What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Aye..Its a Corker..He Sells Em Regular..

Billy..

 

Two Gold Monkeys, to test the two new tomo nagura, a kiita and an asagi. Both are deep layer stones, and so is the hone, a nice koppa from Alex Gilmore and my Sonoma trip. There’s been no shaving yet, but the kiita has immense grit in it. M10 was done with the kiita and M11 with the asagi. Shave tomorrow!

 

Not a straight razor but I honed up this Gem Duridium blade to use in my 1910 Gem Junior Bar Lather Catcher. I'm now on my third shave with this blade after honing it up and its amazing.

 

Getting 2 parts remaining of a 3 part Wade & Butcher gentleman’s set up and running. #1 was lost to history but took 2&3 through a Naniwa 1k, followed by the Shapton 4/8/16k progression. Then I took #3 back to a Coticule bout, as I do like a Coticule edge on a Sheffield.

Happy honing.
Tom

 

My J.A Henckels Friodur Solingen 6/8th Arrived this Morning from Sweden..Its Shave Ready & Been Honed on a Naniwa Proggression..Its a 427 Model with a Heavy Art Deco Spine..Its a Beautiful Example..They Dont Often Show Up in this Condition..It is Perfectly Bevel Set from the Seller..So I Took it to Naniwa Super Stones 8 K, 12 K, 16 K Lapping Film & Finished it My 20 K Surgical Black Arkansas..

Takes Just a Few Minutes to Finish a Blade on An Arkie When You Plonk Down a Higher Grit Shave Ready Edge..I Use it to Finish All My Stainless Blades..

My Next Shave..

Billy..

 

Gold Dollars again, this time doing a fairly interesting test. I’m continuing testing with a fine Nakayama sunashi suita with clear water finishing strokes against .... a Shapton Glass 6k HC. A jnat finisher vs a 6k? Takeshi says that he uses a 6k HC (High Carbon, the grey one) for everyday razor finishing, and it is an excellent idea to shave off every stone in your progression. I haven’t shaved off the 6k HC even though I’ve had it for a while, that’s because of the ‘time suck’ from the Filly 14 Sub Cero edge longevity test, I just haven’t had enough free shaves until I took a break from the Filly.

So how did they fare? The jnat wins for smoothness, the difference was quite noticeable. But the 6k HC performed excellently, more like an 8k edge than 6k, something that has been mentioned about the 6k HC by others and that I now agree with having shaved with the edge. You could use the 6k HC as a finisher if you aren’t an edge snob like most of us reading the honing forum are (lol), and I think that we can do better than an 8k equivalent edge. The Shapton Glass 2k HR (the white, fast High Rockwell) and the 6k HC could in theory though, be a 2-stone bevel to finish combo, though I’ve been using this progression before a natural finisher.

 

Shifting from Shapton to Naniwa for a bit... and starting with some easy German hollow ground razors.

Naniwa 1k to the 4k Hayabusa to the 8k Snow White and finishing on the 12k. 12k was my first stone, so nice to brush the dust off. The large Boker and Revisor made it easy on me.
Happy honing.
Tom

 

waiting to hone this one. It is a John weis razor

 

My Newly Acquired Vintage Coticule Arrived this Morning ..Its Extremely Fine & Smooth..I Lapped it to 1000 Grit Wet n Dry ..I Finished One of My Taylor Witness Sheffield Full Hollow 15/16th Just a Moment Ago..I Took it to the Naniwa 5 K, 8 K, 12 K..I Put Down the 12 K Edge on the Coticule Under Water then Running Water & Finished on Vitos Tallow Lather & Glycerin..Using Very Light X Strokes it Picked Up the Naniwa 12 K Edge & Refined it & Took a Very Fine & Sharp Edge..

My Next Shave..

Billy..

 

W&B Lather Well/Shave Well. It’s my first time honing. I beat up YT videos pretty good in prep. Everything seems to have gone well. I will shave tomorrow and we’ll see how it went. Used a Norton 4/8 combo and finished with a Naniwa 12 k super. I also hit it with a Scott’s Carbo barbers hone because it felt smoother than the Naniwa. *shrug*

 

I am continuing with testing slurry stones, two new nagura from Takeshi, a kiita and an asagi, which I posted above with a different hone. The hone here is a pretty light blue-green Nakayama asagi, hard enough to at least get a preponderance of nagura slurry. The kiita was used last night, and this morning’s shave proved it an excellent match. This evening the test Gold Monkey M8 will get a refresh on the same stone with the asagi nagura. I’ll know the results tomorrow.

 

Congratulations on the initial honing session! Look forward to hearing how it went.

 

Continuing my around the world with Naniwa in 30 days adventure.
France, and I think Japan, were up next. 4/8” TI “Le Petit Francais” shaved well... just not a huge fan of the size.

I think the TOP Best Steel is Japanese, as the size, shape, grind, feel and scales all seem right. I found one sale from Griffith stating it was Japanese, so I’ll go with it.

Naniwa 1/4/8/12k progression, with the 8k Snow White pictured.

Happy honing.
Tom

 

Thanks @TestDepth !

Just got done with the shave. It was really pretty good. I definitely have the "this one was alllll me" feeling from the shave. Not only skill in the shave but skill in making the razor sharp enough to perform well. I did notice that it wasn't as sharp near the toe as it was across the middle and the heel, which is strange because I know the bevel is set since there is no tap/wobble. Maybe I missed it on the stropping or something. I think I'm going to hit the stones again and redo it either way, for practice and to get it even better (hopefully).

 

That is a great feeling, knowing it was all you.

if I could make a suggestion... if you’re taking it back to the hones, maybe end at the 12k and see how that feels. I don’t have a lot of experience with barber’s hones, but most seem to be a little coarser than what a 12k should give you.
Tom

 

Taking the Naniwa progression to Sheffield...
George Wostenholm pipe razor - nice, deep pipe stamp on this one. Had to get through some Swiss cheese but I think it turned out pretty nice. Pictured here on top of the 4k Hayabusa.

Happy honing.
Tom

 

Sticking with the Naniwa beginning and middle but changing out the finish. Naniwa 1/4/8k, finished on a Coticule.

First was the latest W&B For Barber’s Use.

And then went with a Queen Victoria era W&B. Based on the stamp, I would say earlier in her reign, say mid 1800’s, but probably had a regrind or two in its life.

Finished up with a Joseph Rodgers & Sons, which looked similar to the small W&B.
All behaved nicely and I look forward to see how this Coti finishes.
Happy honing.
Tom

 

I've only been straight shaving for about 5 months, but have benefited greatly from my son's guidance in the honing dept. He’s been a straight shaver for two decades and is an amateur bladesmith with his own forge. He had two Damascus razors made for me for Father’s Day, but both were in need of honing. This one happens to be my favorite because of the decorative filework on the spine. It took six successively diluted slurries on my jasper stone and finishing on a 0.25 micron diamond sprayed felted bench strop to produce an amazing buttery smooth mirror edge for this mornings shave.

 

Didn't you send one to Glenn @gssixgun for honing and evaluation??

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