What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Discussion in 'Straight Razors' started by DaltonGang, Sep 25, 2016.

  1. Edison Carter

    Edison Carter Well-Known Member

    I used to use an older fella to hone the blades on my lawn shaver. After grinding the edge clean and balancing, he would mute the edge slightly. He said it was the way they were supposed to be done. I can't confirm any difference in my shaves
     
  2. Steve56

    Steve56 Hone Hoarder

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    Interesting honing marathon last night, I honed up two Herder 49s from scratch. The dark area on the left razor is just a reflection from my home made light box. It took about 4 hours for both of them, with 3 hours and 45 minutes spent on the 500 and 1k stones! They look like Filly 14 blanks and may well be, but they’re ground more like a Gold Dollar, spine obviously off the platen and the heels and toes overground, so now they have a gentle smile that no properly ground and honed Filly 14 will have, but the one that I shaved with this morning was butter knife smooth. I can usually start at 4k on a new or near mint Filly and I’ve got a set bevel in a few minutes.

    The coarse stones are where the edge quality is made, if these aren’t done right, the razor will never shave smoothly and well. The problem with these, and with Gold Dollars, is to get the stone to hit the apex of the bevel, aka bevel set, all along the edge. However, I did not have to resort to the Gold Dollar technique of taping the edge and honing the spine to get it level. So, over an hour on each with the Shapton Glass 500 and 1k stone, then to the 2k and 4k stones inspecting and testing the full length of the edge with HHT and ensuring the coarser scratches were removed at the overground toes and heels. You can use any test that you want, but a visual is always good and other tests are as good as your practice with them.

    The finishers (I didn’t have room for all the other stones, lol) were a vintage maru-ka razor kiita on the left, and a Nakayama asagi on the right that I used a few days ago with a different tomo nagura to help tame the edge off this stone. I shaved with the left razor this morning, and it was butter knife smooth.
     
  3. DaltonGang

    DaltonGang Ol' Itchy Whiskers

    F.W.Engels Special
    Solingen
    11/16+th Extra Hollow Ground.

    This appeared to be NOS, but with a chippy edge, due to years of being stored incorrectly. It still had what appeared to be a factory bevel. This one was restored, by me recently, and the micro chippy edge wasn't fully realized, until just before I started to hone, and looked at it under magnification. Not a problem. I killed the entire edge, and took it to the Norton 320 stone, which took little time to bring up, a pre-bevel. Then off to the Norton 1k, which also wint fast. this blade is an Extra Hollow Grind, and it doesn't take much time or pressure to remove the steel. So, off to the King 1k, which looks more like a 2-3 k. Next the mystery 3k. It was popping arm hairs the entire time.
    Now comes the change-up. @Steve56 sent over some Nagura stones, to try, a soft, medium, and hard. I decided to use the soft on the 8k Welsh Slate Stone, and make a slurry. This sped the process on this stone greatly, by about 1/3-1/4th. I like it. Still tree topping. Next was the 12k Welsh Slate Stone, and the medium Nagura was used. Same as the last one. BTW, I started the slurry heavy, and slowly diluted each stone.
    This last Welsh Slate was the 15k, and the hard stone was used. This is a very hard Nagura, and it must have had some impurities in it, like 1-2 grains of sand. This scratched the Welsh Stone up, pretty good. But, the experiment must go on. I wasnt able to bring much of a slurry, because of the hardness, so this last Nagura had little impact. A DMT needed to be used with this one. Well, no damage to the razor.
    Off to the Arkansas Surgical Black, which polished it nicely.
    Leather and Canvas finished it out. It is wicked sharp, and begging to be used.

    Honing setup.

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    F.W.Engels Special.

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    Last edited: May 14, 2019
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  4. DaltonGang

    DaltonGang Ol' Itchy Whiskers

    Prima "Max"
    Solingen
    13/16+th. Extra Hollow Ground.

    This was NOS, with the factory bevel still on. It was very sharp, just not for shaving, especially after the minor restoration. There was a bit of corrosion when I got it, at the toe end, but not on the edge, so that was noticed today, and smoothed out. Same as the F.W.Engel. It went fast, through the stones. The Nagura sped things up greatly.
    Another Wickedly sharp razor.

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    Last edited: May 14, 2019
  5. DaltonGang

    DaltonGang Ol' Itchy Whiskers

    Hart Steel, JA.
    Made in the USA.

    This one had been acquired, with a sharp edge, just not to my liking. It also cane with a small chip, at the end of the toe. The chip was in an area that wouldn't cause an issue, except In My Head. So, being the Anal Retentive fellow I am, I massaged it out. It didn't change the look, and just required a little extra time.
    So, I have read the info put out on Hart Steel blades, and how they advertise as a hardness of 63 Rockwell. Well, I call B.S. on that. This razor is a 1/4 or so Hollow Ground, and needed a lot of steel removed, to get past the factory bevel, and the chip removal. It went by surprisingly fast, almost too fast. Oh, it can, and did take a very nice edge, but it isn't near as hard of steel as the other two razors honed today.
    Oh, one more thing. The blade is "Wonky", which gives it an uneven look about the bevel. Not an issue for shaving, or honing, except visually. The spine is straight as an arrow.
    Same setup, and honing as the other two.

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  6. TestDepth

    TestDepth Well-Known Member

    Pretty cool experiment Scott!
     
  7. DaltonGang

    DaltonGang Ol' Itchy Whiskers

    It's all one big experiment, for me. Trial and error.
    It took a lot to get me out of my comfort zone, and try a Japanese Nagura. I'm glad I did.
     
  8. Steve56

    Steve56 Hone Hoarder

    Wait until you try the hones, they’re high grit too. And you can ‘manage’ the edge with tomos or slurry thickness all the way out to clear water.
     
  9. Steve56

    Steve56 Hone Hoarder

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    Post war C. V. Heljestrand 140, rescaled in black horn by Alfredo to match the ivory twin. Progression was Shapton Glass HR 2k/4k/kiita/maru-ka kiita finisher with a hard tomo.

    Shave tomorrow!
     
  10. Edison Carter

    Edison Carter Well-Known Member

    Honing school.

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    Gave the rough GD some rough treatment on the convex. You can see were I biffed it near the toe when I got sloppy. I did get the jagged shards off and add a bit of a smile.

    No close shots of the edge, but here is what I see under a glass.
    A smooth even bevel except on the one side at the toe where it is warped so much.
    I still have trouble with HHT so I had to resort to a less scientific test that I use on knives with phone book pages. It did take significant work. It shaves. Not the best, not the worst. I do like the larger 6/8 format. Most of my stuff is 5/8. Ithink I prefer the straight jumped tang over the thumbnotch style.
    When I get a chance, I think I'll mute the edge, tape up the spine, and run the Naniwas to see what I get. People say these can be good shavers. I do not have the experience to know...... it's 'okay'.
    The convex is nice to work some shaping. One can see where the edge is being focused on. This razor would not cut on the ends, but is pretty uniform now.
    A negative I think I see is that after setting the bevel on the soft side, it almost seems like some extra time is needed on the hard side up front. Makes me wonder if the amount of convexing differs a little from hard side to soft side.
    For those interested, I'd recommend NOT getting the glued combo. If you can, get the thicker individual stones so you can keep one flat side for versatility.

    Touched up the rescaled Dovo Best on the 12k, it was time to. Remember y'all... don't clean Dovo celluloid scales with alcohol, it makes them crumble.

    Herold red pasted balsa strop for a final polish before leather stropping

    I used the Gold Dollar 208 for 3 passes. It was not a bad shave. I did finish with a fourth pass with the Dovo. Makes it a little hard to not recommended a Dovo over a Gold Dollar.

    I probably need to get 2 of the same razors and simultaneously hone each using the 2 different methods for a fair comparison on the stones.

    To me, honing remains a skill to be learned. Convex stones are not a magic bullet, but you can get a really rough Gold Dollar to shave pretty smoothly with them.
     
  11. Steve56

    Steve56 Hone Hoarder

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    Honed up Gold Dollar 208-9 on a hard karasu using a hard, pale tomo. It’s really the tomo that I was testing, I know that the hone performs well. Usual progression. It took a couple of or three minutes or so to raise a slurry, both stones are hard. HHT was silent root in or out, so the tomo is a good match.

    A side note is that jnats can have ‘toxic’ features, things like glassy lines, unstable cracks, etc that can scratch steel and cause you grief. This one has half a toxic line. Yes half. If you look at the upper left corner, you’ll see a faint light colored diagonal line, only visible toward the edge. It’s light because I picked that end of the line with a scribe, it’s is harder than the stone and with use will eventually stick up above the surface. The other end of the same line is OK for now. There’s also a diagonal line in the lower right corner, but it isn’t toxic - at least yet.

    I got it in a Japanese auction so it was a pot luck stone. I’m not complaining - I always want the stone that makes the super smooth yet keen edge that jnats are known for, but I want a really good one, and this one is. So what if I need to spend 5-10 minutes to pick and smooth the line each time that I lap the stone which is not often because it’s hard. And it’s a pretty stone too.
     
  12. Edison Carter

    Edison Carter Well-Known Member

    Did you work the stabilizers off on that China doll?
     
  13. Steve56

    Steve56 Hone Hoarder

    The 208s don’t have much of a stabilizer, I haven’t done any work on this one. My ‘herd’ is getting thin though, they’ve been honed thousands of times ai suppose, I can tell that they’re getting thiner!
     
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  14. Edison Carter

    Edison Carter Well-Known Member

    Mine says 208, is 208-9 a distinction?

    Everything in me wanted to grab the Dremel, but my reasoning reminds me that I want to learn how to work around the issues.

    Wow, couple of thousand times. Can I assume that you are evaluating stones?
     
  15. Steve56

    Steve56 Hone Hoarder

    Yep, testing stones and tomo nagura mostly. 208-9 is the ninth 208 that I got. I number them so if I’m doing an edge comparison I can tell them apart!
     
  16. Edison Carter

    Edison Carter Well-Known Member

    Wow, 9 gold dollahs!

    I think I have like 9 straights total. Which is more than I need.

    I think it was a reporter who asked Rockefeller "how much is enough", to which he replied "just a little bit more".

    :cool:
     
  17. Steve56

    Steve56 Hone Hoarder

    I have a couple of 66s and a few Gold Monkeys too. The Gold Monkeys are nice, a little more hollow - I take a re-scaled Monkey or two in checked baggage when I do air travel
     
  18. DaltonGang

    DaltonGang Ol' Itchy Whiskers

    Joseph Rodgers & Sons
    Cutlers To Their Majesties
    No.6 Norfolk Street
    Sheffield England.
    11/16-th. 3/4 Hollow

    Monkey Tail Razor. This was a little bugger. It hadn't seen a lot of use(Hone Wear), but the bevel was rusted. As was plenty of other areas. The issues came when it came time to hone. One of the Blade Stabilizers was thicker than the other, which made the honing time consuming and awkward. I did my bevel setting on the Norton 320/1000, and a mystery 3000 stone. From there, I used a JNAT on loan from @Steve56 , along with a couple of Nagura Slurry Stones. I am trying to get the hang of these things. I worked up a good slurry with a soft Nagura, and worked it to dilution. I did the same for the Medium hardness Nagura. The final finish was with a Arkansas Surgical Black oil stone. A little stropping later, and it had a killer edge, polished nicely.

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    Last edited: May 22, 2019
  19. DaltonGang

    DaltonGang Ol' Itchy Whiskers

    Wade & Butcher
    Sheffield England
    12/16th. 1/2 Hollow

    Heavy razor, with lots of abuse to overcome. The person who owned it prior, tried to take off rust, with possibly a Lava Rock. There was plenty of rust left for me, everywhere. The progression on the stones were the same as above, just faster, because less of the bevel was compromised. Very sharp edge, that passed the HHT, root in or out. Easily.


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  20. DaltonGang

    DaltonGang Ol' Itchy Whiskers

    Giesen & Forsthhoff, "Adoration 295"
    Solingen Germany
    11/16th. 3/4 Hollow

    This was an easy one to hone, and went through the progressions as the ones above. This razor was straight as an arrow, and a joy to hone. The JNAT/Nagura Sluries helped. It took on one of the sharpest, and smoothest edges to date. The shave with this one was fantastic.

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