What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

I second the taping of the spine. This will keep the excessive wear of the spine to a halt. Especially when you are new to honing.


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@Smooth Steve , what stones were you using, to get the edge on that blade??

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Many great shaves with your newly acquired razor. Last night I worked a bit more on the blade and tried it out this morning. It was much better and a pretty decent shave. Again, using a wedge is a bit different to get used to but I am enjoying it. I did wear down the spine a bit but was not too worried since it isn't ornate and I like the shine. In hindsight I probably should have used tape. I used a 1000, 4000, 8000, 16000 Shapton glass progression. The curve of the edge was a bit tough to work with and a challenge for my inexperience. The scales are a bit of a problem and I need to be careful because the edge hits the scales if I do not keep it away when closing. The scales look old and I assume original so I am not sure I want to replace them. I dig the character. Nevertheless, someday I may want to replace them. I never did anything like that before so it could be another learning experience in the future.
Steve

 

I have been holding off on working on this razor until my 1000 grit stone came in. I ordered the set of stones back in July from Woodcraft and just received the last stone Saturday! I used/have 1000 HR, 4000 HC, 8000HC, 16000 HR Shapton glass. I used the 4000-16000 to hone my other razors previously, but thought I needed a rougher grit for this razor since it needed more then just a touch up. Being new, I wanted to keep it simple. Researching the issue, it seemed the glass was durable, consistent, and relatively simple to maintain and use. Just spray water and go. I'm interested in the art of using natural stones, etc., but since I have just over 110 straight razor shaves under my belt, I am not experienced enough to play and add more variables to the razors and process. I haven't felt enough different edges to know what I like the best, and little to no experience in honing to know if I'm doing everything optimally. I figured I wanted to start maintaining my edges from the start and I'd learn and get used to what I was using. As time goes on I will learn and experiment more. So far the Shapton stones have worked well for me, just a bit pricey. I will need to get a diamond plate soon to keep them in good shape, but I haven't used them extensively yet and am spacing out the expenses.
Steve

 

In Short..90 % of the Learning to Hone a Razor Takes Place on the Bevel Setting Hone..90/95% of Razors I Get to Hone from Folks have Never Been Bevel Set Properly in their Lifespan..That Goes for Vintage or Modern SRs as Well..The Heel Area in Particular on Most Razors Typically have Never Been Pulled in that I Receive..

Hell..I Even Seen & Honed Very Expensive Custom Razors Made by the Great Artisan Maestro Live that Were Not Near Properly Bevel Set..Go Figure..

In the So Called Golden Years of Straight Razors its Clear to Me Most Razors were Never Bevel Set Properly..Wedges with Hone Wear Can be a Bugger on the Hones with the Most Adept & Experienced..

Most Razors Should be Able to Shave from the 1 K Bevel Hone..As Far as Naturals Go I Would Suggest Avoiding Em Until Ya Master a Synthetic System..That Just about Sums it Up in My Books Anyway..Modern High End Synthetics are Fantastic to Learn On..We Live in an Exceptionally Lucky Time..Synthetics are Far Easier to Use & Very Scientific ..

Billy..

 

Last one for stropping out of 7. Start with Balsa wood and thereafter on leather. Nice to do a Sunday.


Skickat från min iPhone med Tapatalk

 

The last couple of days I’ve been experimenting with a pair of suita, a type of jnat that some say can’t finish razors as well as other types of jnats. So let’s find out.

Also, these are two different types of suita. The large white one is from the upper suita formation that’s used for sword polishing, although individual stones vary within this upper formation. Generally these upper stones are softer, cut less aggressively, and polish more. The other, darker stone is a Nakayama sunashi suita (a suita without su, lol, they have a name for them) from the lower suita formation. It’s harder, blazing fast, but it is also surprisingly fine. Being finer than you think that a stone of a given layer/hardness/etc is a characteristic of many Nakayama stones.

The test razors are a 7/8 Tuckmar with a slightly bent toe that the bend doesn’t quite reach the straight part of the cutting edge that I’m working up as a travel razor, and a good ol’ Gold Monkey. The Tuckmar got the darker Nakayama finish and the GM got the shiro (white) suita finish.Both of the razors were honed as usual on light slurry, then the stones and razors rinsed and followed up by 20-25 clear water strokes.

The initial shave with the Tuckmar on the darker Nakayama was that the edge was aggressive (a bit of a leap given one shave), so it was re-finished on the same stone with light slurry and fewer (about 10) clear water strokes.

So how did they do for stones that supposedly aren’t the best? Quite well thank you! Both were fine edges, though I’d give the nod for smoothness to the Nalayama, not a surprise really, but what was a surprise is how little the difference was. Those tenjou (upper) suita are considered mostly knife hones, but this particular one is harder and finer than most. I could shave off that Nakayama edge every day.

 

Still playing with the Tuckmar on a grey day. The stone is a piece of Alex’s hoard kiita that I call the ‘butter stick‘ kiita, because it does sort of look like a stick of butter - it was wet in the image which darkens it a bit. It needs clear water finishing to coax the best edge out of it, so 25 or so light polishing strokes at the faucet finished this one up. HHT was good.

 

Vintage 5/8” Double Duck. A vintage 3/8” F.W Engles Leader. Vintage 3/8” Joseph Allen.

 

Pic, Pics, Pics, Pics. .

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Not sure how all you guy's take such professional looking pictures?? These are from my iphone. Hope they look okay.

 

Looking good.

BTW, many here use shadow boxes, and high quality photographic equipment. Not me, I'm in the amateur photography crowd.

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I use a light box, made from an old shipping box. I cut out the sides and top and covered them with tissue paper. Cost, $0. I use watercolor paper as a background, less than $2 per sheet. My camera is an iPhone, and I edit the images on an iPad with Lightroom.

So I took those new Fillys to the stones, easy pie. Bevel set on a Shapton Glass 4k HR, then to a Shapton Glass 6k HC, then to jnat and bada boom!

 

Playing around with a stone that I’ve had for a while - a fitted stand kiita that’s a razor finisher, also an old style maru-ka. It’s a light yellow with a greenish tint in some light, and I’ve gotten some mixed results with it. Sometimes the edges are fantastic and sometimes just average, so I’m going to try and figure it out. It’s either sensitive to the nagura or I haven’t been conscientious enough about making sure that my razor is well enough prepped before going to the stone. Probably that latter, lol.

Anyway, the victim tonight is a user grade Filly 14, no wash, little etch, some pitting but very near full width. It makes a good test razor because like most F14s that haven’t been abused, it is capable of taking a splendid edge so using it to test takes razor quality out of the equation. The nagura is a piece of deep strata kiita from Alex Gilmore’s hoard stones, and I’ve never used it with this stone before. The nagura is known ‘good’ from use with several other stones. So let’s see what the hone can do.

 

Cleaned and honed a John Jay this week. Pitting was too deep to remove. Had to leave a small amount. Can see in second picture near the spine. A small hump in the blade near the heel. Had to grind to create an even cutting surface. Polished and started on the geometry of the blade. Used 400, 1000, 3000, 8000, 12000 and 15000 grit stones to hone. Maybe 200 laps on each. I'm very happy to say, the edge is as sharp as any other blade I have.

 

Taking a mystery J-Nat out for a test drive. Using one of my 4 test razors, a Puma #89. Took it from being a tugger to a smooth operator using a ever so slight hint of slurry. Three sets of 20 laps delivered a gleaming edge

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL THE ROCK RUBBERS

 

Beautiful

 

Lovey Puma Tim..I have Four Puma Razors..They All Take an Exceptionally Special Edge..There is Summit Special About Em in My Books Anyway..Its Just Hard to Find a Lovely Example Like Yours or the Ones I Have..

Billy..

 

Happy new year! Starting off right ....

 

I have to agree, beautiful razor. I to have a few PUMA razors, they are well made, and they take on excellent edges.

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