Good story! How anyone could send it back to you with a chipped blade when all they had to do was repair their scales is beyond me..... So, as it was your first time honing, how did you know how many times to do the 1K? Then the 5K etc... were you checking as you went along? How did you know it was improving?
It wasn’t my first time honing. Far from it. However, I am not nearly as experienced as several other guys on this thread, and most of my learning has come on relatively inexpensive vintage razors. I’d never had to go down to a 220 grit stone in order to remove chips and get to a straight edge to start from, much less do so on relatively expensive custom razor with a blade that was almost new, which made this a new and slightly more risky than normal experience for me. Happily, the result was an extremely sharp, smooth edge, which I haven’t always been able to achieve on this journey. Anyway, to answer your question, I used the 220 stone looking through a jewelry loupe occasionally until the chips were gone, the edge was straight, and the width of the bevel was comparable on both sides. I used the 1000 until I was tree topping hairs off my arm. I then used the loupe with each stone until I could see the scratch pattern of the last stone was removed. I double checked it by tree topping and a surprisingly large tuft of hair ended up falling onto the counter. At each stone I’d do roughly 20 laps to start and then adjust how many more laps to do before checking the loupe again based on on how much progress was being made. I’d adjust the stroke patterns based on how and where progress was being made across the bevel. I’d move on when the old scratch pattern was gone and every part of the blade was efficiently pushing water across the stone. To me, number of laps is really irrelevant as this varies by the blade. For me, it’s all about scratch pattern removal and the blade’s ability to push water across the stone. I stayed on the 12,000 finishing stone until the entire bevel was mirror shiny. 40 laps for stropping is totally arbitrary, but has seemed to yield decent results for me.
Ya done good Randy, that’s exactly what I’d do, except a 32o Shapton Pro is the coarsest that I go. However, a 220 with the right pressure should be fine, and your results show that your methods work. Congratulations!
Spent a few hours with three razors this afternoon. Watched Lyn Abrams videos again and did a Norton 4/8K, Naniwa progression following his advice. We'll see how I did in the next few days.
The ivory Le Grelot was shaving sharp but thought it could be better. Light koma slurry on my ozuku and followed that with some light tomo slurry. Did the trick to make it up to snuff, maybe I’ll try it on my convex ark later also Decided to have some fun while I was playing with the stones.
After yesterday’s success, I moved on to a TI that was virtually new but had uneven hone wear, as I bought it from a guy who said he could “never get it sharp”. It took some time and some stoke variations to get things in order, but by the time I was done, it tree topped every hair it touched. Didn’t shave with it, but I’m confident it’s ridiculously sharp. Moved on to a much tougher challenge - an old W&B that I restored and had a friend put some rustic scales on. This one had a blunt edge and really wonky geometry. It took a while, and in retrospect, I think I spent a bit too long on the coarser stones before moving up the progression, but a lot of rolling x strokes and patience yielded a nice shave ready edge that produced a nice Father’s Day shave. I’m finally starting to feel confident on the stones.
Heljestrand mk10 needed lots of work. It was ground down on a belt at the spine and edge, So it needed some sandpaper to even out the scratches. I then set the bevel on a atoma 1200 it took a while to grind it out properly. Took it to the jnats, first a takashima swith a botan slurry then mejiro to smooth out the bevel. Then took it to my ozuku for a full nagura progression. Will shave test it tonight.
This is a custom 8/8 Damascus made by a Canadian artisan. It is, without a doubt, the most beautiful razor in my collection, particularly after a spent a couple evenings sanding, polishing, and honing. It’s shave ready, but because of my corse wiry hair, I like my blades to be scary sharp, and I can’t get the softer metal as wickedly sharp as some of my other blades. I may eventually sell it, but it’s too beautiful to part with today.
Looks stunning. Who is the maker? I’ve been looking for a razor from Canada since I’m Canadian and all that. Haven’t had much luck sourcing one.
Wacker Jungmeister 15/16” hollow ground Edge looked pretty nice, so killed it and brought it back on the Naniwa 8k Snow White. It did have a little problem getting all the way to the edge at the heel, so added about a 1/2 inch of tape to the heel and placed a full piece over that. Did the trick. Finished on the Thuringian. Very comfortable shave. Not sure about these scales though. Enjoy your shave. Tom
Custom Kamisori, I always enjoy honing Kamisori razors, the method and technique are quite different from honing a symmetrical straight razor but the end game is the same, we are all looking for that smooth perfect shave ready edge.
