What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Five days growth.....

 

I have been messing with this Tanifuji one for few weeks now, honed, shaved, retouched. First attempts were not good. Went back and increased my pressure before lightening up. It seems this razor likes that.
The stone is one of the finest I have. Under the metallurgical scope the edge looks almost synthetic. I had not shaved since last week because I was under the weather with some viral crap. The razor held it's own against my beard but after the shave I did few water only laps. Will retest in 3 days and see if the re is improvement in the edge.

 

Yes I have sealed a bunch of the wooden bases just to make sure they last for years to come but then I run across this stone and decided to leave it alone. Weathered, old looking base. Just looking at it, wondering where it has been, how many years ago somebody in Japan carved the wood to fit the stone. The sealed stone contrasting the old base.

 

Exactly the same for me Alex.

 

Honed up the new Filly 14 Novodur, the bevel set on a 4k Shapton Glass then the fast pale Aiiwatani and the same finisher that I used on my blue Sub Cero that’s at 70 shaves. Lovely razor, lovely edge so it seems, shave test tomorrow!

 

Took this lovely blade up the Naniwa Super Stones one and a half times.

I encountered some micro-chipping off of the coarser grits (1k, 2k, 5k). Two layers of tape and higher grits (with slurry) really helped — Thanks Glen @gssixgun .

I felt the edge could be improved a bit after the first test shave, so I went back down to 8k with a 12k finish. The intent of this edge refresh is to give Tom @atbat82 a good idea of what his shave ready, 12k edges ought to feel like.

 

Dont feel bad, I have.a Herder razor I spent time honing, and when done, found about 1/8 inch area that wasnt perfect. It will shave just fine, but with that razor, I want better. It will go back to the stones in a day or two.

 

Filarmonica 13
Novodur
Jose Monserrat Pou
6/8-th inch
Spain


This was a major pain. I don't know if I want to do this again. This originally had a large chip and crack in it. I had to take it out, over time, and carefully, because Fillies are very thinly ground.
When done, I had a flat edge, with no bevel. I ended up a hair under 6/8th inch. Now, to the honing. This Filarmonica razor has some incredibly hard and tough steel. Not to mention the Gold and other inlay, that needed to be preserved. It seemed like it took forever, to develop a bevel, on the Norton 320 stone. I went through many strips of tape, to protect the spine. After the bevel was set, with the 320-1000-3000 stone, which still took a long time, 2-3 times the usual, the progression went smoothly. I hit it with some Welsh Slate stones, and several Naguras, from Japan. I took my time. I ended up with a super hard and fine JNAT that put a mirror polish on the edge. This was a major labor intensive, pain. But, I'm finished.

Before


After

 

Nice work Scott. Hope the shave matches the effort!

 

F.Herder's 45
Friedr. Herder Abr. Sol.
13/16th Full Hollow
Solingen Germany

This was a parts razor, that looked as if it had the original bevel on it. But, like the Filiarmonica, it is made of extremely hard steel. I set the bevel the other day, but when I looked in the Loupe, I saw it had a very small area that needed a touch more. So, I took it back to the beginning, with the other razors. Same progression as the Filly, it just too two tries to get it perfect. The JNAT put a mirror shine on it, and like the Fily, is extremely sharp. I might give this a go, tonight.

 

Me too. Meeeeee toooooooo!

..

 

Geneva Cutlery Corp.
7N
6/8th+ Full Hollow
Geneva NY

"Pink Thing", is what I will call it. This needed almost no restoration. Just a little buffing. It was used, but the bevel was still factory, and it looked like no stone had touched it. The razor is about flawless, but my camera makes it look terrible. The discolorations seen, are from the leftover dried slurry.
Same progressions as above, but the bevel came on quickly, because it was pretty sharp to start. This razor had a perfectly flat edge, and spine, which made it a breeze to hone. Same stones and progressions as the other two, above. It too had hard steel, but isn't made of the same indestructible material as the Herder and Filarmonica. Super sharp edge.

 

It looks beautiful to me Scott.

 

Looked like a fun Sunday Scott... maybe even a Super Sunday.

 

@DaltonGang

Nice work. All!

 

And congrats on the Filly save Scott, keeping it tuned up should be easy.

I just got a 14 Novodur and agree that the steel seems hard. ‘Dur’ or ‘dure’ is a suffix or adjective that means ‘hard’ in many uses, ‘Friodur’, ‘pour barbe dure’, etc.

My question is, is it as hard as the Sub Cero that I have 70 shaves with? Good question, but I suspect that they’re the same blank.

 

You and the other "Enablers" around here have put the Filarmonica bug in me. But you know me, not the usual "Trailer Queens" more like the "Trailer Park Queens" . I just got a Filly 13 that will require some extensive restoration, but no chips or cracks. Also, a unique looking 14 coming from Spain.


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I am looking forward to seeing your incoming razors hearing about your Filly adventures Scott.

 

I’ve been wanting to shave with a Genco this year — your “pink thing” looks lovely.

Nice work, @DaltonGang!

 

Four Gold Monkeys arrived off the slow boat from China, so I thought that I would post my honing routine for them. They’re actually decent. The spines are straight, 2 are a little overground at the toe but not bad, and the heels on all 4 are decent. they don’t seem to have that nasty swell of metal in front of the ‘stabilizer’. If you’re superstitious or an old testament person, you might want to opt for the 777 version with the cr@p brown scales, as these are stamped 666, not uncommon for Asian goods, Tanifuji made a 666 razor too. They’re Buddhist and the number has no significance for them, but these are all the same razor regardless of what number or graphics are on them - more in a later post. And they’re the ultimate minimalist razor, you can get a 66 that’s as good as these are for $5. No need to spend any more to scrape hair. I’d probably get 66s, they’re pretty good these days and half the price.

These do have one nice attribute that all the others I own do not - they’ll stand up on the scales. Every other Gold Dollar I’ve owned, 66, 208, 800, 777, etc would only lay down on the sides. Try to sit them up and they all fall over.

So lets’s get these two Monkeys into shaving shape!

1. Relieve the heel a bit with a 325 DMT. Usually the heels need to be cut away until the swell in front of the ‘stabilizer’ is gone. These weren’t bad and it only took 5 minutes or so per razor.

2. Smooth the nose. Sometimes they need it, sometimes they don’t, but I always do it. The first time that your $5 prize scratches up a Kanoyama 80000 strop you will not be happy. Check the heel too, what would be called a choil on a knife and smooth as needed. I usually start with the 325 DMT since it’s already out, and finish with 320 w/d. CAUTION: if your fingers are near the edge while smoothing the toe by hand, be careful. At this point they’re a lousy razor but they’re quite a sharp knife, and if you get skin on it, that skin will bleed. You can also damage the edge if you’re not careful with the DMT .

3. Hone the spine with the DMT until you have a straight, even wear pattern. Now cut the bevel with the DMT. Don’t go overboard on the pressure, the a 325 DMT is rough on the steel and can chip it with high pressure and crude strokes.

4. I pick one out of the batch at this point and measure the bevel angle since I now have a bevel and a straight spine. The one I picked is about 19.3 degrees, pretty normal for a GD razor. The last 777s were less though, about 18 degrees. This may be because the 777s took a little more spine work.

5. Next step, a 500 grit Shapton Glass and lately I’ve been using King 1k slurry on it for GD. What I’m looking for is a) a 500 grit scratch pattern along the entire bevel, and 2) that the scratch pattern goes all the way to the apex of the bevel. This is a set bevel, but I’m not going to test it yet. I’m basically done, the rest is just polishing the bevel but there are many slips ‘tween the cup and the lip....

I hope that my next post is short, just describing the progression and bevel set testing.