT-CN(Chuck Norris). The blade just looked at the hair, and the hair became so scared, it split in two. Scary sharp.

 

I’ve never had a Hess, Glen, and always wanted one. I think that they’re German, do you know who made them? A number of Hess models were stainless so the obvious guess is Henckles.

That toe looks like it’s standing proud!

 

HmmmmI don't know for sure

BUT

Most people that own the Hess 44 which is their SS model claim it to be the smoothest SS edge ever produced

RandyDance on SRP is even more into the company than I am, he might have discovered who actually made them

The Hand Forged the #99 and the XX Special are pretty exceptional in their own right I think I own 6-7 of them

 

I honed 2 and tested them today.
GD - had an edge but cant remember what it was honed on. Razor has been sitting for way over a year. I raised tomo slurry on the kiita iro, worked it and diluted to misty watery.
Shaved very well.
The Tanifuji I have been torturing for a while. I went back to a suita followed by koma/tomo on a kiita. Shave was good but not great. So time to test this new kiita. Yellow on top and the base is lime color with some nashiji. Same routine, thin slurry. It put an amazing edge on the tanifuji.

 

Touched up my Case 133 Red Imp, Light 4k Shapton Glass refresh, then a fast kiita and this stone, one of my faves for hard steel, which this razor seems to be. This is the hone that finished my Sub Cero that’s at 75 shaves and going. The Red Imp 133 is probably the same blade blank as the Blue Steel Kinfolks which were a bit more common.

 

Nice Red Imp 133, Steve!

Cool to hear about the possible relationship to the Kinfolks "Blue Steel" blank, especially since I located a Blue Steel razor in great condition with its coffin when I started down this rabbit hole. I will bust that one out here soon.

 

Finished with the new ‘cat’, 6/8 Le Jaguar, this one will make a pair, and I’m fond of pairs. It wasn’t easy pie. This razor has had some pitting on the bevel and some remained. I started out with a 4k Shapton Glass, a favorite stone for light bevel work on full hollows because of the speed. The bevel set with a little patience, but under magnification the edge wasn’t straight and even like it should be, and appeared to be the result of remaining bevel pitting. I plugged away on the 4k a while but eventually dropped down to a Shapton Glass 2k which is my normal bevel setter. That cleared things up better, with maybe a tiny bit of isolated unevenness left, but little enough that I’m going to proceed and give it a whirl. I suspect that a layer of 1 mil Kapton would help out a good bit, but the twin to this razor is honed without tape and I didn’t want to have to keep track of taped vs untaped on almost identical razors. And I usually don’t tape my users, I just don’t want to fool with it.

The intermediate stone was the usual pale kiita/habutae (rice cake color of kimono silk) followed by ‘ol ugly, lol. HHT was silent root in or out. I left the slurry on the stone for @gssixgun to check out the amount.

 

I don’t have any of those gorgeous or fancy Jnats (yet!!), but I honed up these three today: Portland Razor Company Siren, Geneva Cutlery, and The Herold Bro’s. I reset the bevel on the Geneva and Herold using a Chosera 1k and then took them up through a progression through 12k on Naniwa SuperStones. The Portland needed more of a touch up, so I went 8k, 10k, and finished on the 12k. All three then got a strop progression - 50 linen, 50 “rough out”, 30 cowhide, and 20 cordovan. I have no idea if the strop progression does anything different than the same number of laps on 1 strop, but I gives me an excuse to use all my strips!

The real test comes tomorrow morning during the shave test. Fingers crossed.

On another note: anyone have a decent guide to the HHT? I get a solid pass on TNT off the 1k, but all 3 fail miserably at HHT. The last razor I honed failed HHT as well, but shaved great. It’s entirely possible I’m doing HHT wrong (but also entirely possible my edges aren’t as good as I think)


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