Post your latest progression.

AIC 4/8 near wedge needed some retouching. I took it back to a Naniwa SS 10k to get it good and clean, and finished with Asano botan and tenjyou, and lastly clear water. Gave an outstanding shave this evening.

Nice vid on how Ulrik at Koraat hones his razors. He just uses a worn fine diamond plate and a Naniwa 10k. Get incredible edges

https://youtu.be/r0QMB9DQ6Vk

That reminds me of how the Barber used a Fine India stone and a Surgical Black Arkansas stone to hone his razors in my hometown.
All he used was those two stones. Cheers.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

testing a Kouzaki Japanese natural stone.
So far the edges are smooth and close as I could want . water laps are easily achieved, the finish seems to be mirror to near mirror.
Fun little stone.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Green chosera 1k.
Salmon Shapton Kuromaku 5k.
Belgian coticule select.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Took my Wostenholm IXL Celebrated 6/8 hollow back to the stones before last night's shave. I used it 3 times last week, and the third shave was "tuggy", a little bit, so I chose to take it back to the Naniwa SS 5k, Naniwa SS 10k, and then the Shoubudani 100 wityh Asano nagura progression.

BOY am I glad I did!! I spent more time on it than in previous touchup sessions, and it paid off in spades! The resulting shave was as close as a DE or shavette would provide, which is something that is exceptionally rare for me. Super smooth and ridiculously sharp, I could barely feel the blade as it was gliding through the hair. This is absolutely the closest I have ever gotten a blade to acting like a DE blade in terms of sharpness. Not only was it exceptionally sharp, but it was smoooooooth like butter.

Just a fantastic touchup!

Tried something a little different this weekend. Having received a bag of razors, I had 13 blades to hone. I only managed a couple 3 or 4 this weekend, but I did some experimenting with them in the process. This was the first time I mixed oilstones and waterstones in the same progression...

I took a Wester Bros. Anchor Brand 5/8 belly hollow, and set the bevel using a Lansky 1k diamond plate and my home-brew of Mineral oil, water, glycerin, and dish soap. This "manganese steel" blade set fairly quickly, so I cleaned up the bevel with a fair number of laps on a Lansky soft Arkansas stone and the oil mixture. Had the blade shaving arm hair cleanly, but not yet tree-topping. Under magnification, I could see that the Arkansas stone had already started the process of polishing the edge, and made quick work of the diamond scratches, so I moved on...

Washed the blade(and my hands) with hot soap and water to get rid of all remnants of oil before moving on to my Japanese synthetic water stones...

Next up was the JNS Red Aoto 4k. This stone finished what the soft Ark started and removed all traces of the 1k diamond scratches. This brick of a stone is a great mid-range stone. It is soft enough to bring about a really nice, clouded finish on the edge without putting in it's own deep scratches. From here, I changed it up again with another experiment...

I have a rather large-ish Tomo nagura from JapaneseNaturalStones.com that came with my Shoubudani 100. I used a coping saw when it arrived to cut off a couple smaller nagura pieces to make it easier to use them as a nagura. The result is a decent, palm-sized Tomo stone. I decided to slurry it with a piece of itself, and put it between the Red Aoto and Shoubudani...see if it makes a difference. The result was a surprisingly sharp and clean edge that easily and comfortably removed leg hair, without the blade touching the skin...tree-topping...and the finish on the edge was indeed nicely clouded over, and zero visible scratches...

Last stone in the progression is the Shoubudani 100 with a couple nagura. I started out with an Asano botan nagura and then progressed to Ansan tenjyou nagura. Normally I go straight to water here, but instead, I used my Lansky 800(medium fine) diamond to raise a slurry from the Shoubudani. I followed that with clean water until sticky.

25 laps on linen, 25 laps on leather, and this blade was super clean and comfortable. The shave was really fantastic!

From the start, the blade was fairly easy going...even bevel along the whole edge, no wobbles, no geometry issues, and very minimal hone wear. I used more stones than in my "normal" progression, and I mixed the early oilstones with the middle and late waterstones, and the results were surprisingly good. It seems as though the additional stones in the midrange provided a keener edge for finishing, and initiating the polish with the soft Arkansas straight off the bevel set seemed to reduce the amount of time required for the following stones to remove scratches.

Adding in the tomo and the diamond-raised Shoubudani slurry seems to have made the blade both keener and cleaner. Experimentation will continue!

I will post this here.
Perhaps I will find a better place later on.

Here is my quick and simple pre loupe test for a bevel set.
I do this test after any shaping of the overall symmetry or adjusting of the blade ie frown removal or smile lining up.

After a bevel has been ground in on stones lower than 1,000 grit,I move to the 1k stone.

There I do laps to balance the bevel and bring the apex to a point from heel toe.

If I think I am getting close,I run the test above to save time going to the loupe or scope.
If it passes I loupe or scope it and move forward on my progression. Cheers.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Testing a new-to-me set of Arkansas stones with a new-to-me razor. Bevel was set on Lansky 1000 diamond benchstone.

Pictured left to right are a (presumed)soft Arkansas, white translucent Arkansas, and a surgical black Arkansas.

I have no way of testing the density of the novaculite particles in these stones, or really even viewing them, so my estimation of the first stone classifying as "soft" is based on testing it with a knife blade that needed a refreshing. This stone cuts much more quickly than my Lansky soft, and it made quick work of the 1k diamond scratches. No trouble getting a clean polish at all.

The translucent has some inclusions, but they appear to be harmless, and pose no interference either with a knife blade or with a razor. A really nice translucent stone.

The surgical black is my first experience ever with a surgical black stone. First, it's worth noting that this stone is wide. I don't currently own a razor that won;t comfortably rest on this stone without hanging any of the edge off. It's kind of nice, to be honest. I have no trouble using stones that are more narrow than my blades, but it's nice to not have it be a requirement every once in a while.

The important part is the finish. These stones put a fantastic edge on this Wester Bros Anchor Brand 5/8 Manganese hollow. I have gotten some really nice edges finishing on my other white translucent stone, but this surgical black takes it to the next level. Great test shave tonight. I think with practice, this surgical black could become a really great finishing stone for me.

I just received a Mejiro nagura so naturally I had a bladebready to be refreshed...

I started the refresh with a Naniwa Specialty Stone 10k and then moved on to a Shoubudani type 100 with Mikawa Asano progression; botan, tenjyou, and mejiro. Finished with clear water.

First time adding the Mejiro to the progression and I ended up with the best edge I've ever gotten.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Torque on a razor.

Useful especially when cutting a bevel to prevent removing a large amount of steel off of the spine .

What does it feel like ?

Imagine while gripping the tang between thumb and index finger ,that you can feel the edge In contact more than the spine.

Imagine you are trying to slide the edge under a sticker on the stone on each stroke,and imagine that the spine needs to slip over the spot that the sticker was at ,all during the same edge leading stroke on each side of the razor.

The amount of torque needed is very slight .

You do not want the spine to actually leave the stone here.

This takes time,patience to learn,this is why we usually suggest taping the spine on most non damaged razors for new guys.

How to learn it.

Take a 1k stone.

Take a learning razor.

Now,start out to do an X stroke. Apply the technique written above as you start moving into the stroke .

Watch the reaction of the edge and the spine.

Watch the water darken ,it should start changing far more rapidly than during your normal honing using tape,caveat , you do not want to see a large reaction on the spine,if you see this,you need to apply a touch more torque on the tang as you do your stroke/strokes.

Observe Carefully the effect of the stone on the spine and the razors edge section.

You want to see the edge area start to take an even bevel as it is cut in.

This takes practice, and a bit more practice.

Nothing worth knowing can be spoon fed into you if you truly want to GROK it. Cheers.

After the bevel has been cut,finish out with nearly finishing weight pressure,watch the water ,do laps until the edge is undercutting the water cleanly from heel to toe,then you are ready to move forward to the next finer grit stone.







Adding this here for honers.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk