Well after making quich work of the blade, the edge was definitely shaveable. Not my absolute best work, but considering the minimal amount of time the steel spent on the stones, and considering this was a first run, I see why there is some JNAT love out there. I’m stuck in the house for a couple days now, so maybe I’ll drag a bit more steel around and see what happens.

Try ending up with lighter pressure and thinner slurry, and also try coming of an 8k synth edge or so until you get the feel for it. It should be making an super-smooth shaving edge.

The two Filly 14 Doble Temple and Cape Swedish Steel longevity tests that I’ve done recently made it to shave #63-67 Before I felt compelled to refinish them. I do a 2-pass shave and a light cleanup pass under the jaw, so that’s roughly 150 passes. The edges still shaved fairly well, they just lost the smoothness that I wanted at that point. I hone a lot so I would refinish the edges whenever I felt they really needed to be refinished, when they lose the smooth. I pushed these a little just to be sure, but certainly both achieved well over 50 smooth shaves.

I’m currently doing a longevity test on a Filly 14 Sub Cero to see if the cryo steel hold up better, I’m on shave #26 and it’s going strong. I post the edges progress in the SOTD thread if you want to check in and see how it’s doing.

The Coticule Army waged war against this old Sheffield wedge...
Parkin & Marshall
This one did not end pretty but we shall she how she shaves.

Worked my way from bottom left clockwise.
Happy honing.
Tom

Very cool looking blade . Tom

Ran a full diamond pasted balsa progression on a Bismarck last night to get the “magic” back in the blade. Successfully brought the edge back to near shavette sharpness and got an excellent shave this morning.

Thanks Mike... the double thumb notch always gets me

H.Boker
No 346
Germany
Extra Hollow Ground

Easy going, the entire process. Finished on some Welsh slates, and topped off on a JNAT with a few different slurry stones. Super sharp, and ready to shave.

Puma.
No 69
11/16th.
1/4 Hollow
Made for the French Market.

Minor restoration work done on this, on the blade, ans scales. Same progression as above. The honing was a little trickier. It had a tiny nic in the middle of the blade, that I only found out, under the 60x loupe. The blade had a slight warp, down the middle, which meant a little gymnastics with the stones were in order. It came out sharp as can be. Popping hair, root in, and root out, with little effort, and no sound.
It will be tonights shave.

very cool razor..

Thank you. I've not owned a Puma before, and lucked into this, from France, for a song.

.

I had a bit of adventure last night, got out a couple of old German-made razors from the ‘I’ll do it later’ collection and brought them both up to 4k bevel set. The razor on the right is a Hewlwtt & Sachs and the one on the left is a M.L. Brandt Blue Steel. I remember posting the Brandt when I got it mostly for the scales, and it was Scott I believe that said he had one like it and should be a sweet shaver. The H&S honed up normally, but the Brandt is another story!

The Brandt had apparently been used as a patch knife. For those that don’t know what a patch knife is, black powder firearms folks wrap a lead ball or slug in thin cotton or linen, push the ball into the bore until it’s a little below flush and cut the cloth with a sharp knife. They frequently use straights that have been sharpened like a knife at a steep freehand angle (to make the edge more durable). A lot of times you see these on the Bay, easily recognizable as they have something like a deer antler handle, and I’ve even seen a blade set in a screwdriver handle, and sometimes they’ll have a sheath and a belt clip or ring. I actually bought the razor for the scales and saw the wonky bevel when I got it, and tossed it in the ‘later’ pile’ really never intending to fix the blade.

Anyway, it’s supposed to be a 6/8 but it is more like an 11/16 from the wear, but none of it was on the spine because it was sharpened with the spine well off the hone. The bevel angle must have been about 60 degrees lol, when I first put it on the stones the cutting was all at the upper shoulder of the bevel. After a few minutes I knew that stones weren’t going to cut it (pun intended) so I used a mellow 325 DMT for about 45 minutes to cut a new bevel and bring the spine down to a corresponding thickness. Because most of the cutting was on the spine and shoulder of the bevel, the razor’s width didn’t change much at all, it’s still about 11/16 because the apex of the new bevel is still about where the old one was, but there’s a lot of wear on the spine now. I could have worn out a roll of tape keeping wear off the spine, but the bevel angle would have changed a lot and the blade is just user grade no matter what so I’d rather have it shave well. And topping it off, the edge is not centered in the spine, it’s offset a little so one side looks a lot more worn than the other.

After the DMT, the progression was 500, 1k, 2k, and 4k Shapton Glass going back and forth to remediate areas like the toe and heel that weren’t quite there off the DMT. This is a classic case where you’re really, really, glad for the cutting speed of the Shapton Glass HR. Sometimes it’s hard to accurately assess the bevel at coarse grits like off the 325 DMT, usually there are edge artifacts like pieces of fin/burr and you can’t really see if the bevel is really set until you get to higher grits when the bevel begins to pick up a little polish. Anyway, after 2+ hours the edge was doing proper HHT at 4k along every mm. Then I flattened all my Shaptons!

I hadn’t really ever intended to hone this razor because of the work involved correcting the bevel, but sometimes you just want a project and to rub some steel on the stones. Boy did I get that. If you’ve never undertaken such a mess of a razor and have the stones (lol), it’s actually a pretty good learning experience. You’ll learn patience mostly, but you’ll also see that the pressure used to remove a lot of steel cuts a different bevel angle that the normal pressure used to hone and finish a bevel. The light pressure on the Shaptons hit at the apex, the DMT was shallower because the high pressure flexed the edge when hogging off all that steel. That’s worth learning, because it really happens all the time to some degree, and I think it’s why folks new to honing sometimes can’t bring the edge up, they use a little too much pressure and the stone isn’t properly hitting the apex though it’s not clearly evident, especially if you don’t know what to look for. Too much pressure on the finisher and your edge will not be what it should be.

Most of the razors I acquire, require a new bevel, so, your experience with the Brandt is understood. FYI, I always use tape. That's just me. This prevents the spine from becoming excessively worn. Many times, using the Norton 220 stone, I have to change the tape, a couple of times, before the pre-bevel is adequate. Tape is cheap, and a blown out spine is a PITA. When using this stone, I don't have a problem using a little pressure on the bevel area, to speed things up. The magic, for me, happens between the 1k-3k stones. Before going higher than the 3k, I switch out the tape. After the 3k, the blade torqueing and pressure is minimal. BTW, the JNAT and Naguras, I obtained from you, are doing a phenomenal job.

Thank you Scott, I agree. I use tape for framebacks, decorated spines, or when I need to correct geometry. The problem with the Brandt is that it had been worn down 1/16” or more with no wear on the spine, so bringing it back with tape would have increased the bevel angle I’d estimate by 3-4 degrees, the tape accounting for one. That’s a bit too much for me, though for the usual eBay razor maybe not so much difference. I usually use 1mil Kapton except when I need a steeper angle. I finished it up this morning and it shaved very well indeed, though the edge at the heel is still slightly uneven, maybe from the abuse or the DMT, but not much. The HHT isn’t quite as good there as the rest of the edge, but usually that edge will straighten out with a few more normal honings taking care to give it a little extra attention.

Just getting started honing, mainly films so far. Recent mail call brought a Naniwa S2 12k and 12k nagura, so I used them (and 50/100/200 diamond on balsa strops) to take this inexpensive Robert Klaas one step beyond the factory edge. Shave test says “so far, so good”.

Klas Tornblom was on deck tonight...
Suehiro 1&6k, with a Charnley Forest to finish.
Dig the color of the Charnley.

Happy honing.
Tom

I find that a Charnley Forest Hone gives a razor edge an unique feel .Increases the feel of keenness while giving up just a hint of smoothness.Klas Tornblom are awesome Swedish razors.Enjoy !

Looking forward to seeing if the Charnley was a good match for the Tornblom. Only the 2nd or 3rd razor with a CF edge... the stone felt Thuringian-like, but maybe more glassy. I enjoyed it.

5/8 Dorko on left and 9/16 S R Droescher on right. The Dorko seems to have especially hard steel. Homes like an Eskiltuna blade - arduous.

Well, it’s not honing when it’s done on a bench sander. I haven’t found the restoration/customization thread yet. I just took out a major crack on this Genco Safege.

I will try some honing next, see if I can get past the rot to a plausible edge. If that works, I will have to make up my mind on profiling the tip. Plenty of other issues to address as well. A least the pins are tight and it centers perfectly.

It is a learning activity on a wild razor in the beater category. Thoughts and suggestions are welcome!