Imperial Razor bevel re set

This razor is a pain in the ass to hone well. I even had one of THE honemeisters , Stefan from SRP ,hone it and he had to tape it to get it shave ready, on the Zulu no less. It's a great looking razor though, 5/8" made in Germany and Extra Hollow ground with gorgeous ivory scales. Probably early 1900's.

Problem is is doesn't like to get very sharp. Or hasn't. I've honed it three times in the last few days with not much luck. About 80% of what I like. It shaves,but doesn't MELT the beard. I can get a mediocre shave any number of ways but I want what I want.Plus it's fun to try to figure out each blades secret.

I've kinda reset the bevel with the Cretan but decided to take it down to the King 1k and really do it right.The bevel looked fine under the scope and in the sun but almost everytime I've encountered a problem like this a real bevel re set made all the difference.I even finished it yesterday on my escher and thought it would be good but not good enough. If the bevel isn't right, the finisher doesn't matter, really.

So no slurry on the King1K and lots of half strokes and circles and working little parts of the right side that I noticed were not even. Got most of it straightened out and it shave arm hair. Kinda. But I didn't want to spend too much time there so onto the BBW side of my coticule.

I made the slurry from a coti bout to see if that would make a difference- it seems to cut slower this way but I could be mistaken. Anyway lots of X strokes and push strokes and some elliptical strokes and it was mowing down arm hair no problem.

SO I resisted the urge to keep going and I tuned the stone over( a BEAUTIFUL looking coticule with lots of blue lines and orange dots on the surface.

Built a light slurry and went to work.Mainly X strokes and the slurry was getting darker so I know it was still sharpening. Perfect. I want this more sharp than smooth right now.

My guess is that this blade has been taped for a while and it's thrown off the blade's geometry.We'll see. I think I had to hone off enough spine to even it out; and it still might not be done. That's what Sham had to do with my Geo Holstenholm pipe razor and now it shaves like a champ.Ain't that pretty but hey, it's a tool, not an object' de art.

Did a dilute as usual with finger drops first, then rinsing the blade but I never rinsed the stone. About 60 total reps with about 20 on basically pure water. Hair tests were great.

Next I tried the Oiled Cretan thinking it should be about 10k but after 30 reps the edge went backwards so I figured wrong.
Went to the Chinese 12k stone which I love to hone on, it's like skating on glass. It just requires a lot of reps, which for me is a good thing. I love to hone, I find it so meditative and relaxing.

About 50-60 reps of X strokes here until the blade started "sticking" with suction to the hone. I sure sign on the C 12k that it is done.Tests were good, a crispy cut on the leg hair, as always with this stone.Nice to have such a big chunk of it.

Next onto the Naniwa 12 k SuperStone, an excellent synthetic. This always makes things sharp. Not that smooth though and I wouldn't want to shave off of it without a lot of extra stropping but it told me some things: one that the C12k is close to 12 k and too, my progression was going well. About 30-40 laps here, stropping as well as the suction began. Had a very good feel on this blade hone surface towards the end and the blade really felt very flat on the stone the entire stroke.

Finished with the Zulu Grey for 50 laps on water and it felt like a perfect progression from the Naniwa stone.The blade liked it immediately and gave great feedback for all the laps. Tested after 30 laps and it was great so I did 20 more and it was better. The zulu requires a lot of reps on water only, like the C12k , which is nice because it's almost impossible to over hone the edge on water.

20 laps on linen and 40 on Buffalo leather and tests are great. We'll see tomorrow. If this doesn't work  I'm going to give this one a rest for awhile. I've got too many good shavers to spend too much time on a dud.

SHAVE REPORT:

 No go. It was really no better than before. Lots of tugging and pulling. I'm giving up on this one. Too many good blades to use. Any body wants to buy it cheap let me know.