Welsh Thuringian

My Welsh Thuringian arrived in the mail today and I really don't know what to think about it. It looks pretty much like slate, and at first would bring up too much slurry at all with the stone that was provided.

SO I lapped it with my DMT 325 and it got flat( came pretty much that way) pretty fast. THEN it brought up slurry pretty easily. Yesterday I had honed my 63 Black Russian on my Vintage Coticule with a dilucot and got a very nice edge, which I shaved with today( although it could be sharper) so I decided to see if the stone would improve that edge

Without dulling it I brought up a slurry and started X strokes. I did 20 laps and checked the edge under the scope and thought at first I had brought out some microchips but it wasn't, but it definitely wasn't the polished mirror of the jnat either.
Then I tested it on leg hair and the thing was sharp! So  I built a little more slurry and did another 20 laps and tested again. VERY keen. Perhaps I got a good one. I've never used a thuri like stone before so I am in new territory.( maybe I'll have a use for my Tam O Shanter slurry stone now!)
40 laps on leather and we'll see tomorrow AM

Also yesterday and honed my 4/8 Flaschner on the Nakayama 2 finishing on slurry for the first time
I've noticed that I get a great mirror polish from the slurry but when I go to water I note a decrease in polish shine.I thought the more polished the finished edge was the better but today, after my shave I'm not so sure. It seemed just a tad off and I'm not sure if that's from not finishing on water or using the Nakayama instead of the Oozuku or Uchi

So I did 15 X strokes on some hard uchi slurryon the Nakayama and then did 30 laps on water. Tests are good. tomorrow.

Going to do the same thing with the other Flaschner which I finished on slurry on the Oozuku as well. I'll re finish on water and see if there's a difference. This blade was very keen and smooth though. We'll see. I'm betting it's the Nakayama isn't as fine as the Oozuku but we'll see.

SHAVE REPORT:


disappointing. THE WT felt very much like the Chinese 12 k; sharp but way too 'crispy' for my taste and not smooth at all.It's very possible that I haven't gotten the hang of what this stone needs AND I didn't dull the edges on the test blades, just tried to improve them, which it did not.


As for the two Flaschners finishing water didn't help that much either. It could be they were just overhoned but the Flaschner edges, on the Jnats were far sharper and smoother than than the WT. Have to test the WT more today.


tonights re do


I think some of the harshness was due to me NOT dulling the blades first and trying to top off an already keen edge. There were definitely microchips in both the Russian and the Dovo which leads to a sharp but harsh edge.
SO today I dulled the edges, worked up a slurry and did circles for 5 sets or so on the Russian and then went to water for 50 X strokes


One the Dovo I just did 50 X strokes on water since I hadn't just honed it.
test tomorrow.


Shave report:


The Russian edge was perfect; sharp, smooth and quiet. The Dovo was still harsh, didn't even finish the side, have to re do with circles and then water.
Re finished the Flaschner on the Oozuku on water and that wasn't right either. Will do over with either WT or Oozuku progression.

Edelweiss vs forestal

Honed my Boker edelweiss on the Oozuku and the Dovo on the Uchi with the same basic protocol last night and had two perfect edges this morning. Actually forgot which blade I used which stone on, which was good as I had a more objective test. I started with the Edelweiss on the right side and did just half then switched to the Dovo for the left side. Virtually identical and just about perfect.

Even the chin was no issue and both were smooth as silk! Switched sides for the second pass to test the opposite side edge and the same result.

I have to say that using the hard uchi slurry stone on the uchigumori base stone brings up slurry much easier than it does on the oozuku. So I bought a oozuku slurry stone from AFrames Tokyo to use as my tomonagura for that rock. HAD to, lol :))

What a pleasure to KNOW I can get this edge every single time I want. I've been practicing devotedly for months now and it's starting to pay off.

Now to master the coticule:))

The Jnat one stone hone conquers the Super Gnome!

I decided to try my hardest to sharpen blade yesterday, the TI Super Gnome. I just about gave up on this bad boy in the past, only getting a shaving edge by double taping it. I used the Oozuku and the soft uchi to start and I wasn't getting the feedback I hoped for very quickly.

It took about 7 passes before it started to shave arm hair and I thought my method wasn't fool proof until I remembered that I had taped the blade with two layers and needed to undo that.

I then switched to the Botan Nuagura and continued for another 3 sets of circles and things started to come together!

I switched to the hard tomonagura uchi and then things really started to get keen .I continued with circles for 3 passes before going to push passes and then onto X strokes.

Test looked good so I switched then to the Karasu slurry( figuring it needed a little extra ) and did X strokes on that.

Then onto 50 laps of X strokes on water. Tests were perfect.! Crazy!!! this was the SUper GNome which I couldn't get to do anything before.

today it shaved perfectly, smooth as silk and basically a one pass BBS! Nice

But I also tested my No name Russian 5/8 after going back to another 40 laps on the La Verte coti to see if it improved the edge. Not that much, but perhaps a little. It shaved great for the second pass but there wasn't much to mow down,lol. I did do an against the grain pass, ( which I almost never do) and it worked great there too.

Love it.

One stone hone duel: Jnat Vs Coti

I honed another of my 5//8 Russian blades this afternoon on the Oozuku using basically the same recipe that has been so successful the last few days but throwing one little change into the mix; using my Chu Nagura Botan stone as the lead off slurry instead of the soft uchigumori.

One reason is that I only have two small pieces of soft uchi whereas I have a huge chunk of Chu Nagura and it's easy to get. I'm sure more than one botan will work as the lead off  but I thought now was  a good time to experiment as well.

It worked like a charm and built tons of creamy slurry very fast and basically performed just as the soft uchi as far as speed and cutting ability.
5 sets of 30 circles and half strokes refreshing the slurry twice.The Chu nagura always dries up fast so I had to keep adding water to keep the  mud moist :))

It gives a sandblasted, polished look to the bevel almost immediately. I love this look.It was shaving arm hair easily but I did another 15 X strokes just for fun. Keener still
Onto hard uchi slurry and 30 push strokes in sets of 5 then 15 X stroke, trying to stay with the recipe and see if it really works.
It does :))

Then just water for 50 X strokes. tests perfect 35 linen and 50 leather. I know how this will shave tomorrow and this has been one of my harder blades to get an edge on.

This is a picture of the razor when I was using tape on it to try to get any kind of edge that would shave.It has been overhoned at the toe but I haven't yet tried to even it out with the 600 grit chosera. But I know it will shave like butter tomorrow.

BUT, I still haven't figured out the damn coticule yet, except with the unicot with tape and that's not really figuring it out. Kind of like using pasted strops or diamond spray. Not enough skill in that for me.
So I decided to do another kind of one stone hone, the dilucot and see if I could figure it out with the coti.

I chose my Vintage 6 x 1.5 combo coti and another no date Russian 5/8", as I wanted to use the BBW side to start until it shaves arm hair. It's technically part of the coti so why not.The slurry works fast and doesn't dull so I figured  I decided to start there and the vintage coti has a nice bbw side.

Lapped it with the DMT 325 and brough up slurry with the hybrid side of a les latenuese bout. It's so hard all the slurry would be BBW.

Same technique:
30 rep circles, refreshing slurry as needed.
about 5 sets and shaving arm hair like a champ. LOVE the BBW!

Then les lat bout slurry on coti side. very light
sets of 15 half strokes and it starts cutting immediately.
3 sets and start dilute as I felt necessary.I read that if you dilute too fast you know as feel the lose of abrasive power and that's what I was looking for. Plus it was still turning gray with swarf so it was still sharpening.

Onto X strokes and diluting every 5 reps. rinse blade and another 5.

Then 50 laps on pure water. Tests are great.

35 on linen 55 on leather. tests looks excellent.

The duel is on in the morning,lol.

SHAVE REPORT:


And the winner is: A TIE! wouldn't have thunk this.But the real winner is the One Stone Hone; and me, because it looks like I have figured out how to hone just as sharp and smooth on one coticule as I can on one Jnat.
I did the first side of my face with the  Black Russian( coti honed) and it was excellent smooth and silky and this blade is not the best. Even the chin stubble came off effortlessly, Then the other side with the White Russian and it was very good as well, although the geometry of the blade isn't perfect either( never has been). I could have gotten away with one pass but did another for fun, again.


As to the coticule I think starting on the BBW is a great idea as it always gets the edge sharp with no problem with dulling, Going then to the yellow side and an immediate dilute works great as well. The real key to the coti is learning how slow or fast to dilute given the specific coticule and how fast or slow it cuts.


The vintage coticule I THINK is a La petite Blanche and it's a fast cutter.Also good to know the chu nagura works on the Jnat as a starting point  slurry.

Good news all around.

Tonsorial Gem 5/8 and 4/8 AND the Top Flight is conquered.

decided to keep testing my jnat one stone hone methods and man they are kicking ass! Next up today was the 5/8" square point tonsorial gem( bottom blade). I'm doing pretty much the same routine each time and getting damn near the same result; exactly what the goal is: an actual recipe/equation that works the same every time,( give or take certain variables; bad steel, warped metal.etc)

this is the protocol

dull edge on glass one downstroke
soft uchi slurry on oozuku( thick but still fluid)
3-5 passes of circles refresh slurry 1-2 times as necessary
test blade if cutting arm hair easy then
hard uchi slurry
30 reps of push strokes in sets of 5
then 5,4,3,2,1 push strokes
then 15 X strokes on same slurry, refresh if it gets too dry

then 50 laps on pure water
35 laps on  linen
50-60 on leather

thats it and it's been working great.

then onto

Clauberg 4/8

But I wanted to test the theory a bit. I was wondering if it's the oozuku stone that's giving such great results or the 3 slurry progression so I did the same protocol with the Uchigumori stone

same soft, hard, water progression and it worked freakin crazy good as well. maybe even better. that uchi is one hard stone.the slurry on the hard uchi slurry stone came up much thicker than on the oozuku as it's tomonagura. Maybe I need an Oozuku slurry stone :))

 Then I really got crazy and went back to the Top Flight 5/8 square point my friend gave me to hone but i quit one. I tried EVERYTHING  I could think of including resetting the bevel on my new chosera 800 grit. A synthetic progression, nothing. a coticule progession nothing. taping the spine and coticules,
again, nothing . ack

I finally quit it was too much trouble

But then I thought I should give it ONE more try as I was planning on giving the blade back tomorrow.

Back to the Oozuku but this time used a new botan nagura that is supposed to be about 3k grit

same progression but started with the Botan. It got to shaving arm hair after 7 sets of 30 circles slower than the soft uchi but this was the damned Top Flight too.
onto the soft uchi and push strokes: edge progressing!
then hard uchi, again better edge

oozuku on water and even better

35 on linen and 60 on leather and it's passing all the tests like a real razor. shave test tomorrow!

Oozuku RULES!

Good god.I think I might have figured something out. This one stone hone with my Oozuke asagi and two naguras( a soft uchi  then a hard uchi) have given me the best edges I possibly have ever experienced!

From a dulled blade as well! I re did the tonsorial gem 5/8 which was sharp but scratchy and it was like butter this morning! I also dulled and re sharpened the newest russian 5/8" as well and got the same result!

Like wiping the lather off my face but the beard came with it! No pulling or noise or  resistance,even over the tough chin stubble. Effortless!

Used the Gem for the first pass and that was basically all I needed. A one pass BBS shave but I tested the Russian anyway and wow that cleaned up every last bit, even still with the grain!

AND NO alum block burn at all! wow. crazy nice.

I'll give it a real test today and try the Ramapo wedge,lol. Buzz kill for sure.

One stone hone, JNat style

While I haven't been posting much I've been honing my ass off. Shaving and honing, going too fast to document everything, I've just been going by feel. Switching  back between using mainly coticules and then today, switching back my Jnat one stone hone technique. This style uses a hard base stone and progressively finer grit naguras finishing on water on the base stone.

I also have been setting bevels ( and re setting them) all over the place with my new  Chosera 800 grit. It works SO much faster and better than my King 1000 it's not even funny. It comes with a 600 grit slurry stone and works REALLY fast on slurry. It leaves a polish that really does resemble the sandblasted look I get from my JNats on slurry too.
I've really been 'into' sharpening lately, rather than just polishing, as my most disappointing shaves are almost always the result of the blade not being sharp enough, not that it's not smooth enough

                                                                                       

Once the bevel is really set and the sharpening takes place,finishing is the easy part. SO today I reset the bevel on my newest tonsorial gem with the yellow bone handle as it was shaving ok but not stellar and I want stellar,lol. I went from the chosera 800 to the King 1K to the Norton 4 k( where the edge developed chips) I dulled the edge and went to the nakayama honyama with soft uchi slurry, the hard uchi slurry and then to just X strokes on water. NICE looks and popping hairs

40 laps on linen and 60 on leather and tomorrow will tell the rest of the story.

But I wanted more practice so I dulled a 63 5/8" Russian and did an Oozuku   progression with just the slurry stones

SOft uchi for half strokes. refreshed slurry  3 times. lots of swarf and obviously cutting steel

hard uchi for circles refreshed slurry 2-3 times edge progressiing

water on oozuko for 40- 50 x strokes. tests are great

40 on linen

50 on leather

amazing test.will see tomorrow, the REAL test; the shave.But I haven't used the oozuku like this before and it performed marvelously.

Have the Cretan hone in the air as well as a Welsh Thurnigian. If the Thuringian is real it could be my final finishing hone. The Uchigumori is good but this could be better. Can't wait.

SHAVE REPORT:


well the tonsorial gem restore went well. It was sharp enough, just not smooth enough. started with it and pretty much got everything with the first pass but it was noisy and a bit 'crispier' than I like.
But the '63 Russian touch up was PERFECT and as smooth as silk! Even got the chin effortlessly.
Great to finally have a solid use for the oozuku. Never used it like this before, just as a final finisher on water and it was never that good. Nice.


THIS is what I want from an edge! Feel like I am wiping the lather off the face, not shaving. I will re do the Gem on the Oozuku today and see if that makes a difference. Great to see I have not forgotten how to get that edge. My Russian blades are awesome. Not pretty but hone easy and stay sharp and, most important, are great shavers.

Supreme Custom Wedge

My friend who got me into this wonderful world of straight razors brought me the three blades he won on E Bay to hone. this is a present for me as I don't have to dull a perfectly good razor of my own to get more honing practice.

Two 5/8's there were two Top Flights and one less than 5/8 Wedge with a serious mishapen edge. the heel was way thicker than the toe. Morgan said if I wanted to fix it I could have it, as he knows my current infatuation with Wedges. I jumped at the chance

600 Grit slurry stone with slurry
One layer of tape on blade
spent about 45 minutes on this stone working the angles to just grind away the longer part of the heel and try to get it as even as possible. Used the CHosera nagura and it worked great/.I probably could have gone on longer and really gotten it perfect but  I was impatient. refreshed slurry and rinsed razor MANY times in this process as the swarf and slurry built up. At least 5 x. shaved arm hair weakly but the shape was pretty straight( see above)

Chosera 1 K on slurry

LOTS of circles and halfstrokes on medium slurry. about 20 + minutes here. X strokes too. Refreshed slurry 2-3 times and lots of push strokes  and long horizontal strokes as as well circles and then X strokes at the end.

Lighter slurry til the end and then 30+ X strokes on water
Bevel shiny and shaving arm hair effortlessly

BBW on slurry Nouvelle vein
circles for 5 laps( 30 reps)
push strokes as well
keener

another layer of tape onto Coti side of Nouvelle Vein
light slurry
circles here too to build the second bevels

Rinse blade not coti
30 X strokes( unicot)
Rinse coti and blade
water 50 x strokes

test = KEEN! and smooth . love then wedges

40 laps linen
50 laps leather

shave report:

AWESOME! even though the scales suck it was a pleasure to shave with this this morning. Like wiping the lather off my face instead of "shaving" and a I always love the silence of the wedges. Just wipe the lather off.

Used just this blade for the two passes although the first pass was 90 % there. love it

4/8 Tonsorial gem unicot

decided to play around with the 4/8 Clauberg and see whether I could use just one hone and the unicot to get it sharp and smooth. Last I shaved with it it was ok but not perfect so I sacrificed another so so edge to the razor gods.I chose my les lateneuse  coticule as I haven't used it for anything but touching up in forever and wanted to see what it could do. It didn't dissapoint

I used a les lat hybrid bout as the slurry stone and it really created a great milky slurry very quickly. I made it the consistency of milk, not cream and started with half strokes. Man it started turning grey with swarf half way through the first lap of 30!!! After two laps I knew it would shave arm hair but I did another lap anyway. Tested great.

Watered down the slurry and did 25 X strokes on the slurry and tested as per strict unicot protocol.tested even sharper. nice when things actually do what they are supposed to.

Rinse the blade and coti(only supposed to rinse the blade) taped it and rebuilt the slurry with a very watery solution and did 30 X strokes on it. Then rinsed both blade and coticule and did  40 X strokes on water and then another 15 on the hybrid side of the les lat bout which is SERIOUSLY hard rock.

Under the scope didn't quite get the flat matte look of the secondary bevel as depicted on the site but it looked close.

Then 40 laps on linen and 50 on leather. we shall see.

SHAVE REPORT:

Sharp! very very nice edge. got almost everything on the first pass. I am, however, getting spoiled by my wedges and the silent hair cutters they are. The 4/8 shaved well but is very noisy. I love the quiet of the wedges much more. BUT the unicot worked great.