I have just ordered a sight half seen razor from Whipped Dog. I can't wait to get it and compare a professionally honed blade to my work. I have a Dubl Duck No 1 that I got off the bay. Cleaned up, polished with Mass and honed with Norton 1/4/8K, stropped on a Star Shaving 3". 30X loupe standing by for the comparison. I am currently doing two passes with the straight and cleaning up with my Merkur Slant.
Foolishly, I didn't copy the pic from Whipped Dog before Larry took it down. I will post pics as soon as I get my hands on it. I couldn't believe the response to my order, within a half hour I had an answer, and it was 10:30 my time when I submitted it. Sent the paypal payment and 12 hours later I get the email that the package is on the way. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas now.
Good for you. I just love them straight razors. See if you can find some lapping film to finish on. I use a Norton 4/8 then go to 3um and finish on the 1um and get very nice edges. It's about as inexpensive as you can do it unless you get lucky a stumble on a good finisher at a garage sale or antique store.
COLUMBIA CUTLERY CO. Worcester, Massachusetts ca. 1905 http://www.uniclectica.com/misc/manuf.html Nice looking American blade.
Thanks for the link. I really like homegrown stuff, and being a Maineiac I like that this is from so close by. I took a little Maas to it, but still need to get near the edge. I didn't want to do anything til after I shave with it.
One of the tricks I use when polishing a blade is to press the razor into a towel. I use an old hand towel, double it on hard surface and lay the razor flat down. You can push the razor down into the towel just a bit and then polish ( VERY CAREFULLY) out near the edge without quite as much risk to your fingers. I generally get all the polishing done before honing, but I realize that yours came honed. I'd advise enjoying it and worrying about shining it up later.
I got a very nice shave with the Columbia this morning. My technique still needs some work, but I was pleasantly surprised that the loupe inspection and quality of the shave with the Dubl Duck and Boker I honed and stropped myself was quite comparable. I am making two passes with my straights and cleaning up with a DE and a little buffing. Can I buff with a straight or am I inviting disaster? I guess I just need to be patient and it will come along like it did with the DE when I first started. Steve, as far as finishing, what am I looking for 10k/12k, synthetic or natural? Right now I have Norton 220/1k, 4k/8k and a dmt 325 waiting at the post office to lap the 1/4/8ks with.
I finish with a 12K Naniwa synthetic. I also have an old Salmen Coticule that is a nice finisher albeit a slow one. The OLD Sheffield stuff feels pretty harsh the first few shaves off 12K but they settle down after a few stroppings. As for buffing with a straight? It can be done, I'd take my time about trying it until I had the basics down pat.
When I see blades like that and they say "Warranted," it seems like a strange thing to me. Usually a blade goes bad because it is abused or it had a defect. In the case of a blade, you usually can't tell if it is due to defect. I guess if it broke just looking at it then yes, otherwise, it is not like we put these things through a lot of stress.
